THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS. 



iather, au Indian named Andre, where we 



; anchored and slept. 



September 22d. Old Andre with his squaw 



came aboard this morning. They brought 

 ihree Tracajus, a turtle, and a basKetful of 

 Tracaja- eggs, to exchange with me for cotton 

 cloth and cashaga. Ricardo, who had been 

 for some lime very discontented, having now 

 satisfied his longing to see his parents, cheer- 

 fully agreed to accompany me to Santarem. 

 The loss of a man at this juncture would have 

 been very annoying, wi'th Captain Antonio 

 ill at Aveyros, and not a hand to be had any- 

 where in the neighborhood ; but if we had 

 not called at Andre's sitio we should not 

 have been able to have kept Ricardo from 

 running away at the first landing-place. He 

 was a lively, restless lad, and although im- 

 pudent and troublesome at first, hud made a 

 very good servant ; his companion, Alberto, 

 was of quite a different disposition, being 

 extremely taciturn, and going through all his 

 duties with the quietest regularity. 



We left at 11 A.M., and progressed a little 

 before the wind began to blow from down 

 river, when we were obliged again to cast 



. .anchor. The terral began at six o'clock in 

 the evening, and we sailed with it past the 

 long line of rock-bound coast nearltapuama. 

 At ten o'clock a furious blast of wind came 

 from a cleft between the hills, catching us 

 with the sails close-hauled, and throwing the 

 canoe nearly on its beam-ends, when we were 

 about a mile from the shore. Jose had the 

 presence of mind to slacken the sheet 'of the 

 mainsail, while I leaped forward and lowered 

 the sprit of the foresail, the two Indians 

 standing stupefied in the prow. It was what 

 the canoe-men called a trowada secca, or white 

 equall. The river in a few minutes became 

 a sheet of foam ; the wind ceased in about 

 half an hour, but the terral was over for the 

 night, so we pulled toward the shore to find 

 an anchoring place. 



We reached Tapaiuna by midnight on the 



/23d, and on the morning of the 24th arrived 

 at the Retiro, where we met a shrewd Santa- 

 rem trader, whom I knew, Senhor Chico 

 Ilonorio, who had a larger and much better 

 provided canoe than our own. The wind 

 was strong from below all day, so we re- 

 mained at this place in his company. He 

 had his wife with him, and a number of In- 

 dians, male and female. We slung our ham- 

 mocks under the trees, and breakfasted and 

 lined together, our cloth being spread on the 

 aufiy l,each in the shade, after killing a 

 iiugj quantity of fish with timbti, of which 

 we had obtained a supply at Itapuama. At 

 night we v:ere again under weigh with the 

 land breeze. The water was ehoaly to a great 

 distance off the coast, and our canoe having 

 the lighter draught went ahead, our leadsman 

 crying out the soundings to our companion : 

 the depth was only one fathom, half a mile 

 from the coast. We spent the next day 

 (25th) at the mouth of a creek called Pini, 

 which is exactly opposite the village of Boim, 



.and on the following night advanced about 

 twelve miles. Evenv Doint of land had jt 



long split of sand stretching one or two miles 

 toward the middle of the n ver, which it was 

 necessary to double by a wide circuit. The 

 terral failed us at midnight when we were 

 near an espera, called Marai, the mouth of a 

 shallow creek. 



September %6th. I did not like the prospect 

 of spending the whole dreary day at Marai', 

 where it was impossible to ramble ashore, the 

 forest being utterly impervious, and the land 

 still partly under water. Besides, we had 

 used up our last, gtick of firewood to boil oui 

 coffee at sunrise, and could not get a fresh 

 supply at this place. So there being a dead 

 calm out the river in the morning, I gave 

 orders at ten o'clock to move out of the'har- 

 bor, and try with the oars to reach Paquia- 

 tuba, which was only five miles distant. We 

 had doubled the shoaly point which stretches 

 from the mouth of the creek, and were mak- 

 ing way merrily across the bay, at the head 

 of which was the port of the little settle- 

 ment, when we beheld to our dismay, a few 

 miles down the river, the signs of the 

 violent day breeze coming down upon us 

 a long, rapidly advancing line ot toam 

 with the darkened water behind it. Our 

 men strove in vain to gain the harbor ; the 

 wind overtook us, and we cast anchor in 

 three fathoms, with two miles of shoaly 

 water between us and the land on our lee. It 

 cable with the force of a squall, the heavy 

 billows washing over the vessel and drench- 

 ing us with the spray. I did not expect that 

 our anchor would hold ; I gave out, how- 

 ever, plenty of cable, and watched the result 

 at the prow ; Jose placing himself at the 

 helm, and the men standing by the jib and 

 foresail, so as to be ready if we dragged, to 

 attempt the passage of the Mara! spit, which 

 was now almost dead to leeward. Our little 

 bit of iron, however, held its place ; the bot- 

 tom being fortunately not so sandy as in 

 most other parts of the coast ; but our weak 

 cable then began to cause us anxiety. We 

 remained in this position all day without 

 food, for everything was tossing about in the 

 hold ;- provision-chests, baskets, kettles, and 

 crockery. The breeze increased in strength 

 toward the evening, when the sua set fiery 

 red behind the misty hills on the western 

 shore, and the gloom of the scene wa^ 

 heightened by the strange contrasts of color, 

 the inky water and the lurid gleam of the 

 sky. Heavy seas beat now and then against 

 the prow of our vessel with a foce that made 

 her shiver. If we had gone ashore in this 

 j-lace, all my precious collections would have 

 been inevitably lost ; but we ourselves could 

 have scrambled easily to land, and re-em- 

 barked with Senhor Honorio, who had re- 

 mained behind in the Pini, and would pass 

 in the course of two or three days. When 

 night came, 1 lay down exhausted with watch- 

 ing and fatigue, and fell asleep, as my men 

 had done some time before. About nine 

 o'clock I was awoke by the montaria bump- 

 ing against the sides of the vessel, which had 

 veered suddenly round, and the full moon, 

 -previously astern, then shone full in the 



