TO THE AMAZON AND HOME 333 



friend with whom our friendship would never falter or 

 grow less. 



Early the following afternoon our whole party, together 

 with Senhor Caripe, started on the steamer. It took us a 

 little over twelve hours' swift steaming to run down to 

 the mouth of the river on the upper course of which our 

 progress had been so slow and painful; from source to 

 mouth, according to our itinerary and to Lyra's calcula- 

 tions, the course of the stream down which we had thus 

 come was about 1,500 kilometres in length — about 900 

 miles, perhaps nearly 1,000 miles — from its source near the 

 13th degree in the highlands to its mouth in the Madeira, 

 near the 5th degree. Next morning we were on the broad 

 sluggish current of the lower Madeira, a beautiful tropical 

 river. There were heavy rain-storms, as usual, although 

 this is supposed to be the very end of the rainy season. 

 In the afternoon we finally entered the wonderful Amazon 

 itself, the mighty river which contains one-tenth of all 

 the running water of the globe. It was miles across, 

 where we entered it; and indeed we could not tell whether 

 the farther bank, which we saw, was that of the mainland 

 or an island. We went up it until about midnight, then 

 steamed up the Rio Negro for a short distance, and at one 

 in the morning of April 30 reached Manaos. 



Manaos is a remarkable city. It is only three degrees 

 south of the equator. Sixty years ago it was a nameless 

 little collection of hovels, tenanted by a few Indians and 

 a few of the poorest class of Brazilian peasants. Now it 

 is a big, handsome modern city, with opera-house, tram- 

 ways, good hotels, fine squares and public buildings, and 

 attractive private houses. The brilliant coloring and odd 



