554 MISS E. M. SHARPE ON [Junc 17' 



canoe was gaining on me, I had to cut mj way out to the river and 

 collect on the stretches of sand where I came across them, which I 

 frequently did, as the river was low. 



" On the sand I could make better time; but I could seldom 

 afford the luxury of following up any particular specimen if I 

 happened to miss it with the first stroke of my net, as I had to 

 keep up with the canoe. All this was of course a serious handicap 

 to collecting. Any damp spot on the sand was sure, at a certain 

 time of the day, to be crowded with Butterflies, and sometimes they 

 were in such vast quantities that if one got up to where tbey were 

 drinking, it was difficult to capture any particular insect without 

 getting thirty others into the net at the same time, and in their 

 struggles to get free they broke each other's wings, and you often 

 found your particular specimen utterly ruined. In these great 

 gatherings of thirsty Butterflies drinking, I always noticed twenty 

 or more of a yellow or white colour to one of any other. On the 

 Araguaya, between a small military settlement called Martyrios and 

 a larger one 200 miles further up called Santa Maria, lies the country 

 of the Caraja Indians, and collecting becomes very risky. In fact, 

 as we had to pass about ten of their large ' aldeas,' or settlemeuts on 

 the river, we had to keep together as much a* possible. When 

 after Butterflies I never troubled to carry a rifle or gun, finding 

 myself hampered enough with a cutlass; but even if I had done so, 

 I should have had a very poor chance against Indians in the forest. 



''The Indians have certainly chosen the most lovely part of the 

 river — a paradise for a naturalist ; and, in spite of the difficulties, 

 I managed to get some good specimens, but of Butterflies only, as I 

 found it impossible to collect birds or other animals, seeing that we 

 should have to leave our boat farther up and make our way 150 

 miles by land. Near Santa Maria, on the other side of the river, 

 some twenty miles inland, is a large settlement of Cayapo Indians. 

 I wanted very much indeed to go over; but the Commandant of 

 the place would not give me permission, or even let me hire a couple 

 of men to paddle me to the opposite shore, as one or two people who 

 went across some time back had been killed ; in fact, the inhabitants 

 at Santa Maria keep entirely to their own side of the river. 



" From Santa IMaria to some way past the island of Bananal (a 

 very large island, nearly 300 miles long, and said to contain its own 

 rivers and mountains) there are no white settlers, the country being 

 in the hands of another branch of the Carajas, on the west side of 

 the island. This tribe is supposed to be more 'manso,' or tame, 

 than the Carajas between Martyrio and Santa Maria, where they 

 are said to be very ' bravos,' or fierce. From what I could judge 

 (and I saw a good deal of both tribes), I would rather trust myself 

 to the latter. I got some good specimens round about the city of 

 Goyaz and on our trip down the Vermelho River ; the latter full of 

 fever and every conceivable fly that bites. 



" I had great difficulty in getting my specimens across the Ara- 

 guaya to the Upper Tocantins ; but once in the latter river, we got 

 a small canoe at a settlement, and after ascending the river for some 



