118 AMAZONIA AND LA PLATA. 



up between the two navigable sections of the Madeira despite the labour and 

 expense involved in loading and unloading at the different portages. 



Santo Antonio on the right bank guards the lower approaches to the cataracts. 

 Lower down all the way to the Amazons, a distance of 660 miles, the only settle- 

 ments are a ie'W little hamlets, such as Crato, Humaita, and Borha. Crato has 

 succeeded another Crato which served as a place of exile for political offenders 

 under the Portuguese rule. 



Stations in the Rio Negro Basin — Manaos. 



The Rio Negro, interrupted, like the Madeira, by rapids, has scarcely more 

 inhabitants along its lower course above Manaos. Towards the close of the eigh- 

 teenth century the riverside stations of Thomar, Moreira, Barcellos, and Aijrâo had 

 acquired some importance, thanks to the enforced labour of the natives on the 

 cotton, rice, indigo, coffee, cacao, and tobacco plantations, and in the cotton spin- 

 ning and weaving factories. But this industr}^, which supplied cotton stuffs for 

 the whole of the Rio Negro basin and even for the province of Para, rested on 

 the unstable foundation of a system of practical slavery, and was ruined by a 

 change in the local administration. The Indians took refuge in the forests, and 

 the settlements Avere soon reduced to a few groups of wretched hovels. 



On the banks of the Uaupes are situated some groups of population, such as 

 Juaurité, Pcnioré, and Taraqua, which, having about 300 inhabitants each, seem 

 like veritable cities amid the surrounding wilderness. Of the so-called " towns " 

 on the Rio Negro below the Uaupes Barcellos is the largest, yet at the time of 

 Coudreau's visit in 1884 it comprised only 30 houses. But in the last centurj', 

 when it was the capital of a " captainry," it had as many as 4,000 inhabitants. 

 Most of these emigrated in 1809, when Barcellos was replaced by Manaos as the 

 centre of the administration. 



At that time the Rio Branco also contained a few large villages, such as Santa 

 Maria, Carmo, and Pesqueira Real, the very sites of which can no longer be 

 identified. They are chiefly replaced by the pleasant little town of Boa Vista on 

 the left bank below the fort of S. Joaquirti. 



Manaos, formerly Barra, or Fortalezo da Barra do Rio Negro, takes its present 

 name from a powerful Tupi tribe, who offered a stout resistance to the Portuguese 

 invaders. It occupies a considerable space on the left bank of the Amazons above 

 the level of the highest floods and about 10 miles above the Rio Negro confluence. 

 Since 1850, when it became the capital of Amazonia, it has gradually attracted to 

 itself nearly all the trade of the great river and its innumerable aflluents. Its 

 advantageous position at the converging point of the great navigable highways of 

 the Solimoes, Amazons, Rio Negro, and Madeira makes Manaos the natural 

 emporium for the produce of half Brazil. Being also accessible to deep-sea vessels, 

 it has developed a direct foreign trade since 1876; hence in recent years the 

 population has greatly increased, especially by immigration from Ceara, and 

 according to Barbosa Rodrigues, here are already concentrated half the inhabi- 

 tants of the vast province of Amazonia. Here also reside most of the foreign 



