BAY OF LIMOEIRO. 



329 



of the Amazon ; some of them small, independent rivers ; and some, 

 again, furos, or other outlets of these same rivers. On the morning of 

 the 7th, we were running down on the main river, here about three 

 miles wide, and with a powerful ebb-tide. Suddenly we turned to the 

 right, or southward, into a creek about forty yards wide, and with 

 twelve feet of water, and found a small tide against us. After pulling 

 up this creek an hour, we found a powerful tide in our favor, without 

 having observed that we had entered another stream ; so that from 5 

 a. m. to 3 p. m., we had had but a small tide of one hour against us. 



I could get no information from our pilot. He seems to me to say 

 directly contrary things about it. The old man is very timid, and will 

 never trust himself in the stormy waters of the main river if he can find 

 a creek, though it go a long distance about. 



The channels are so intricate that we find, at the bifurcations, bits of 

 sail cloth hung on the bushes, to guide the navigators on the route to 

 Para. Those channels which lead to Oameta, on the Tocantins, and 

 other places, are not marked. 



We passed occasionally farm houses, with mills for grinding sugar- 

 cane. The mills are as rude as those in Mainas, and I believe make 

 nothing but rum. 



At 8 p. m. on the 7th, we arrived at the mouth of the creek, 

 which debouches upon the bay of Limoeiro, a deep indentation of the 

 right bank of the Amazon, at the bottom of which is the mouth of the 

 river Tocantins. We had a stormy night, with a fresh wind from the 

 eastward, and much rain, thunder, and lightning. 



April 8. — The pilot objected to attempt the passage of the bay ; but 

 another pilot, who was waiting to take a vessel across the next day, 

 encouraged him, telling him that he would have feliz viagem. 



We pulled a mile to windward, and made sail across, steering E. S. 

 E. The wind from the northward and eastward, encountering the ebb- 

 tide which runs from the southward, soon made a sharp sea, which gave 

 us a rough passage. The canoe containing our animals and birds, 

 which was towing astern, with our crippled negro from Gurupa steering, 

 broke adrift, and I had the utmost difficulty in getting her again ; indeed 

 we took in so much water in our efforts to reach her that I thought for 

 a moment that I should have to make sail again, and abandon the 

 menagerie. - The canoe, however, would probably not have perished. 

 She was so light that she took in little water, and would have drifted 

 with the ebb-tide to some point of safety. 



We had a quick run to an island near the middle of the bay, and 

 about five miles from the shore that we sailed from. The bay on this 



