Chap. III. MENTAL TRAITS OF INDIANS. 161 



was accomplished literally by pulling our way from 

 tree to tree. When we encountered a remanso near 

 the shore we got along very pleasantly for a few 

 miles by rowing ; but this was a rare occurrence. 

 During leisure hours the Indians employed themselves 

 in sewing. Vicente was a good hand at cutting 

 out shirts and trousers, and acted as master tailor to 

 the whole party. Each had a thick steel thimble and 

 a stock of needles and thread of his own. Vicente 

 made for me a set of blue-check cotton shirts during 

 the passage. 



The goodness of these Indians, like that of most 

 others amongst whom I lived, consisted perhaps more 

 in the absence of active bad qualities, than in the pos- 

 session of good ones ; in other words, it was negative 

 rather than positive. Their phlegmatic, apathetic tem- 

 perament ; coldness of desire and deadness of feeling ; 

 want of curiosity and slowness of intellect, make the 

 Amazonian Indians very uninteresting companions any- 

 where. Their imagination is of a dull, gloomy quality, 

 and they seem never to be stirred by the emotions : — 

 love, pity, admiration, fear, wonder, joy, enthusiasm. 

 These are characteristics of the whole race. The 

 good fellowship of our Cucamas seemed to arise, not 

 from warm sympathy, but simply from the absence of 

 eager selfishness in small matters. On the morning" 

 when the favourable wind sprung up, one of the 

 crew, a lad of about seventeen years of age, was 

 absent ashore at the time of starting, having gone 

 alone in one of the montarias to gather wild fruit. 

 The sails were spread and we travelled for several 



VOL. II. M 



