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condamine's travels 



in fome places, it would be hazardous to fleep on ftiore. But a few years back the fon 

 of a Spanifli governor, whofe father we knew at Quito, on defcending this river, hav- 

 ing ventured to land, was furprifed in the woods, and maflacred by favages from the 

 interior, who by unlucky chance had ftolen as far as the banks of the river. The fadt 

 was related to us by a companion of his who efcaped the danger, and is now fettled at 

 one of the Portuguefe eftabUfhments. 



The miffionary at St. Pablo, apprifed before-hand of our coming, had prepared for 

 us a large canoe, pirogue, or brigantine, with fourteen rowers and a mafler. ?Ie 

 moreover afforded us, in another canoe, a Portuguefe for a guide ; indeed from him, 

 as well as from the whole of the monks of his order, we received courtefies which 

 made us for the time forget we were in the centre of America, five' hundred leagues 

 from countries inhabited by Europeans. At St. Pablo we firil: began to notice, in lieu 

 of ruflic chapels, and bowers for dwellings made of reeds, houfes and churches of 

 {lone, brick, and plafter, neatly whitened. We were likewife agreeably furprifed at 

 meeting here amid the deferts with native women all clad in Britany linen, coffers with 

 locks and keys, iron utenfils, needles, knives, fciffars, combs, and a variety of little 

 European articles imported hither annually by the natives, who purchafe them in barter 

 for the wild cocoa they gather on, the banks of the river, and which they tranfport to 

 Para. This commerce fpreads among thefe people a femblance of eafe and comfort which 

 at firft glance diflinguiilies the Portuguefe from the Spanifh fettlements higher up the 

 river. The latter, as the inhabitants hold no intercourfe with their neighbours down 

 the river, but draw every thing from Quito, whither they go fcarcely once in a year, 

 and from which they are effedlually as much divided by the Cordilleras as by a fea a 

 thoufand leagues in breadth, in every particular exhibit the difficulty with which the 

 conveniences of life are procured. 



The canoes in ufe among the Portuguefe, and which we employed down |he river 

 from St. Pablo, are much larger, and far more convenient, than thofe in which we 

 navigated among the Spanifli fettlements. The trunk of a tree, which conflitutes the 

 whole body of the latter, ferves only to frame the keel and bottom of thefe : in con- 

 ftrufting a vefTel of this kind, the Portuguefe firft fplit the tree, and hollow it out with 

 the axe ; they afterwards open it by means of fire to give it breadth : but as the depth 

 is confequently diminilhed by this procefs, they add planks to the fides, which are faft- 

 ened to ribs fixed in the keel-tree. The rudder in thefe canoes is fo contrived, that the 

 tiller in nowife inconveniences the cabin or little apartment fafhioned in the poop. 

 Some of thefe veffels are fixty feet long, by feven broad, and three and a half deep ; 

 while others again are much larger, and are manned with forty oars : moft of them 

 have two mafts and fails, a very material advantage on afcending the ftream under 

 favour of the eaft winds, which prevail from October to May. About four or five 

 years ago, one of thefe brigantines of moderate fize, decked over, and manned by a 

 French trader and three mariners of the fame nation, to the great aftonifhment of the 

 inhabitants of Para, ventured well out to fea, and in fix days arrived at Cayenne from 

 Para, a voyage, as will be feen, (from my following the common practice of the 

 country and coafting along fliore, as beft fuited the object I had of taking a chart of 

 the coaft,) which I was two months in completing. 



In five days and nights, not including about two days' halt at the intervening fettle- 

 ment of Yvirataha, Traquatuha, Paraguari, and Tefe, we completed our voyage from 

 St. Pablo to Coari. Coari is the laft of the fix fettlements of the Portuguefe Carmelite 

 mifTionaries ; the five firft have rifen out of the wreck of the eftablifliment anciently 

 formed by Father Samuel Fritz, and compofed of a variety of nations, moft of them 



emigrants 



