THE NATURALIST ON THE KIVER AMAZONS. 



785 



It may be added, their personal beauty, es-' 

 l>ecially of the children and women, made 

 them from the first very attractive to the 

 Portuguese colonists. They were, conse- 

 quently, enticed in great numbers from their 

 villages and brought to Barra and other set- 

 tlements of the whites. The wives of gov- 

 ernors and military officers from Europe 

 were always eager to obtain children for 

 domestic servants, the girls being taught to 

 sew, cook, weave hammocks, manufacture 

 pillow-lace, and so forth. They have been 

 generally treated with kindness, especially 

 by the educated families in the settlements. 

 It is pleasant to have to record that I never 

 beard of a deed of violence perpetrated, on 

 the one side or the other, in the dealings be- 

 f.veen European settlers and this noble tribe 

 of savages. 



We started on our return to Ega at half- 

 past four o'clock in the afternoon. Our 

 grnerous entertainers leaded us with presents. 

 There was scarcely room for us to sit in the 

 canoe, as they had sent down tea large bun- 

 dbs of sugar-cane, four baskets of farinha, 

 three cedar planks, a small hamper of coffee, 

 and two heavy bunches of bananas. After 

 we were embarked the old lady came with a 

 parting gift for me a huge bowl of smoking 

 hot banana porridge. I was to eat it on the 

 road," to keep my stomach warm." Both 

 stood on the bank as we pushed off, and 

 gave us their adeos, ' ' Ikuana Tupana 

 eiriim" (Go with God) : a form of salutation 

 taught by the old Jesuit missionaries. We 

 had a most uncomfortable passage, for Car- 

 dozo was quite tipsy, and had not attended to 

 the loading of the boat. The cargo had been 

 placed too far forward, and to make matters 

 worse ray heavy friend obstinately insisted 

 on sitting astride on the top of the pile, in- 

 stead of taking his place near the stern ; 

 singing from his perch a most indecent love- 

 song, and disregarding the inconvenience of 

 having to bend down almost every minute to 

 pass under the boughs and hanging sipos as 

 we sped rapidly along. The canoe leaked, 

 but not at first alarmingly. Long before 

 .sunset darkness began to close in under these 

 .frloomy shades, and our steersman could not 

 -avoid now and then running the boat into 

 the thicket. The first time this happened a 

 piece was broken off the square prow (roUel- 

 Ja) : the second time we got squeezed be- 

 t *veen two trees. A short time after this lat- 

 ter accident, being seated near the stern, wit.*i 

 .my feet on the bottom of the boat, I felt 

 rather suddenly the cold water above my 

 ankles. A few minutes more and we should 

 have sunk, for a seam had been opened for 

 ward under the pile of sugar-cane. Two of 

 us began to bale, and by the most strenuous 

 efforts managed to keep afloat without throw- 

 ing overboard our cargo. The Indians were 

 obliged to paddle with extreme slowness to 

 avoid shipping water as the edge of our 

 prow was nearly level with the surface ; but 

 Cardozo was now persuaded to change his 

 seat. The sun set, the quick twilight parsed, 

 .and the mcon soon after begun to glimmer 



through the thick canopy of foliage. The 

 prospect of being swamped in this hideous 

 solitude was by no means pleasant, although 

 I calculated on the chance of swimming to a 

 tree and finding a nice snug place in the fork 

 of some large bough wherein to pass the night. 

 'At length, after four hours' tedious progress, 

 we suddenly emerged on the open stream, 

 where the moonlight glittered in broad sheets 

 on the gently rippling waters. A little extra 

 care was now required in paddling. The 

 Indians plied their strokes with the greatest 

 nicety ; the lights of Ega (the oil-lamps in 

 the houses) soon appeared beyond the black 

 wall of forest, and in a short time we leaped 

 safely ashore. 



A few months after the excursion just nar- 

 rated, I accompanied Cardozo in many wan- 

 derings on the Solimoens, during which we 

 visited the praias (sand islands), the turtle 

 pools in the forests, and the by -streams and 

 lakes of the great desert river. His object 

 was mainly to superintend the business of 

 digging up turtle eggs on the sand-banks, 

 having been elected commandante for the 

 year, by the municipal council of Ega, of 

 the " praia real" (royal sand island) of Shi- 

 muni, the one lying nearest to Ega. Theie 

 are four of these royal praias within the Ega 

 district (a distance of 150 miles from the 

 town), all of which are visited annually by 

 the Ega people for the purpose of collecting 

 eggs and extracting oil from their yolks. 

 Each has its commander, whose business is 

 to make arrangements for securing to every 

 inhabitant an equal chance in the egg har- 

 vest, by placing sentinels to protect the tur- 

 tles while laying, and so forth. The preg- 

 nant turtles descend from the interior pools 

 to the main river in July and August, before 

 the outlets dry up, and then seek in countless 

 swarms their favorite sand islands ; for it is 

 only a few praias that are selected by them 

 out of the great number existing. The 

 young animals remain in the pools through- 

 out the dry season. These breeding- places 

 of turtles then lie twenty to thirty or more 

 feet above the level of the river, and are ac- 

 cessible only by cutting roads through th 3 

 dense forest. 



We left Ega on our first trip, to visit the 

 sentinels while the turtles were yet laying, 

 on the 26th of September Our canoe was u 

 stoutly-built iga.ite, arranged for ten pad- 

 diets, and having a large arched toldo at the 

 stern, under which lime persons could sleep 

 pretty comfoitably. Emerging from the 

 Teffe, we descended rapidly on the swift cur- 

 rent of the Sulimoens to the south-eastern or 

 lower end of the large wooded island of 

 Baria, which here divides the river into two 



freat channels. We then paddled across to 

 himuni, which lies in the middle of the 

 north-easterly channel, reaching the com- 

 mencement of the praia an hour before sun- 

 set. The island proper is about three miles 

 long and half a mile broad : the forest with 

 which it is covered rises to an immense and 

 uniform height, and presents all round a 



