328 



BREVES. 



The seringeros generally work on their own account, and take their 

 collection to the nearest settlement, or to some such shop as this, to ex- 

 change it for such things as they stand in need of. 



We navigated all day, after leaving this place, through a labyrinth of 

 island channels, generally one or two hundred yards wide, and forty- 

 eight feet deep. No land is seen in threading these channels, it being 

 all covered ; and the trees and bushes seem growing out of the water. 

 Occasionally the bushes are cleared away, and one sees a shanty mounted 

 on piles in the water, the temporary residence of a seringero. At a 

 place in one of these channels, I was surprised to find one hundred and 

 ninety-two feet of water, with a rocky bottom. The lead hung in the 

 rocks, so that we had difficulty in getting it again. 



April 4. — The channels and shores are as before ; though we occa- 

 sionally see a patch of ground with a house on it. This is generally 

 surrounded with cocoa-nut trees and other palms, among which the 

 miriti is conspicuous for its beauty. This is a very tall, straight, um- 

 brella-like tree, that bears large clusters of a small nut, which is eaten. 



We arrived at Breves, on the island of Marajo, at 11 a. m. This set- 

 tlement is about two hundred miles below Gurupa. It is a depot of 

 India-rubber, and sends annually about three thousand arrobas to Para. 

 It has a church, and several shops ; and seems a busy, thriving place. 

 Below this we find the flood-tide sufficiently strong to compel us to lie 

 by, though it is but of three or four hours 1 duration. The ebb is of 

 longer duration, and stronger. 



Nearly opposite Breves, at a place called Portal, a village of sixty or 

 eighty houses, two rivers, called the Pucajash and Guanapu, empty into 

 the Amazon close together. A German, whom I met at Para, told me 

 of these rivers. I can find no mention of them in Baena's essay. My 

 German friend said that the Pucajash was a large river which came 

 down from the province of Minas Geraes, and that he had found gold 

 in its sands. According to his account, the Pucajash may be ascended 

 for eight days in a montaria (quite equal to twenty days in a river craft) 

 before the first rapids are reached. Tapuios and boats may be had at 

 Portal. The savages who inhabit the banks of the Pucajash are nearly 

 white ; go naked ; but are civil, and may be employed as hunters. 



We employed the 5th, 6th, and 7th of April in running through 

 island passages, and occasionally touching on the main stream, anchor- 

 ing during the flood-tide. 



I could keep no account of the tide in these passages. We would 

 encounter two or three different tides in three or four hours. I imagine 

 the reason of this was that some of the passages were channels proper 



