SANTAREM. Chap. I. 



days to commence my Natural History explorations in 

 the neighbourhood. 



l c? J 



I found Santarem quite a different sort of place from 

 the other settlements on the Amazons. At Cameta, the 

 lively, good-humoured, and plain-living Mamelucos 

 formed the bulk of the population, the white immi- 

 grants there, as on the Rio Negro and Upper Amazons, 

 seeming to have fraternised well with the aborigines. In 

 the neighbourhood of Santarem the Indians, I believe, 

 were originally hostile to the Portuguese ; at any rate, 

 the blending of the two races has not been here on a large 

 scale. I did not find the inhabitants the pleasant, easy- 

 going, and blunt-spoken country folk that are met with 

 in other small towns of the interior. The whites, Portu- 

 guese and Brazilians, are a relatively more numerous 

 class here than in other settlements, and make great 

 pretensions to civilisation ; they are the merchants and 

 shopkeepers of the place ; owners of slaves, cattle 

 estates, and cacao plantations. Amongst the principal 

 residents must also be mentioned the civil and military 

 authorities, who are generally well-bred and intelligent 

 people from other provinces. Few Indians live in the 

 place ; it is too civilised for them, and the lower class is 

 made up (besides the few slaves) of half-breeds, in whose 

 composition negro blood predominates. Coloured people 

 also exercise the different handicrafts ; the town supports 

 two goldsmiths, who are mulattoes and have each several 

 apprentices ; the blacksmiths are chiefly Indians, as is 

 the case generally throughout the province. The man- 

 ners of the upper class (copied from those of Para), are 



