THE NATURALIST OX THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



this direction, of the great primeval forest 

 characteristic of this region, which contains 

 so many wonders in its recesses, and clothes 

 the whole surface of the country for two 

 thousand miles from this point to the foot of 

 the Andes. 



On the following day and night we sailed, 

 with a light wind, partly aided by the tide, 

 up the Para river. Toward evening we 

 passed Vigia and Colares, two fishing vil- 

 lages, and saw many native canoes, which 

 seemed like toys beneath the lofty walls of 

 the dark forest. The air was excessively close, 

 the sky overcast, and sheet lightning played 

 almost incessantly around the horizon, an ap- 

 prop'iate greeting on the threshold of a conn- 

 try lying close under the equator ! The 

 evening was calm, this being the season 

 when the winds are not strong, so \ve glided 

 along in a noiseless manner, which contrast- 

 ed pleasantly with the unceasing turmoil to 

 which we had been lately accustomed on the 

 Atlantic. The immensity of the river struck 

 us greatly, for although sailing sometimes at 

 a distance of eight or nine miles from the 

 eastern bank, the opposite shore was at no 

 time visible. Indeed, the Para river is 

 thirty-six miles in breadth at its mouth ; and 

 at the city of'Para, nearly seventy miles from 

 the sea, it is twenty miles wide ; bu f . at that 

 point a series of islands commences, which 

 contracts the river view in front of the port. 



On the morning of the 28th of May we ar- 

 rived at our destination. The appearance of 

 the city at sunrise was pleasing in the high- 

 est degree. It is built on a low tract of land, 

 having only one small rocky elevation at its 

 southern extremity ; it therefore affords no 

 amp hit heat ral view from the river ; but the 

 white buildings roofed with red tiles, the 

 numerous towers and cupolas of churches 

 and convents, the crowds of palm-trees reared 

 above the buildings, all sharply defined 

 against the clear blue sky, give an appear- 

 ance of lightness and cheerfulness which h 

 most exhilarating. The perpetual forest 

 hems the city in on all sides landward ; and 

 toward the suburbs picturesque country 

 houses are seen scattered about, half buried 

 in luxuriant foliage. The port was full of 

 native canoes and other vessels, large and 

 small ; and the tinging of bells and firing of 

 presets, announcing the dawn of sJme 

 Roman Catholic festival day,' showed that 

 the p jpul-ation was astir at that early hour. 



The impressions received during our first 

 walk, on the evening of the day of our ar- 

 rival, can never wholly fada from my mind. 

 After traversing the few streets of tall. 

 gioomy, convent-looking buildings near the 

 port, inhabited chiefly by merchants and 

 shopkeepers ; along which idle soldiers, 

 dressed in slribby uniforms, carrying their 

 xnaskets carelessly over their arms, priests, 

 neg^esses with red water-jara on (heir heads, 

 sad-looking Indian women carrying their 

 naked children astride on thoir hips, and 

 other samples of the motley life of the place, 

 were seen ; ye passed down a long narrow 



street leading to the suburbs. Beyond this, 

 our road lay across a grassy common into u 

 picturesque lane leading to the virgin forest. 

 The long street was inhabited by the poorer 

 class of the population. The houses were of 

 one story only, and had an irregular and 

 mean appearance. The windows were with- 

 out glass, having, instead, projecting lattice 

 casements. The street was unpaved, and 

 inches deep in loose sand. Groups of people 

 were cooling themselves outside their Joors 

 people of all shades in color of skin, Euro- 

 pean, negro and Indian, but chiefly an un- 

 certain mixture of the three. Among them 

 were several handsome women, dressed in a 

 slovenly manner, barefoot or shod in looi=e 

 slippers ; but wearing richly decorated ear- 

 rings, and around their necks strings of very 

 large gold beads. They hai dark expressive 

 eyes, and remarkably rich heads of hair. It 

 was a mere fancy, but I thought the mingled 

 squalor, luxuriance,and beauty of these wom- 

 en were pointedly in harmony with the rest of 

 the scene ; so striking, in the view, was the 

 mixture of natural riches and, human poverty. 

 The houses were mostly in a dilapidated con- 

 dition, and signs of indolence and neglect 

 were everywhere visible. The wooden pal- 

 ings which surrounded the weed-grown gar- 

 dens TV ere strewn about, broken ; and hogs, 

 goats, and ill-fed poultry wandered in acd 

 out through the gaps. But amid all, and 

 compensating every defect, rose the over- 

 powering be:iuty of the vegetation. The 

 massive dark crowns of shady mangoes were 

 seen everywhere among the dwellings, amid 

 fragrant blossoming orange, lemon, and 

 many other tropical fruit-trees ; some in 

 flower, others in fruit, at varying stages of 

 ripeness. Here and there, shooting above 

 the more dome-like and sombre trees, were 

 the smooth columnar stems of palms, bearing 

 aloft their magnificent crowns of finely cut 

 fronds. Among the latter the slim assni- 

 palm was especially noticeable, growing in 

 groups of four and five ; its smooth, gently- 

 curving stem, twenty to thirty feet high, ter- 

 minating in a head of feathery foliage, inex- 

 pressibly light and elegant in outline. On 

 the boughs of the taller and more ordinary- 

 looking trees sat tufts of curiously-leaved 

 parasites. Slender woody lianas hung in 

 festoons from the branches, or were sus- 

 pended in the form of cords and ribbons ; 

 while luxuriant, creeping plants overran alike 

 tree-trunks, roofs and walls, or toppled over 

 palings in copious profusion of foliage. The 

 superb banana (Musa paradisiaca), of which 

 I had always read as forming one of the 

 charms of tropical vegetation, here grew with 

 great luxuriance . its glossy velvety-green 

 leaves, twelve feet m length, curving over the 

 roofs of verandas in the "rear of every house. 

 The shape of the leaves, the varying shades 

 of gre^n which they present when lightly 

 moved by the wind, and especially the con- 

 trast they afford in color and form to the 

 more sombre hues and more rounded outline 

 of the other trees, are quite sufficient to ac- 

 far the cha'tr- of this glorious tree. 



