152 THE TOCANTINS. Chap. IY. 



galley to make tea of an acid herb, called erva cid- 

 reira, a quantity of which they had gathered at the 

 last landing-place, and the flames sparkled cheerily 

 upwards. It is at such times as these that Amazon 

 travelling is enjoyable, and one no longer wonders at 

 the love which many, both natives and strangers, have 

 for this wandering life. The little schooner S23ed rapidly 

 on with booms bent and sails stretched to the utmost. 

 Just as day dawned, we ran with scarcely slackened 

 sj^eed into the port of Cameta, and cast anchor. 



I stayed at Cameta until the 1 6th of July, and made 

 a considerable collection of the natural productions of 

 the neighbourhood. The town in 1849 was estimated 

 to contain about 5000 inhabitants, but the municipal 

 district of which Cameta is the capital numbered 20,000 ; 

 this, however, comprised the whole of the lower part of 

 the Tocantins, which is the most thickly populated part 

 of the province of Para. The productions of the district 

 are cacao, india-rubber, and Brazil nuts. The most 

 remarkable feature in the social aspect of the place is 

 the hybrid nature of the whole population, the amalga- 

 mation of the white and Indian races being here com- 

 plete. The aborigines were originally very numerous 

 on the western bank of the Tocantins, the jDrincipal 

 tribe having been the Camutas, from which the city 

 takes its name. They were a superior nation, settled, 

 and attached to agriculture, and received with open arms 

 the white immigrants who were attracted to the district 

 by its fertility, natural beauty, and the healthfulness of 

 the climate. The Portuguese settlers were nearly all 



