38 SANTAREM. Chap. I. 



bags on horseback by sunrise. His wretched little 

 farm produced nothing else. The house stood in the 

 middle of the bare pasture, without garden or any sort 

 of plantation ; a group of stately palms stood close by, 

 to the trunks of which he secured the cows whilst 

 milking. Butter-making is unknown in this country ; 

 the milk, I was told, is too poor ; it is very rare indeed 

 to see even the thinnest coating of cream on it, and the 

 yield for each cow is very small. Our dairyman had to 

 bring from Santarem every morning the meat, bread, 

 and vegetables for the day's consumption. The other 

 residents of Mahica were not even so well off as this 

 man. I always had to bring my own provisions when I 

 came this way, for a perennial famine seemed to reign 

 in the place. I could not help picturing to myself the 

 very different aspect this fertile tract of country would 

 wear if it were peopled by a few families of agricultural 

 settlers from Northern Europe. 



Although the meadows were unproductive ground to 

 a Naturalist, the woods on their borders teemed with 

 life : the number and variety of curious insects of all 

 orders which occurred here was quite wonderful. The 

 belt of forest was intersected by numerous pathways 

 leading from one settler's house to another. The 

 ground was moist, but the trees were not so lofty or 

 their crowns so densely packed together as in other 

 parts ; the sun's light and heat therefore had freer 

 access to the soil, and the underwood was much more 

 diversified than in the virgin forest. I never saw so 

 many kinds of dwarf palms together as here ; pretty 

 miniature species ; some not more than five feet high, 



