230 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI. 



lowed : but in half an hour all was again calm, and 

 the full moon appeared sailing in a cloudless sky. 



From the mouth of the Xingu the route followed by 

 vessels leads straight across the river, here 10 miles 

 broad. Towards midnight the wind failed us, when we 

 were close to a large shoal called the Baixo Grande. 

 We lay here becalmed in the sickening heat for two 

 days, and when the trade wind recommenced with the 

 rising moon at 10 p.m. on the 6th, we found ourselves 

 on a lee-shore. Notwithstanding all the efforts of our 

 pilot to avoid it, we ran aground. Fortunately the 

 bottom consisted only of soft mud, so that, by casting 

 anchor to windward and hauling in with the whole 

 strength of crew and passengers, we got off after spend- 

 ing an uncomfortable night. We rounded the point of 

 the shoal in two fathoms water ; the head of the vessel 

 was then put westward, and by sunrise we were bound- 

 ing forward before a steady breeze, all sail set and 

 everybody in good humour. 



The weather was now delightful for several days in 

 succession : the air transparently clear, and the breeze 

 cool and invigorating. At daylight, on the 6th, a chain 

 of blue hills, the Serra de Almeyrim, appeared in the 

 distance on the north bank of the river. The sight 

 was most exhilarating after so long a sojourn in a flat 

 country. We kept to the southern shore, passing in 

 the course of the day the mouths of the Urucuricaya 

 and the Aquiqui, two channels which communicate 

 with the Xingu. The whole of this southern coas^ 

 hence to near Santarem, a distance of 130 miles, is low 

 land and quite uninhabited. It is intersected by short 



