180 VOYAGE DOWN THE KIO NEGEO. 



manner of procedure after leaving San Gabriel; for the 

 river was no longer obstructed by rocks, until far down 

 toward Barra ; and, although the current was not strong, 

 we often made one-lialf the distance at night that v/e did 

 during the day. 



At dayliglit on the morning of the 21st we came to 

 Camhosa, a dilapidated village, inhabited by a single Por- 

 tuguese lamily, that in this isolated spot of the earth, amid 

 ruin and desertion, eked out a miserable existence. We 

 procured from them some dried beef — a rare luxury in 

 these regions. We had eaten our last upon the Orinoco. 

 A little farther on, and we passed upon the opposite side, 

 to our left, a collection of eight huts, called Wanawaca. 

 Drifting all night, we reached by morning Castanheiro, a 

 nearly-deserted village, like all of the settlements on the 

 Lower Rio Negro, How strange and sad it seems in this 

 land, so greatly blessed by Nature, with a soil so produc- 

 tive that, imder the improving hand of cultivation, it 

 would smile Vv'ith plenty, to see the once populous toAvns 

 almost deserted and falling to decay, and the few remain- 

 ing people starving for want of food ! 



From San Gabriel the river had been growing more 

 picturesque, lovely islands filling the stream in countless 

 numbers, clothed with beautiful verdure in varying forms 

 and colors. The river was rapidly widening, and, when 

 the islands here and there gave way, we looked doAvn the 

 broad expanse of water until the eye rested upon the 

 blank horizon. Great beds of aquatic grass, like floating 

 meadows, went sailing down the current. Birds were 

 more frequently seen than upon the upper waters of the 

 river, still they vrcre not abundant. Parrots, which had 

 made their first appearance upon the Rio Negro near San 

 Gabriel, morning and evening, flew across the river, utter- 

 ing their hoarse cries. Guacamayas, the largest and most 

 beautiful species of the parrot family, were occasionally 



