370 The Ajstdes ajstd the Amazons. 



the " Beautiful City of the Empress." It numbers about 

 150 dusky souls, dwelliug in whitewashed, mud-plastered, 

 wattled houses of one story. Insignificant in itself. Villa 

 Bella is the outlet of a large and rich inland district, ex- 

 porting cacao, guarana (from Mauhes, a large village for 

 the Amazons, counting 800), piraracii fish, bast. Brazil-nuts, 

 tonka-beans, tobacco, coffee, caferana, copaiba-oil, hides, and 

 beef, but importing almost every necessary of life. Then 

 comes Serpa, destined to become the emporium of the Ma- 

 deira trade, built on a high bank of variegated clay, nearly 

 opposite the entrance of the great tributary, and having an 

 elevated and fertile track behind it, and a deep water-front- 

 age, where vessels might easil}^ dispense with lighters, mon- 

 tarias, etc. But wharves and piers are yet to be on the 

 Amazons. The excuse for not building them is that the 

 great difference between high and low water (fifty feet) 

 precludes their construction. We think any experienced 

 mechanic from the North could easily show that piers or 

 floating docks on the river are among the possibles, and at 

 the same time reap a fortune for himself. One is greatly 

 needed at Manaos, where sometimes twenty-five steamers 

 unload every month. 



On the left bank of the dark Rio Negro, ten miles from 

 its junction with the Amazons, stands the St. Louis of 

 Brazil, the city of Manaos. The site is admirably located 

 for either residence or commerce. It is uneven and rocky, 

 twenty feet above high-water mark. The river in front is 

 deep enough for the " Great Eastern,"* and its banks, for 

 hundreds of miles, are packed with a luxuriant forest of 

 valuable trees. The forest scene is peculiar : the palms 

 and broad-leaved plants and grasses, so abounding on the 

 Amazons, play a subordinate part on the banks of the Ne- 



* "Eighty metres at high water," said a resident; but this is probably 

 either a trope or a tropical exaggeration. 



