128 THE TOCANTINS. . Chap. IV. 



one house to another along the edge of the cliff. I went 

 into several of them, and talked to their inmates. They 

 were all poor people. The men were out fishing, some far 

 away, a distance of many days' journey ; the women 

 plant mandiocca, make the farinha, spin and weave 

 cotton, manufacture soap of burnt cacao shells and 

 andiroba oil, and follow various other domestic employ- 

 ments. I asked why they allowed their plantations to 

 run to waste. They said that it was useless trying to 

 plant anything hereabout ; the Saiiba ant devoured the 

 young coffee-trees, and every one who attempted to 

 contend against this universal ravager was sure to be 

 defeated. The country, for many miles along the banks 

 of the river, seemed to be well peopled. The inhabi- 

 tants were nearly all of the tawny-white Mameluco class. 

 I saw a good many mulattos, but very few negroes and 

 Indians, and none that could be called pure whites. 



When Senhor Seixas arrived, he acted very kindly. 

 He provided us at once with two men, killed an ox in 

 our honour, and treated us altogether with gi^eat consi- 

 deration. We were not, however, introduced to his 

 family. I caught a glimpse once of his wife, a pretty 

 little Mameluco woman, as she was tripping with a 

 young girl, whom I supposed to be her daughter, across 

 the back yard. Both wore long dressing-gowns, made 

 of bright-coloured calico print, and had long wooden 

 tobacco-pipes in their mouths. The room in which we 

 slept and worked had formerly served as a storeroom 

 for cacao, and at night I was kept awake for hours by 

 rats and cockroaches, which swarm in all such places. 

 The latter were running about all over the walls ; 



