8S VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II. 



pression of countenance, came forth through the tangled 

 maze of bushes, armed with a long knife, with which he 

 pretended to be whittling a stick. He directed us to 

 the house of Cypriano, which was about a mile distant 

 along another forest road. The circumstance of the 

 Cafuzo coming out armed to receive visitors very much 

 astonished my companions, who talked it over at every 

 place we visited for several days afterwards ; the freest 

 and most unsuspecting welcome in these retired places 

 being always counted upon by strangers. But, as Ma- 

 noel remarked, the fellow may have been one of the 

 unpardoned rebel leaders who had settled here after 

 the recapture of Santarem in 1836, and lived in fear of 

 being enquired for by the authorities of Santarem. After 

 all our trouble we found Cypriano absent from home. 

 His house was a large one, and full of people, old and 

 young, women and children, all of whom were Indians 

 or mamelucos. Several smaller huts surrounded the 

 large dwelling, besides extensive open sheds containing 

 mandioca ovens and rude wooden mills for grinding 

 sugar-cane to make molasses. All the buildings were 

 embosomed in trees : it would be scarcely possible to 

 find a more retired nook, and an air of contentment was 

 spread over the whole establishment. Cypriano' s wife, 

 a good-looking mameluco girl, was superintending the 

 packing of farinha. Two or three old women, seated on 

 mats, were making baskets with narrow strips of bark 

 from the leaf-stalks of palms, whilst others were occu- 

 pied lining them with the broad leaves of a species of 

 maranta, and filling them afterwards with farinha, which 

 was previously measured in a rude square vessel. It 



