CHAPTER II. 



VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. 



Preparations for voyage — First day's sail — Mode of arranging money- 

 matters and remittance of collections in the interior — Loss of boat 

 — Altar do Chao — Excursion in forest — Valuable timber — Modes 

 of obtaining fish — Difficulties with crew — Arrival at Aveyros — 

 Excursions in the neighbourhood — White Cebus and habits and 

 dispositions of Cebi monkeys — Tame parrot — Missionary settle- 

 ment — Enter the River Cupari — Adventure with Anaconda — 

 Smoke-dried monkey — Boa-constrictor — Village of Mundurucii 

 Indians, and incursion of a wild tribe — Falls of the Cupari — 

 Hyacinthine macaw — Re-emerge into the broad Tapajos — Descent 

 of river to Santarem. 



June, 1852. — I will now proceed to relate the inci- 

 dents of my principal excursion up the Tapajos, which 

 I began to prepare for, after residing about six months 

 at Santarem. 



I was obliged, this time, to travel in a vessel of my 

 own ; partly because trading canoes large enough to 

 accommodate a Naturalist very seldom pass between 

 Santarem and the thinly-peopled settlements on the 

 river, and partly because I wished to explore districts at 

 my ease, far out of the ordinary track of traders. I 

 soon found a suitable canoe ; a two-masted cuberta, of 

 about six tons' burthen, strongly built of Itauba or 

 stone-wood, a timber of which all the best vessels in the 



