Chap. VI. ST. PAULO. 395 



otherwise the village would be almost inaccessible, 

 especially to porters of luggage and cargo, for there are 

 no means of making a circuitous road of more moderate 

 slope, the hill being steep on all sides, and surrounded 

 by dense forests and swamps. The place contains 

 about 500 inhabitants, chiefly half-castes and Indians 

 of the Tucuna and Collina tribes, who are very little 

 improved from their primitive state. The streets are 

 narrow, and in rainy weather inches deep in mud ; 

 many houses are of substantial structure, but in a 

 ruinous condition, and the place altogether presents the 

 appearance, like Fonte Boa, of having seen better days. 

 Signs of commerce, such as meet the eye at Ega, could 

 scarcely be expected in this remote spot, situate 1800 

 miles, or seven months' round voyage by sailing-vessels, 

 from Para, the nearest market for produce. A very 

 short experience showed that the inhabitants were 

 utterly debased, the few Portuguese and other immi- 

 grants having, instead of promoting industry, adopted 

 the lazy mode of life of the Indians, spiced with the 

 practice of a few strong vices of their own introduction. 

 The head man of the village, Senhor Antonio Ri- 

 beiro, half- white half-Tucuna, prepared a house for me 

 on landing, and introduced me to the principal people. 

 The summit of the hill is grassy table-land, of two or 

 three hundred acres in extent. The soil is not wholly 

 clay, but partly sand and gravel ; the village, itself, 

 however, stands chiefly on clay, and the streets there- 

 fore, after heavy rains, become filled with muddy pud- 

 dles. On damp nights, the chorus of frogs and toads 

 which swarm in weedy back-yards, creates such a be- 



