Chap. III. RESIDENCE AT EGA. 1S1 



was half Indian himself, but was a far worse master 

 to the red-skins than the whites usually are. We 

 finished our rounds by paying our respects to a venerable 

 native merchant, Senor Romao de Oliveira, a tall, cor- 

 pulent, fine-looking old man, who received us with a 

 naive courtesy quite original in its way. He had been 

 an industrious, enterprising man in his younger days, 

 and had built a substantial range of houses and ware- 

 houses. The shrewd and able old gentleman knew 

 nothing of the world beyond the wilderness of the Soli- 

 moens and its few thousands of isolated inhabitants ; 

 yet he could converse well and sensibly, making obser- 

 vations on men and things as sagaciously as though he 

 had drawn them from long experience of life in a Euro- 

 pean capital. The semi-civilised Indians respected old 

 Romao, and he had, consequently, a great number in his 

 employ in different parts of the river : his vessels were 

 always filled quicker with produce than those of his 

 neighbours. On our leaving, he placed his house and store 

 at my disposal. This was not a piece of empty polite- 

 ness, for some time afterwards, when I wished to settle 

 for the goods I had had of him, he refused to take any 

 payment. 



I made Ega my head-quarters during the whole of 

 the time I remained on the Upper Amazons (four years 

 and a half). My excursions into the neighbouring 

 region extended sometimes as far as 300 and 400 miles 

 from the place. An account of these excursions will be 

 given in subsequent chapters ; in the intervals between 

 them I led a quiet, uneventful life in the settlement ; 



