648 



THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



nature of the woods around it, promised 

 well for novelties in birds and insects ; so we 

 :had no reason to be vexed at the delay, but 

 brought our apparatus and store-boxes up 

 from the canoe, and set to work. 



The easy, lounging life of the people 

 .amused us very much. I afterward had 

 plenty of time to become used to tropical vil- 

 Jage life. There is a free, familiar, pro bono 

 publico style of living in these small places, 

 which requires some time for a European to 

 :fall into. No sooner were we established in 

 -our rooms than a number of lazy young fel- 

 :lows came to look on and make remarks, and 

 we had to answer all sorts of questions. 

 The houses have their doors and windows 

 open to the street, and people walk in and 

 out as they please ; there is always, however, 

 21 more secluded apartment, where the female 

 members of the families reside. In their 

 ifamiliarity there is nothing intentionally 

 -offensive, and it is practiced simply in the 

 desire to be civil and sociable. A young 

 isnamcluco, named Scares, an Escrivao, or 

 ^public clerk, took me into his house to show 

 .ime his library. I was rat her surprised to see 

 -a number oc well-thumbed Latin classics, 

 Virgil, Tereace, Cicero's Epistles, and Livy. 

 I was not familiar enough, at this early period 

 of my residence in the country, with Portu- 

 guese to converse freely with Senhor Soares, 

 'Or ascertain what use he made of these 

 'books ; it was an unexpected sight, a classi- 

 cal library in a mud-plastered and palm- 

 ^t hatched hint on the banks of the Tocantius. 



The prospect from the village was magnifi- 

 cent, overthegreen wooded islands, far away 

 to the gray line of forest on the opposite shore 

 of the Tocantins. We were now well out of 

 ithe low alluvial country of the Amazons 

 ^proper, and the climate was evidently much 

 drier than it is near Para. They had had no 

 rain here for many weeks, and the atmos- 

 phere was hazy around the horizon ; so much 

 rso that the sun, before setting, glared like a 

 l?lood-rcd globe. At Para this never hap- 

 pens ; the stars and sun are as clear and 

 sharply defined when they peep above the 

 ^distant tree-tops as they are at the aenith. 

 This beautiful transparency of the air arises, 

 'doubtless, from the equal distribution through 

 it of invisible vapor. I shall ever remember, 

 an oue of my voyages along the Para river, 

 t he g i and spectacle that was once presented 

 at sunrise. Our vessel was a large schooner, 

 :and we were bounding along before a spank- 

 ing breeze,which tossed the waters into foam, 

 when the day dawned. So clear was the 

 vair that the lower rim of the full moon re- 

 auained sharply defined until it touched the 

 western horizon, while, at the same time, the 

 .sun rose in the east. The two great orbs 

 -were visible at the same time, ana the pas- 

 :sage from the moonlit night to day was so 

 .rgeDtle that it seemed to be only the brighten- 

 Sng of dull weather. The woods around 

 IBaiaG were of second growth, the ground 

 laving been formerly cultivated. A great 

 aiumber of coffee and cotton-trees grew 

 iamong the thickets. A fine woodland path^. 



way extends for miles over the high, undulat- 

 ing bank, leading from one house to another 

 along the edge of the cliff. I went into se,v 

 eral of them, and talked to their inmates. 

 They were all poor people. The men were 

 out fishing,some far away, a distance of many 

 days' journey ; the women plant mandioca, 

 make the farinha, spin and weave cotton, 

 manufacture soap of burnt cacao-shells and 

 andiroba oil, and follow various other 

 domestic employments. 1 asked why they 

 allowed their plantations to run to waste. 

 They said that it was useless trying to plant 

 anything hereabout ; the Saiiba ant devour- 

 ed the young coffee-trees, and every one who 

 attempted to contend against this universal 

 ravager was sure to be defeated. The coun- 

 try, for many miles along the banks of the 

 river, seemed to be well peopled. The in- 

 habitants were nearly all of the tawny-white 

 mameluco class. I saw a good many mulat- 

 toes, but rery few negroes and Indians, and 

 none that could be called pure whites. 



When Senhor Seixas arrived, he acted very 

 kindly. He provided us at once with two 

 men, killed an ox in our honor, and treated 

 us altogether with great consideration. We 

 were not, however, introduced to his family. 

 I caught a glimpse once of his wife, a pretty 

 little mameluco woman, as she was tripping 

 with a young girl, whom I supposed to be 

 her daughter, across the back yard. Both 

 wore long dressing-gowns, made of bright- 

 colored calico print, and had long wooden 

 tobacco-pipes in their mouths. l"he room in 

 which we slept and worked had formerly 

 served as a storeroom for cacao, and at night 

 I was kept awake for hours by rats and cock- 

 roaches, which swarm in all such places. 

 The latter were running about all over the 

 walls ; now and then one would come sud- 

 denly with a whirr full at my face, and get 

 under my shirt if I attempted to jerk it off. 

 As to the rats, they were chasing one another 

 by dozens all night long, over the floor, 

 up and down the edges of the doors, and 

 along the rafters of the open roof. 



September 1th. We started from BaiaO at 

 an early hour. One of our new men was a 

 good-humored, willing young mulatto, named 

 Jose ; the other was a sulky Indian, called 

 Manoel, who seemed to have been pressed 

 into our service against his will. Senhor 

 Seixas, on parting, sent a quantity of fresh 

 provisions on board. A few miles above 

 Baiao the channel became very shallow ; we 

 got aground several times, and the men had 

 to disembark and shove the vessel off. 

 Alexandro here shot several fine fish, with 

 bow g,nd arrow. It was the first time I had 

 seen fish captured in this way. The arrow 

 is a reed, with a steel-barbed point, which is 

 fixed in a hole at the end, and secured by fine 

 twine made from the fibres of pineapple 

 leaves. It is only in the clearest water that 

 fish can be thus shot ; and the only skill re- 

 quired is to make, in taking aim, the proper 

 allowance for refraction. 



The next day before sunrise a fine breeze 

 ^sprang up, and the men awoke and set the 



