238 THE LOWER AMAZONS. Chap. VI. 



in 1859, when the place was much changed through 

 the influx of Portuguese immigrants and the building 

 of a fortress on the top of the bluff. It is one of the 

 pleasantest towns on the river. The houses are all 

 roofed with tiles, and are mostly of substantial archi- 

 tecture. The inhabitants, at least at the time of my 

 first visit, were naive in their ways, kind and sociable. 

 Scarcely any palm-thatched huts are to be seen, for very 

 few Indians now reside here. It was one of the early 

 settlements of the Portuguese, and the better class of 

 the population consists of old-established white famihes, 

 who exhibit however, in some cases, traces of cross 

 with the Indian and negro. Obydos and Santarem 

 have received, during the last eighty years, considerable 

 importations of negro slaves ; before that time a cruel 

 traffic was carried on in Indians for the same purpose 

 of forced servitude, but their numbers have gradually 

 dwindled away, and Indians now form an insignificant 

 element in the population of the district. Most of the 

 Obydos townsfolk are owners of cacao plantations, which 

 are situated on the low lands in the vicinity. Some are 

 large cattle proprietors, and possess estates of many 

 square leagues' extent in the campo, or grass-land dis- 

 tricts, which border the Lago Grande, and other similar 

 inland lakes, near the villages of Faro and Alemquer. 

 These campos bear a crop of nutritious grass ; but in 

 certain seasons, when the rising of the Amazons exceeds 

 the average, they are apt to be flooded, and then the 

 large herds of half-wild cattle suffer great mortality 

 from drowning, hunger, and the alligators. Neither in 

 cattle-keeping nor cacao-growing are any but the laziest 



