Cap. X MANACAPURU. 257 
resided and travelled on the Solimoens altogether for four years and a 
half. The country on its borders is a magnificent wilderness where 
civilised man, as yet, has scarcely obtained a footing; the cultivated 
ground from the Rio Negro to the Andes amounting only to a few score 
acres. Man, indeed, in any condition, from his small numbers, makes 
but an insignificant figure in these vast solitudes. It may be mentioned 
that the Solimoens is 2130 miles in length, if we reckon from the source 
of what is usually considered the main stream (Lake Lauricocha, near 
Lima); but 2500 miles by the route of the Ucayali, the most consider- 
able and practicable fork of the upper part of the river. It is navigable 
at all seasons by large steamers, for upwards of 1400 miles from tne 
mouth of the Rio Negro. 
On the 28th we passed the mouth of Ariauli, a narrow inlet which 
communicates with the Rio Negro, emerging in front of Barra. Our 
vessel was nearly drawn into this by the violent current which set from 
the Solimoens. The towing-cable was lashed to a strong tree about 
thirty yards ahead, and it took the whole strength of crew and pas- 
sengers to pull across. We passed the Guariba, a second channel 
connecting the two rivers, on the 30th, and on the 31st sailed past 
a straggling settlement called Manacdpuru, situated on a high rocky 
bank. Many citizens of Barra have sztios, or country-houses, in this 
place, although it is eighty miles distant from the town by the nearest 
road. They come here for a few weeks in the fine season to economise, 
and pass the time in planting on a small scale, fishing and trading. 
The custom of having two places of residence is very general through- 
out the country, and exists amongst the aborigines, at least the more 
advanced tribes. Some of the establishments at Manacapurt are large 
and of old date, shown by the number and size of the mangos and other 
introduced fruit-trees. ‘The houses, though spacious, were now in a 
neglected and ruinous condition. Estulano and I landed at one of 
them, and dined off roasted wild hog with the owner, an uncommonly 
lively little old man, named Feyres. ‘The place looked dirty and 
desolate ; the stucco and whitewash had peeled off in great pieces from 
the walls ; the doors and window-shutters were broken and off their 
hinges ; the dingy mud-floors were covered with litter, and the culti- 
vated grounds around the house choked with weeds. The high bank, 
and with it the settlement, terminates at the mouth of a narrow channel 
which leads to a large interior lake abounding in fish, manatee, and 
turtle. 
Beyond Manacdpurt all traces of high land cease; both shores of 
the river, henceforward for many hundred miles, are flat, except in 
places where the Tabatinga formation appears in clayey elevations of 
from twenty to forty feet above the line of highest water. The country 
is so completely destitute of rocky or gravelly beds that not a pebble is 
seen during many weeks’ journey. Our voyage was now very mono- 
tonous. After leaving the last house at Manacapura we travelled 
nineteen days without seeing a human habitation, the few settlers being 
located on the banks of inlets or lakes some distance from the shores of 
the main river. We met only one vessel during the whole of the time, 
17 
