THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



689 



voyage occupied no less than twenty-nine 

 days, although we were favored by the pow- 

 erful currents of the rainy season. The holcl 

 of the vessel was tilled with turtle oil con- 

 tained in large jars, the cabin was crammed 

 with Brazil-nuts, and a great pile of sarsa- 

 parilla, covered with a thatch of palm-leaves, 

 occupied the middle of the deck. We had 

 therefore (the master and two passengers) but 

 rough accommodation, having to sleep on 

 deck, exposed to the wet and stormy 

 weather, under little toldos or arched shelters, 

 arranged with mats of woven lianas and 

 maranta-leaves. I awoke many a morning 

 with clothes and bedding soaked through 

 with the rain. With the exception, how- 

 ever, of a slight cold at the commencement, 

 I never enjoyed better health than during 

 this journey. When the wind blew- from up 

 river or off the land, we sped away at a great 

 rate ; but it was often squally from those 

 quarters, and then it was not safe to hoist the 

 sails. The weather was generally calm, a 

 motionless mass of leaden clouds covering 

 the sky, and the broad expanse of waters 

 flowing smoothly down with no other motion 

 than the ripple of the current. When the 

 wind cuiue from below, we tacked down the 

 stream ; sometimes it blew very strong, and 

 then the schooner, having the wind abeam, 

 labored through the waves, shipping often 

 heavy seas which washed everything that was 

 loose from one side of the deck to the other. 

 On arriving at Para, I found the once cheer- 

 ful and healthful city desolated by two terri- 

 ble epidemics. The yellow fever, which vis- 

 ited the place the previous year (1850) for the 

 first time since the discovery of the country, 

 still lingered, after having carried off nearly 

 five per cent of the population. The num- 

 ber of persons who were attacked, namely, 

 threefourths of the entire population, showed 

 how general is the onslaught of an epidemic 

 on its first appearance in a place. At the 

 heels of this plague came the small-pox. The 

 yellow fever had fallen most severely on the 

 whites and mamelucos, the negroes wholly 

 escaping ; but the small-pox attacked more 

 especially the Indians, negroes, and people 

 of mixed color, sparing the whites almost 

 entirely.and taking off about a twentieth part 

 of the population in the course of the four 

 months of its stay. I heard many strange 

 accounts of the yellow fever. I believe Para 

 was ihe second port in Brazil attacked by it. 

 The news of its ravages in Bahia, where the 

 epidemic first appeared, arrived some few 

 days before the disease broke out. The Gov- 

 ernment took all the sanitary precautions that 

 could be thought of ; among the rest was the 

 singular one of firing cannon at the street 

 corners, to purify the air. Mr. Norris, the 

 American consul, told me the first cases ^t 

 fever occurred near the port, and that it 

 spread rapidly and regularly from house to 

 house, along the streets which run from the 

 waterside to the suburbs, taking about 

 twenty-four hours to reach the end. Some 

 persons related that for several successive 

 evenings before the fever broke out the at- 



mosphere was thick, and that a body of 

 murky vapor, accompanied by a strong 

 stench, travelled from street to street. This 

 moving vapor was called the " Mai da pcate" 

 (" the mother or spirit of the plague") ; and 

 it was useless to attempt to reason them out 

 of the belief that this was the forerunner of 

 the pestilence. The progress of the disease 

 was very rapid. It commenced in April, in 

 the middle of the wet season. In a few days, 

 thousands of persons lay sick, dying, or dead. 

 The state of the city during the time the fever 

 lasted may be easily imagined. Toward the 

 end of June it abated, and very few cases oc- 

 curred during the dry season from July to 

 December. 



As I said before, the yellow fever still lin- 

 gered in the place when I arrived from tho 

 interior in April. I was in hopes I should 

 escape it, but was not so fortunate ; it seemed 

 to spare no new-comer. At the time I fell ill, 

 every medical man in the place was worked 

 to the utmost in attending the victims of the 

 other epidemic ; it was quite useless to think 

 of obtaining their aid, so I was obliged to b$ 

 my own doctor, as I had been in many 

 former smart attacks of fever. I was seizedl 

 with shivering arid vomit at nine o'clock, 

 in the morning. While the people of the 

 house went down to the town for the medi- 

 cines I ordered, I wrapped myself in a 

 blanket and walked sharply to and fro along 

 the veranda, drinking at intervals a cup of 

 warm tea, made of a bitter herb in use among 

 the natives, called Pajemarioba, a leguminous 

 plant growing in all waste places. About an 

 hour afterward I took a good draught of a 

 decoction of elder-blossoms as a sudorific, 

 and soon after fell insensible into my ham- 

 mock. Mr! Phillips, an English resident with 

 whom I was then lodging, came home in the 

 afternoon and found me sound asleep and 

 perspiring famous'y. I did not wake till 

 toward midnight, when I felt very weak and 

 aching in every bone of my body. I then 

 took as a purgative a small dose of Epsom 

 salt* and manna. In forty-eight hours the 

 fever left me, and in eight days from the first 

 attack 1 was able to get about my work. 

 Little else happened during my stay, which 

 need be recorded here. I shipped off all my 

 collections to England, and received thence 

 a fresh supply of funds. It took me several 

 weeks to prepare for my second and longest 

 journey into the interior. My plan now was 

 first to make Santarem headquarters for some 

 time, and ascend from that place the river 

 Tapajos, as far as practicable. Afterward I 

 intended to revisit the marvellous country of 

 the Upper Amazons, and work well its nat- 

 ural history at various stations I had fixed 

 upon, from Ega to the foot of the Andes. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



SANTAREM. 



Situation of Santarem Manners and Customs of the 

 Inhabitants Climate Grassy Campos and Woods 

 Excursions to Mapirl, Mahica, and Irura, with 

 Sketches of their Natural History ; Palms, wild 

 Fruit-tree^, Mining Wasps, Alaseii Wa*ps, Bee*, 

 and Sloths, 



