154 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III. 



the assizes as juryman, a public duty performed without 

 remuneration, which took him six weeks away from his 

 business. He was about to leave Barra himself, in a 

 small boat, and recommended me to send forward my 

 heavy baggage in the cuberta and make the journey 

 with him. He would reach Ega, 370 miles distant from 

 Barra, in twelve or fourteen days ; whilst the large 

 vessel would be thirty or forty days on the road. I 

 preferred, however, to go in company with my luggage, 

 looking forward to the many opportunities I should 

 have of landing and making collections on the banks of 

 the river. 



I shipped the collections made between Para and the 

 Bio Negro in a large cutter which was about descend- 

 ing to the capital, and after a heavy day's work got all 

 my chests aboard the Ega canoe by eight o'clock at 

 night. The Indians were then all embarked, one of 

 them being brought dead drunk by his companions, and 

 laid to sober himself all night on the wet boards of the 

 tombadilha. The cabo, a spirited young white, named 

 Estulano Alves Cameiro, who has since risen to be a 

 distinguished citizen of the new province of the Upper 

 Amazons, soon after gave orders to get up the anchor. 

 The men took to the oars, and in a few hours we crossed 

 the broad mouth of the Rio Negro ; the night being 

 clear, calm, and starlit, and the surface of the inky 

 waters smooth as a lake. 



When I awoke the next morning, we were progressing 

 by espia along the left bank of the Solimoens. The 

 rainy season had now set in over the region through 

 which the great river flows ; the sand-banks and all the 



