Chap. IV. A FLOODED DELL. 229 



On the 23rd of May, 1850, 1 visited, in company with 

 Antonio Cardozo, the Delegado, a family of the Passe 

 tribe, who live near the head waters of the igarape, 

 which flows from the south into the TefFe, entering it 

 at Ega. The creek is more than a quarter of a mile 

 broad near the town, but a few miles inland it gradually 

 contracts, until it becomes a mere rivulet flowing 

 through a broad dell in the forest. When the river 

 rises it fills this dell ; the trunks of the lofty trees then 

 stand many feet deep in the water, and small canoes are 

 able to travel the distance of a day's journey under the 

 shade, regular paths or alleys being cut through the 

 branches and lower trees. This is the general character 

 of the country of the Upper Amazons ; a land of small 

 elevation and abruptly undulated, the hollows forming 

 narrow valleys in the dry months, and deep navigable 

 creeks in the wet months. In retired nooks on the 

 margins of these shady rivulets, a few families or small 

 hordes of aborigines still linger in nearly their primitive 

 state, the relicts of their once numerous tribes. The 

 family we intended to visit on this trip was that of 

 Pedro-uassti (Peter the Great, or Tall Peter), an old 

 chieftain or Tushatia of the Passes. 



We set out at sunrise, in a small igarite, manned by 

 six young Indian paddlers. After travelling about three 

 miles along the broad portion of the creek — which, being 

 surrounded by woods, had the appearance of a large 

 pool — we came to a part where our course seemed 

 to be stopped by an impenetrable hedge of trees and 

 bushes. We were some time before finding the en- 

 trance, but when fairly within the shades, a remarkable 



