10 SANTAREM. Chap. I. 



piece. This is the war trumpet of many tribes of 

 Indians, with which the sentinels of predatory hordes, 

 mounted on a lofty tree, give the signal for attack to 

 their comrades. Those Brazilians who are old enough 

 to remember the times of warfare between Indians and 

 settlers, retain a great horror of the ture, its loud harsh 

 note heard in the dead of the night having been often 

 the prelude to an onslaught of bloodthirsty Miiras on 

 the outlying settlements. The rest of the men in the 

 procession carried bows and arrows, bunches of javelins, 

 clubs, and paddles. The older children brought with 

 them the household pets ; some had monkeys or coatis on 

 their shoulders, and others bore tortoises on their heads. 

 The squaws carried their babies in aturas, or large 

 baskets, slung on their backs, and secured with a broad 

 belt of bast over their foreheads. The whole thing was 

 accurate in its representation of Indian life, and showed 

 more ingenuity than some people give the Brazilian red 

 man credit for. It was got up spontaneously by the 

 Indians, and simply to amuse the people of the place. 



The entire produce in cacao, salt fish, and other articles 

 of a very large district, passes through the hands of the 

 Santarem merchants, and a large trade, for this country, 

 is done with the Indians on the Tapajos in salsaparilla, 

 balsam of copauba, India-rubber, farinha, and other pro- 

 ductions. I was told the average annual yield of the 

 Tapajos in salsaparilla, was about 2000 arrobas (of 32 lbs. 

 each). The quality of the drug found in the forests of 

 the Tapajos, is much superior to that of the Upper 

 Amazons, and always fetches double the price at Para- 

 The merchants send out young Brazilians and Portuguese 



