92 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II. 



column of cold air up river, creating a breeze with which 

 we bounded rapidly forward. The wind in the afternoon 

 strengthened to a gale ; we carried on with one foresail 

 only, two of the men holding on to the boom to prevent 

 the whole thing from flying to pieces. The rocky coast 

 continued for about twelve miles above Ita-puama : then 

 succeeded a tract of low marshy land, which had 

 evidently been once an island whose channel of separa- 

 tion from the mainland had become silted up. The 

 island of Capitari and another group of islets succeeding 

 it, called Jacare, on the opposite side, helped also to 

 contract at this point the breadth of the river, which 

 was now not more than about three miles. The little 

 cuberta almost flew along this coast, there being no 

 perceptible current, past extensive swamps, margined 

 with thick floating grasses. At length, on rounding a 

 low point, higher land again appeared on the right bank 

 of the river, and the village of Aveyros hove in sight, in 

 the port of which we cast anchor late in the afternoon. 



Aveyros is a small settlement, containing only four- 

 teen or fifteen houses besides the church ; but it is the 

 place of residence of the authorities of a large district ; 

 the priest, Juiz de Paz, the subdelegado of police, and 

 the Captain of the Trabalhadores. The district includes 

 Pinhel, which we passed about twenty miles lower down 

 on the left bank of the river. Five miles beyond 

 Aveyros, and also on the left bank, is the missionary 

 village of Santa Cruz, comprising thirty or forty families 

 of baptised Mundurucu Indians, who are at present 

 under the management of a Capuchin Friar, and are 

 independent of the Captain of Trabalhadores of Aveyros. 



