286 



MR. M'CULLOCH. 



I am now soriy, as I came direct, that I did not give the required receipt 

 in return for the kindness that had been shown me. 



Mr. Potter, the daguerreotypist and watchmaker, sailed in company 

 with me. We found the current of the "Negro" so slight that, with 

 our heavy boat and few men, we could make no way against a smart 

 breeze blowing up the river: we, therefore, a mile or two below Barra, 

 pulled into the shore and made fast till the wind should fall, which it 

 did about 3 p. m., when we got under way and entered the Amazon. 



Entering this river from the Negro, it appears but a tributary of the 

 latter, and it is generally so designated in Barra. If a fisherman just in 

 is asked where he is from, he will say "from the mouth of the Soli- 

 moens." It has this appearance from the Negro's flowing in a straight 

 course ; while the Solimoens makes a great bend at the junction of the 

 two rivers. 



It is very curious to see the black water of the Negro appearing in 

 large circular patches, amid the muddy waters of the Amazon, and en- 

 tirely distinct. I did not observe that the water of the Amazon was at 

 all clearer after the junction of the Negro; indeed, I thought it appeared 

 more filthy. We found one hundred and ninety-eight feet of depth in 

 the bay or large open space formed by the junction of the two rivers. 



About sixty miles below the mouth of the Rio Negro we stopped at 

 the establishment of a Scotchman, named McCulloch, situated on the 

 left bank of the river. There is a very large island opposite, which 

 reduces the river in front to about one hundred yards in width ; so that 

 the establishment seems to be situated on a creek. 



McCulloch, in partnership with Antonii, at Barra, is establishing here 

 a sugar plantation, and a mill to grind the cane. He dams, at great 

 cost of time and labor, a creek that connects a small lake with the 

 river. He will only be able to grind about six months in the year, 

 when the river is falling and the water runs from the lake into the 

 river ; but he proposes to grind with oxen when the river is rising. The 

 difference between high and low-water mark in the Amazon at this 

 point is, by actual measurement of McCulloch, forty-two feet. He works 

 with five or six hands, whom he pays a cruzado, or a quarter of a dollar 

 each, per day. There is a much greater scarcity of tapuios now than 

 formerly. Antonii, who used always to have fifty in his employ, cannot 

 now get more than ten. 



McCulloch has already planted more than thirty acres of sugar-cane 

 on a hill eighty or one hundred feet above the present level of the river. 

 It seems of tolerable quality, but much overrun with weeds, on account 

 of want of bands. I gave him a leaf from my experience, and advised 



