CuHapP. X, 5 PRIVATIONS AT EGA. 271 
they never do it unless one of the monsters, bolder than usual, puts 
some one’s life in danger. ‘This arouses them, and they then track the 
enemy with the greatest pertinacity ; when half killed, they drag it 
ashore and despatch it amid loud execrations. Another, however, is sure 
to appear some days or weeks afterwards, and take the vacant place on 
the station. Besides alligators, the only animals to be feared are the 
poisonous serpents. ‘These are certainly common enough in the forest, 
but no accident happened during the whole time of my residence. 
I suffered most inconvenience from the difficulty of getting news 
from the civilised world down river, from the irregularity of receipt of 
letters, parcels of books and periodicals, and towards the latter part of 
my residence from ill health, arising from bad and insufficient food. 
The want of intellectual society, and of the varied excitement of 
European life, was also felt most acutely, and this, instead of becoming 
deadened by time, increased until it became almost insupportable. I 
was obliged, at last, to come to the conclusion that the contemplation 
of Nature alone is not sufficient to fill the human heart and mind. I 
got on pretty well when I received a parcel from England by the 
steamer once in two or four months. I used to be very economical 
with my stock of reading, lest it should be finished before the next 
arrival, and leave me utterly destitute. I went over the periodicals—the 
Atheneum, for instance—with great deliberation, going through every 
number three times; the first time devouring the more interesting 
articles ; the second, the whole of the remainder ; and the third, reading 
all the advertisements from beginning to end. If four months (two 
steamers) passed without a fresh parcel, I felt discouraged in the ex- 
treme. I was worst off in the first year, 1850, when twelve months 
elapsed without letters or remittances. Towards the end of this time 
my clothes had worn to rags: I was barefoot, a great inconvenience in 
tropical forests, notwithstanding statements to the contrary that have 
been published by travellers ; my servant ran away, and I was robbed 
of nearly all my copper money. I was obliged then to descend to Para, 
but returned, after finishing the examination of the middle part of the 
Lower Amazons and the Tapajos, in 1855, with my Santarem assistant, 
and better provided for making collections on the upper river. This 
second visit was in pursuit of the plan before mentioned, of exploring 
in detail the whole valley of the Amazons, which I formed in Para in 
the year 1851. 
During so long a residence I witnessed, of course, many changes in 
the place. Some of the good friends who made me welcome on my 
first arrival died, and I followed their remains to their last resting-place 
in the little rustic cemetery on the borders of the surrounding forest. I 
lived there long enough, from first to last, to see the young people grow 
up, attended their weddings and the christenings of their children, and, 
before I left, saw them old married folks with numerous families. In 
1850, Ega was only a village, dependent on Para, 1400 miles distant, as 
the capital of the then undivided province. In 1852, with the creation 
of the new province of the Amazons, it became a city; returned its 
members to the provincial parliament at Barra; had its assizes, its 
resident judges, and rose to be the chief town of a comarca or county. 
