116 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. II. 



Here we spent the night and part of the next day ; doing 

 in the morning a good five hours' work in the forest, ac- 

 companied by the owner of the place. In the afternoon 

 of the 7th we were again under way : the river makes a 

 bend to the east-north-east for a short distance above 

 Paulo Christo's establishment, it then turns abruptly to 

 the south-west, running from that direction about four 

 miles. The hilly country of the interior then com- 

 mences: the first token of it being a magnificently- 

 wooded bluff rising nearly straight from the water to 

 a height of about 250 feet. The breadth of the stream 

 hereabout was not more than sixty yards, and the forest 

 assumed a new appearance from the abundance of the 

 Urucuri palm, a species which has a noble crown of 

 broad fronds with symmetrical rigid leaflets. 



On the road, we passed a little shady inlet, at the 

 mouth of which a white-haired, wrinkle-faced old man 

 was housed in a temporary shed, washing the soil for 

 gold. He was quite alone : no one knew anything of 

 him in these parts, except that he was a Cuyabano, or 

 native of Cuyaba in the mining districts, and his little 

 boat was moored close to his rude shelter. Whatever 

 success he might have had remained a secret, for he 

 went away, after a three weeks' stay in the place, with- 

 out communicating with any one. 



We reached, in the evening, the house of the last 

 civilised settler on the river, Senhor Joao Aracu, a wiry, 

 active fellow and capital hunter, whom I wished to 

 make a friend of and persuade to accompany me to 

 the Mundurucu village and the falls of the Cupari, some 

 forty miles further up the river. 



