THE NATURALIST ON THE RIYER AMAZONS. 



into the interior, they equipped a swift-sail- 

 ing galliota, manned with ten or a dozen In- 

 dians. These could travel, on the average, 

 in one day farther than the ordinary sailing 

 craft could in three. Indian paddlers were 

 now, however, almost impossible to be ob- 

 tained, and Government officers were obliged 

 to travel as passengers in trading-vessels. 

 The voyage made in this way was tedious in 

 the extreme. When the regular east wind 

 blew the " vento geral," or trade-wind of 

 the Amazons sailing-vessels could get along 

 very well ; but when this failed they were 

 obliged to remain, sometimes mauy days to- 

 gether, anchored near the shore, or progress 

 laboriously by means ot tiie ' espia." The 

 latter mode of travelling was as follows. 

 The montaria, with twenty or thirty fathoms 

 of cahle, one end of which was attached to 

 the foremast, was sent ahead with a couple 

 of hands, who secured the other end of the 

 rope to some strong bough or iree-trunk ; the 

 crew then hauled the vessel up to the point, 

 after which the men in the boat re-embarked 

 the cable, and paddled forward to repeat the 

 process. In the dry season, from August to 

 December, when the trade- wind is strong 

 and the currents slack, a schooner could 

 reach the mouth of the Rio Negro, a thou- 

 sand miles from Para, in about forty days ; 

 but in the wet season, from January to July, 

 when the east wind no longer blows, and the 

 Amazon pours forth its full volume of 

 water, flooding the banks and producing a 

 tearing current, it took three mojjths to travel 

 the same distance. It was a great blessing 

 to the inhabitants when, in 1853, a line or 

 steamers was established, and this same jour- 

 ney could be accomplished, with ease und 

 comfort, at all seasons, in eight days I 



While preparing for my voyage it hap- 

 pened, fortunately, that the half-brother of 

 Dr. Angelo Custodio, a young mestizo, 

 named JoaO da Cunha Correia, was about 

 starting for the Amazons on a trading expe- 

 dition in his own vessel, a schooner of about 

 forty tons' burden. A passage for ine was soon 

 arranged with him through the Intervention 

 of Dr. Angelo, and we started on the 5th of 

 September, 1849. I intended to stop at one vil-i 

 lage on the northern shore of the Lower Am-, 

 azons, where it would be interesting to make! 

 collections, in order to show the relations of 

 the fauna to those of Para and the coast re- 

 gion of Guiana. As I should have to hire a' 

 house or hut wherever I stayed, I took ail 

 the materials for housekeeping cooking 

 utensils, crockery, and so forth. To these 

 Were added a stock of such provisions as it 

 would be difficult to obtain in the interior * 

 also ammunition, chests, store-boxes, a small 

 library of natural history books, and a hun- 

 dred-weight of copper money. I engaged, 

 after some trouble, a mameluco youth to ac- 

 company me as servant a short, fat, yellow- 

 faced boy named Luco, whom I had already 

 employed at Para in collecting. We weighed 

 anchor at night, and, on the following dav, 

 vound ourselves gliding along the dark-Drown 



waters of the Mojn. 



Joa5 da Cunha, like most of his fellow- 

 countrymen, took matters very easily. He- 

 was going to be absent in the interior severaj 

 years, and therefore intended to diverge fron? 

 his route to visit his native place, Cameta. 

 and spend a few days with his friends It. 

 seemed not to matter to him that he had at 

 cargo of merchandise, vessel, and crew of 

 twelve persons, which required an economi- 

 cal use of time ; " pleasure first and business, 

 afterward " appeared to be his maxim. We 

 stayed at Cameta twelve days. The chier 

 motive for prolonging the stay to this extent 

 was a festival at the Aldeia, two miles buiow 

 Oameta, which was to commence on the- 

 21st, and which my friend wished to take part 

 in. On the day of the festival the schooner 

 was sent down to anchor off the Aldeia, and 

 master and men gave themselves up to rev- 

 elry. In the evening a strong breeze sprang 

 up, and orders were given to embark. We 

 scrambled down in the dark through the- 

 thickets of cacao, orange, stud coffee trees* 

 which clothed the high bank, and, after run- 

 ning great risk of being swamped by the- 

 heavy sea in the crowded montaria, got al) 

 aboard by nine o'clock. We made all sail 

 amid the " adeos" shouted to us by Indian- 

 and mulatto sweethearts from the top of the~ 

 bank, and, tide and wind being favorable, 

 were soon miles away. 



Our crew consisted, as already mentioned, 

 of twelve pei sons. One was a young Portu 

 guese from the province of Traz os Monies, 

 a pretty sample of the kind of emigrants 

 which Portugal sends to Brazil. He was- 

 two or three and twenty years of age, and 

 had been about two years in the country, 

 dressing and living like the Indians, to whom? 

 he was certainly inferior in manners. He 

 could not read or wwte, whereas one at least 

 of our Tapuyos had both accomplishments. 

 He had a little wooden image of Nossa, 

 Senhora in his rough wooden clothes-chest, 

 and to this he always had recourse when any 

 squall arose, or when we got aground on a 

 shoal. Another of our sailors was a tawny 

 white of Camel & ; the rest were Indians, ex- 

 cept the cook, who was a Cafuzo, or half- 

 'breed between the Indian and negro. It I* 

 often said that this class of mestizos is the 

 most evilly disposed of all the numerous 

 crosses between the races inhabiting Brazil : 

 but Luiz was a simple, good-hearted fellow, 

 always ready to do one a service. The pilot 

 i was an old Tapuyo of Para, with regular oval> 

 face and well-shaped features. I was aston- 

 ished at his endurance. He never quitted 

 the helm night or day, except for two or 

 three hours In the morning. The other In- 

 dians used to bring him his coffee and meals 

 and after breakfast one of them relieved hirr 

 for a time, when he used to He down on the- 

 quarter-deck and get his two hours' nap. 

 The Indians forward had things pretty much 

 thim own way. No system of watches wa* 

 fol-owed ; when any one was so disposed, he 

 lay down on the deck and wt nl to sleep ; but 

 tt feeling of good-fellowskip seemed always 



