216 VOYAGE UP THE TAPA/JOS. Cuap. IX. 
and other small wares. José and myself were busy for many days 
arranging these matters. We had to salt the meat and grind a supply 
of coffee ourselves. Cooking utensils, crockery, water jars, a set of 
useful carpenter’s tools, and many other things had to be provided. 
We put all the groceries and other perishable articles in tin canisters 
and boxes, having found that this was the only way of preserving them 
from damp and insects in this climate. When all was done, our canoe 
looked like a little floating workshop. 
I could get little information about the river, except vague accounts 
of the difficulty of the navigation, and the famito or hunger which 
reigned on its banks. As I have before mentioned, it is about a 
thousand miles in length, and flows from south to north ; in magnitude 
it stands the sixth amongst the tributaries of the Amazons. It is 
navigable, however, by sailing vessels only for about 160 miles above 
Santarem. The hiring of men to navigate the vessel was our greatest 
trouble. José was to be my helmsman, and we thought three other 
hands would be the fewest with which we could venture. But all our 
endeavours to procure these were fruitless. Santarem is worse pro- 
vided with Indian canoemen than any other town on theriver. I found 
on applying to the tradesman to whom I had brought letters of introduc- 
tion, and to the Brazilian authorities, that almost any favour would be 
sooner granted than the loan of hands. A stranger, however, is obliged 
to depend on them ; for it is impossible to find an Indian or half-caste 
whom some one or other of the head-men do not claim as owing him 
money or labour. I was afraid at one time I should have been forced 
to abandon my project on this account. At length, after many rebuffs 
and disappointments, José contrived to engage one man, a mulatto, 
named Pinto, a native of the mining country of Interior Brazii, who 
knew the river well; and with these two I resolved to start, hoping to 
meet with others at the first village on the road. 
We left Santarem on the 8th of June. The waters were then at their 
highest point, and my canoe had been anchored close to the back door 
of our house. The morning was cool, and a brisk wind blew, with 
which we sped rapidly past the whitewashed houses and _ thatched 
Indian huts of the suburbs. The charming little bay of Mapirf was 
soon left behind ; we then doubled Point Maria Josepha, a headland 
formed of high cliffs of Tabatinga clay, capped with forest. This forms 
the limit of the river view from Santarem, and here we had our last 
glimpse, at a distance of seven or eight miles, of the city, a bright line 
of tiny white buildings resting on the dark water. A stretch of wild, 
rocky, uninhabited coast was before us, and we were fairly within the 
Tapajos. 
Some of my readers may be curious to know how I managed money 
affairs during these excursions in the interior of the South American 
continent : it can be explained in a few words. In the first place, I 
had an agent in London to whom I consigned my collections. During 
the greater part of the time I drew on him for what sums I wanted, 
and an English firm at Pard (the only one in the country which traded 
regularly and directly with England) cashed the drafts. I found no 
difficulty in the interior of the country, for almost any of the larger 
