310 TO THE AMAZON AND HOME [chap, x 



from Senhor Barboso. He was a most kind and hos- 

 pitable man, who also gave us a duck and a chicken and 

 some mandioc and six pounds of rice, and would take 

 no payment ; he lived in a roomy house with his dusky, 

 cigar-smoking vdfe and his many children. The new 

 canoe was light and roomy, and we were able to rig up 

 a low shelter under which I could lie ; I was still sick. 

 At noon we passed the mouth of a big river, the Rio 

 Branco, coming in from the left ; this was about in 

 latitude 9° 38'. Soon afterward we came to the first 

 serious rapids, the Panela. We carried the boats past, 

 ran down the empty canoes, and camped at the foot 

 in a roomy house. The doctor bought a handsome 

 trumpeter bird, very friendly and confiding, which was 

 thenceforth my canoe companion. 



We had already passed many inhabited — and a still 

 larger number of uninhabited — houses. The dwellers 

 were rubber-men, but generally they were permanent 

 settlers also, home-makers, with their wives and children. 

 Some, both of the men and women, were apparently of 

 pure negro blood, or of pure Indian or south European 

 blood ; but in the great majority all three strains were 

 mixed in varying degrees. They were most friendly, 

 courteous, and hospitable. Often they refused payment 

 for what they could afford, out of their little, to give 

 us. When they did charge, the prices were very high, 

 as was but just, for they live back of the beyond, and 

 everything costs them fabulously, save what they raise 

 themselves. The cool, bare houses of poles and palm- 

 thatch contained little except hammocks and a few 

 simple cooking-utensils ; and often a clock or sewing- 

 machine, or Winchester rifle, from our own country. 

 They often had flowers planted, including fragrant 

 roses. Their only live stock, except the dogs, were 



