116 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IV. 



On rounding a point of land we came in full view of 

 the Tocantins. The event was announced by one of 

 our Indians, who was on the look-out at the prow, 

 shouting, " La esta o Parana-uassu ! " " Behold, the 

 great river ! " It was a grand sight — a broad expanse 

 of dark waters dancing merrily to the breeze ; the 

 opposite shore, a narrow blue line, miles away. 



We went ashore on an island covered with palm- 

 trees, to make a fire and boil our kettle for tea. I 

 wandered a short way inland, and was astounded at 

 the prospect. The land lay below the upper level of 

 the daily tides, so that there was no underwood, and 

 the ground was bare. The trees were almost all of 

 one species of Palm, the gigantic fan-leaved Mauritia 

 flexuosa ; on the borders only was there a small 

 number of a second kind, the equally remarkable 

 Ubussti palm, Manicaria saccifera. The Ubussu has 

 erect, uncut leaves, twenty-five feet long, and six feet 

 wide, all arranged round the top of a four-feet high 

 stem, so as to form a figure like that 'of a colossal 

 shuttlecock. The fan-leaved palms, which clothed 

 nearly the entire islet, had huge cylindrical smooth 

 stems, three feet in diameter, and about a hundred feet 

 high. The crowns were formed of enormous clusters 

 of fan-shaped leaves, the stalks alone of which measured 

 seven to ten feet in length. Nothing in the vegetable 

 world could be more imposing than this grove of 

 palms. There was no underwood to obstmct the view 

 of the long perspective of towering columns. The 

 crowns, which were densely packed together at an 

 immense height overhead, shut out the rays of the 



