258 The Andes and the Amazon. 



generally two-storied, are tiled, plastered, and whitewashed 

 or painted ; the popular colors are red, yellow, and blue. 

 A few have porcelain facing. The majority have elegant 

 balconies and glass windows, but not all the old projecting 

 lattice casements have disappeared. Some of the build- 

 ings bear the marks of the cannonading in the Revolution 

 of 1835. Instead of bedrooms and beds, the largest apart- 

 ments and verandahs have hooks in the wall for hammocks. 

 A carpeted, cushioned room is seldom seen, and is out of 

 place in the tropics. Coaches and gas are supplanting ox- 

 carts and candles. There are two hotels, but scant accom- 

 modations for travelers. Beef is almost the only meat 

 used ; the fish are poor and dear ; the oysters are horrible. 

 Bananas, oranges, and coffee are the best native produc- 

 tions on the table. 



The population of Para is thirty-five thousand, or double 

 what it was when Wallace and Bates entered it twenty 

 years ago. It is the largest city on the largest river in the 

 world, and the capital of a province ten times the size of 

 New York State. The enterprising, wealthy class consists 

 of Portuguese and pure Brazilians, with a few English, 

 Germans, French, and North Americans. The multitude is 

 an amalgamation of Portuguese, Indian, and Negro. The 

 diversity of races, and the mingled dialects of the Ama- 

 zon and Europe, make an attractive street scene. Side by 

 side we see the corpulent Brazilian planter, the swarthy 

 Portuguese trader, the merry Negro porter, and the apa- 

 thetic Indian boatman. Some of the more recent off- 

 spring are dressed a la Adam before the fall; numbers 

 wear only a shirt or skirt ; the negro girls who go about 

 the streets with trays of sweetmeats, on their heads are 

 loosely yet prettily dressed in pure white, with massive 

 gilded chains and earrings; but the middle and upper 

 classes generally follow Paris fashions. The mechanic 



