388 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI. 



the most industrious tribes, Shumanas, Passes, and 

 Cambevas, having settled on the site and adopted civi- 

 lised habits, their industry being directed by a few 

 whites, who seem to have been men of humane views 

 as well as enterprising traders. One of these old em- 

 ployers, Senhor Guerreiro, a well-educated Paraense, 

 was still trading on the Amazons when I left the coun- 

 try, in 1859 : he told me that forty years previously 

 Fonte Boa was a delightful place to live in. The neigh- 

 bourhood was then well cleared, and almost free from 

 mosquitoes, and the Indians were orderly, industrious, 

 and happy. What led to the ruin of the settlement was 

 the arrival of several Portuguese and Brazilian traders 

 of a low class, who in their eagerness for business taught 

 the easy-going Indians all kinds of trickery and im- 

 morality. They enticed the men and women away from 

 their old employers, and thus broke up the large 

 establishments, compelling the principals to take their 

 capital to other places. At the time of my visit there 

 were few pure-blood- Indians at Fonte Boa, and no true 

 whites. The inhabitants seemed to be nearly all mamelu- 

 cos, and were a loose-living, rustic, plain-spoken and igno- 

 rant set of people. There was no priest or schoolmaster 

 within 150 miles, and had not been any for many years: 

 the people seemed to be almost without government of 

 any kind, and yet crime and deeds of violence appeared 

 to be of very rare occurrence. The principal man of 

 the village, one Senhor Justo, was a big, coarse, ener- 

 getic fellow, sub-delegado of police, and the only trades- 

 man who owned a large vessel running directly between 

 Fonte Boa and Para. He had recently built a large 



