190 CARIPI. Chap. V. 



favour of Senhor Raimundo, permission to accom]3any 

 him on one of his hunting trips, and shoot a little game 

 for my o^\m use. He consented, and appointed a day 

 on which I was to come over to his house to sleep, so 

 as to be ready for starting with the ebb-tide shortly 

 after midnight. 



The locality we were to visit was situated near the 

 extreme point of the land of Carnapijo, where it pro- 

 jects northwardly into the middle of the Para estuary 

 and is broken into a number of islands. On the after- 

 noon of January 11th, 1849, I walked through the 

 woods to Rairnundo's house, taking nothing with me 

 but a double-barrelled gun, a supply of ammunition and 

 a box for the reception of any insects I might capture. 

 Raimundo was a carpenter, and seemed to be a very 

 industrious man ; he had two apprentices, Indians like 

 himself, one a young lad, and the other apparently 

 about twenty years of age. His wife was of the same 

 race. The Indian women are not always of a taciturn 

 disposition like their husbands. Senhora Dominga was 

 very talkative ; there was another old squaw at the 

 house on a visit, and the tongues of the two were going 

 at a great rate the whole evening, using only the Tupi 

 language. Raimundo and his apprentices were em- 

 ployed building a canoe. Notwithstanding his industry, 

 he seemed to be very poor, and this was the condition 

 of most of the residents on the banks of the Murucupi. 

 They have, nevertheless, considerable plantations of 

 mandioca and Indian corn, besides small plots of cotton, 

 coffee, and sugar cane ; the soil is very fertile, they have 

 no rent to j)ay, and no direct taxes. There is, more- 



