DEPARTURE FROM SANTAREM. 319 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Departure from Santarem — Monte Allegre — Prainha — Almeirim — Gurupa — River 

 Xingu — Great estuary of the Amazon — India-rubber country — Method of col- 

 lecting and preparing the India-rubber — Bay of Limoeiro — Arrival at Pard. 



M. Alfonse was more generous than the Tuchao, for I could do nothing 

 for him ; yet he gave me his parica, his Mundrucus gloves, and a very- 

 valuable collection of dried leaves and plants, that he had gathered 

 during his tour. 



I spent a very agreeable day with him at the country house of M. 

 Gouzennes, situated on the Igarape-assu, about three miles from Santa- 

 rem. The house is a neat little cottage, built of pise, which is nearly 

 the same thing as the large sun-dried bricks, called by the Spaniards 

 adobe, though more carefully prepared. I supposed that this house, 

 situated in the midst of a cocoa plantation, on low land, near the junc- 

 tion of two great rivers, under a tropical sun, and with a tropical vege- 

 tation, would be an unhealthy residence ; but I was assured there was 

 no sickness here. 



"We put up in earth, for transportation to the United States, plants of 

 arrow-root, ginger, manaca, and some flowers. I believe that some of 

 these reached home alive, and are now in the public garden. 



Other gentlemen were also kind and civil to me. Mr. Bates, a young 

 English entomologist, gave me a box of very beautiful butterflies ; and 

 the Vicario Geral, the foetus of a peixe-boi, preserved in spirits. Senhor 

 Pinto, the Delegado, furnished me with horses to ride; and I took most 

 of my meals with Capt. Hislop. 



An attempt was made to murder the old gentleman a few weeks be- 

 fore I arrived. Whilst sleeping in his hammock, two men rushed upon 

 him, and one of them gave him a violent blow in the breast with a 

 knife — the point of the knife, striking the breast-bone, broke or bent. 

 The robbers then seized his trunk and made off, but were so hotly pur- 

 sued by the captain's domestics, whom he had called up, that they 

 dropped their booty and fled. 



A young Englishman named Golden, who had married a Brazilian 

 lady, and was engaged in traffic on the river, was also kind to me, 

 giving me specimens of India-rubber and cotton. 



The trade of Santarem with Para is carried on in schooners of about 



