158 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III. 



establishments at Manacapurii are large and of old date, 

 shown by the number and size of the mangos and other 

 introduced fruit-trees. The houses, though spacious, 

 were now in a neglected and ruinous condition. Estu- 

 lano and I landed at one of them, and dined off roasted 

 wild hog with the owner, an uncommonly lively little 

 old man, named Feyres. The place looked dirty and 

 desolate ; the stucco and whitewash had peeled off in 

 great pieces from the walls ; the doors and window- 

 shutters were broken and off their hinges ; the dingy 

 mud-floors were covered with litter, and the cultivated 

 grounds around the house choked with weeds. The 

 hio'h bank, and with it the settlement, terminates 

 at the mouth of a narrow channel which leads to 

 a large interior lake abounding in fish, manatee, and 

 turtle. 



Beyond Manacapurii all traces of high land cease ; 

 both shores of the river, henceforward for many hundred 

 miles, are flat, except in places where the Tabatinga 

 formation appears in clayey elevations of from twenty to 

 forty feet above the line of highest water. The country 

 is so completely destitute of rocky or gravelly beds that 

 not a pebble is seen during many weeks' journey. Our 

 voyage was now very monotonous. After leaving 

 the last house at Manacapurii we travelled nineteen 

 days without seeing a human habitation, the few settlers 

 being located on the banks of inlets or lakes some dis- 

 tance from the shores of the main river. We met only 

 one vessel during the whole of the time, and this did 

 not come within hail, as it was drifting down in the 

 middle of the current in a broad part of the river two 



