242 ' condamine'^ travels 



, to excite the attention of a greater number of inquifitive perfons, is, neverthelefs, no 

 better fubftantiated than the other. 



On the evening 'of the 5th, I noticed, at fun-fet, that the variation of the compafs 

 was 5 1* eaft. Finding no fpot favourable to my landing, I made my obfervatipn on the 

 trunk of an uprooted tree driven by the current and fixed againfl the fhor£. We had 

 the curiofity to meafure the length of this tree, which, from the roots to the fhooting 

 of the branches, meafured eighty-four feet, and, in circumference, notwithftanding it 

 was withered and ftripped of its bark, twenty-four. By this tree, thrown in our way 

 by chance ; by the great dimenfions of the pirogues of which I have had occafion to 

 fpeak, hollowed from one fmgle trunk ; and by a table without joint, of a hard wood 

 that received an admirable polifh, from eight to nine feet long by a breadth of four and 

 a half, which we afterwards faw in the houfe of the governor of Para, fome idea may 

 be formed of the height and beauty of the timber that grows on the banks of the 

 Amazons, and many of the rivers by which its volume is increafed. 



At night-fall, on the 6th, we left the principal trunk of the Amazons, oppofite to 

 fort Para, newly ereded by the Portuguefe on the northern bank, on the ruins of an 

 old Dutch fort. There, to avoid the ftrong current at the mouth of the river Xingu, 

 which had proved deftruftive to many canoes, we entered a natural canal communicat- 

 ing with the laft-mentioned rivers. The iflands in the mouth of the Xingu, which 

 form a number of channels, prevented my meafuring by triangles its actual breadth ; 

 but as near as it can be determined by the eye, it is not lefs than a league. It is the 

 fame river which Father Acuria, from what he learnt of natives fpeaking a different 

 language to thofe now inhabiting its banks, (and here it is fit I fhould obferve, that in 

 the different tongues fpoken, rivers are often known by different names,) calls Para- 

 naiba, and Father Fritz, in his chart, Aoripana ; Xingu is the American name of a 

 village, the feat of a miffion, fome leagues up the river. It defcends, like the Topayos, 

 from the mines of Brazil ; feven or eight days' journey up this river is a catarad, 

 which, however, does not prevent its being navigable to a height, whither it requires 

 two months to fail up. Its banks abound in two fpecies of aromatic trees, the one called 

 Cuchiri, the other Puchiri. The fruit of them, about the fize of a Spanilh olive, 

 refembles in flavour the nutmeg, and, grated, is ufed as a fubftitute for that fpice. The 

 bark of the firfl has the fmell and tafte of the clove, which, by the Portuguefe, is 

 termed Cravo ; whence the French of Cayenne, by corruption, apply to the tree which 

 bears this bark the term Bois de Crabe^ or Crab-tree. Were it not for the fpices ob- 

 tained from the eaft, this would be more known in Europe. In many fpirituous 

 liquors made in Italy and England, it forms a component ingredient. 



After the union of the Xingu with the Amazons, the breadth of this is fo confider- 

 able, that but for the continued fuccelfion of great iflands which interrupt the fcan of 

 the eye, the fpeftator on the one bank would be unable to defcry that oppofite to him *. 

 At this place we found ourfelves happily entirely freed from the mufquitoes, gnats, and 

 flies of every fpecies, which had been our greatefl torment throughout the whole of 

 our voyage, a torment indeed fo intolerable, that the natives themfelves never travel 

 without a cotton awning to proteft them from their ftings during the night. At cer- 

 tain feafons one is entirely enveloped in fome parts, dpecially in the country of the 

 Omaguas, by clouds of thefe infecfts, whofe ftinging caufes- extreme itching. It is a 



* If lefs than eleven Englifh miles in^readth, the banks on one fide muft be vifible from the other, 

 allowing them to be each eighteen feet above low^ water-mark, and the eye of the obferver five feet from 

 the bank. Trans. 



well- 



