270 UPPER AMAZONS—VOYAGE TO EGA. CHARI. 
seemed to think it natural that strangers should collect and send abroad 
the beautiful birds and insects of their country. The butterflies, they 
universally concluded to be wanted as patterns for bright-coloured 
calico-prints. As to the better sort of people, I had no difficulty in 
making them understand that each European capital had a public 
museum, in which were sought to be stored specimens of all natural 
productions in the mineral, animal, and vegetable kingdoms. They 
could not comprehend how a man could study science for its own sake ; 
but I told them I was collecting for the “ Museo de Londres,” and was 
paid for it; hat was very intelligible. One day, soon after my arrival, 
when I was explaining these things to a listening circle seated on benches 
in the grassy street, one of the audience, a considerable tradesman, a 
Mameluco native of Ega, got suddenly quite enthusiastic, and exclaimed, 
“How rich are these great nations of Europe! We half-civilised 
creatures know nothing. Let us treat this stranger well, that he may 
stay amongst us and teach our children.” We very frequently had 
social parties, with dancing and so forth ; of these relaxations I shall 
have more to say presently. The manners of the Indian population 
also gave me some amusement for a long time. During the latter part 
of my residence, three wandering Frenchmen, and two Italians, some 
of them men of good education, on their road one after the other from 
the Andes down the Amazons, became enamoured of this delightfully- 
situated and tranquil spot, and made up their minds to settle here for 
the remainder of their lives. ‘Three of them ended by marrying native 
women. I found the society of these friends a very agreeable change. 
There were, of course, many drawbacks to the amenities of the place 
as a residence for a European; but these were not of a nature that my 
readers would perhaps imagine. ‘There was scarcely any danger from 
wild animals: it seems almost ridiculous to refute the idea of danger 
from the natives in a country where even incivility to an unoffending 
stranger is a rarity. A Jaguar, however, paid us a visit one night. It 
was considered an extraordinary event, and so much uproar was made 
by the men who turned out with guns and bows and arrows, that the 
animal scampered off and was heard of no more. Alligators were rather 
troublesome in the dry season. During these months there was almost 
always one or two lying in wait near the bathing-place for anything that 
might turn up at the edge of the water; dog, sheep, pig, child, or 
drunken Indian. When this visitor was about, every one took extra 
care whilst bathing. I used to imitate the natives in not advancing far 
from the bank and in keeping my eye fixed on that of the monster, 
which stares with a disgusting leer along the surface of the water ; the 
body being submerged to the level of the eyes, and the top of the head, 
with part of the dorsal crest, the only portions visible. When a little 
motion was perceived in the water behind the reptile’s tail, bathers were 
obliged to beat a quick retreat. I was never threatened myself, but I 
often saw the crowds of women and children scared whilst bathing, by 
the beast making a movement towards them ; a general scamper to the 
shore and peals of laughter were always the result in these cases. The 
men can always destroy these alligators when they like to take the 
trouble to set out with montarias. and harpoons for the purpose ; but 
