122 WANDERINGS IX SOUTH AMERICA. 



They are in vast abundance on those parts of it free from 

 water, and are formed of an exceedingly hard yellow clay. 

 They rise eight or ten feet from the ground, in a spiral 

 form, impenetrable to the rain, and strong enough to defy 

 the severest tornado. 



The wourali-poison, procured in these last-mentioned 

 huts, seemed very good, and proved afterwards to be 

 very strong. 



There are now no more Indian settlements betwixt you 

 and the Portuguese frontiers. If you wish to visit their 

 fort, it would be advisable to send an Indian with a letter 

 from hence, and wait his return. On the present occasion 

 a very fortunate circumstance occurred. The Portuguese 

 commander had sent some Indians and soldiers to build a 

 canoe, not far from this settlement ; they had just finished 

 it, and those who did not stay with it had stopped here on 

 their return. 



The soldier who commanded the rest, said, he durst 

 not, upon any account, convey a stranger to the fort ; but 

 he added, as there were two canoes, one of them might be 

 despatched with a letter, and then we could proceed slowly 

 on in the other. 



About three hours from this settlement there is a 

 river called Pirarara ; and here the soldiers had left their 

 canoes while they were making the new one. From the 

 Pirarara you get into the river Maou, and then into the 

 Tacatou ; and just where the Tacatou falls into the Ptio 

 Branco, there stands the Portuguese frontier fort, called 

 Fort. St. Joachim. From the time of embarking in the 

 river Pirarara, it takes you four days before you reach this 

 fort. 



There was nothing very remarkable in passing down 

 these rivers. It is an open country, producing a coarse 

 grass, and interspersed with clumps of trees. The banks 



