CHAPTER XIII. 



VOYAGE DOWN THE TJO NEGRO. 



First Glimpse of Portuguese Civilization.— Climate. — Cross the Equator. — 

 Cataracts of San Gabriel.— Grand Scenery.— Desertion of Guide.— 

 India-Eubber Manufacture.— Christmas ou the Kio Negro.— Floating 

 at Night.— Beauty of the Southern Firmament. — Lost on the Eiver. — 

 Barcellos. — Geology of the Kio Negro. — Desolation of the Kiver. — 

 Eeach Manaos.— Tidings from the Quitouian Party of our Expedition.— 

 Farewell to the Eio Negro. 



Soon after leaving the borders of Venezuela, the Rio 

 Nesrro widens to half a league in breadth. We were now 

 floating through another country, yet our surroundings 

 would scarcely reveal to us that we had passed from a 

 republic to an empire. Still, some things tell us of a change. 

 We hear a new language, the Portuguese, and reckon in a 

 new currency. We no longer estimate in Spanish pesos, 

 i-eales, medios, and centavos, but, to otir utter bewilder- 

 ment, must compute in milreis, petacas, vintas, and num- 

 berless other denominations which are employed in the 

 circulatory medium of Brazil. To reduce our new cur- 

 rency into Spanish, and that again into American money, 

 was a complication of difficulties which not always left us 

 with a clear conception, when change was returned, as to 

 how much we had given for the article purchased. 



On the morning of the 14th we reached Coana, where 

 we again delayed, to have our passports examined. The 

 village, of twenty scattering huts, stands upon quite an 

 eminence on the left bank. We do not see, in the Indo- 



