INDIANS OF THE JAPURA. 



253 



macaws ; and where the bed of the stream is choked with immense 

 rocks, which make it impassable even for a canoe. A gentleman at 

 Egas told me of an extraordinary blowing cave among these hills. * 



The Indians of the Japura are called Mirauas, (a large tribe,) Curitus, 

 and Macus. The traveller reaches them in sixteen days from the 

 mouth. The Macus have no houses, but wander in the woods ; infest 

 the river banks; and rob and kill when they can. (These are the fruits 

 of the old Brazilian system of hunting Indians to make slaves of them.) 

 The products of the Japura are the same as those of the Jurua; and, in 

 addition, a little carajum, a very brilliant scarlet dye, made of the leaves 

 of a bush called pucapanga in Peru. The Indians pack it in little bags 

 made of the inner bark of a tree, and sell at the rate of twenty-five 

 cents the pound. I am surprised that it has never found its way into 

 commerce. I think it of quite as brilliant and beautiful a color as 

 cochineal. 



I judge the width of the Amazon, opposite the mouth of the Japura, 

 to* be four or five miles. It is separated into several channels by two or 

 three islands. We camped, at half-past 6 p. m., on an island where 

 there was a hut and a patch of mandioc and Indian corn, but no people. 

 We had a clear night, (with the exception of a low belt of stratus 

 clouds around the horizon,) the first we have seen for more than a week. 



December 17. — Started at 4 a. m. It was too dark to see the upper 

 point of an island between us and the southern shore till we had passed 

 it; so that we had to pull up for an hour against the current, so as to pass 

 the head of this island and not fall below Egas. At half-past eight we 

 entered a narrow channel betwen a small island and the right bank, which 

 conducted us into the river of TefTe, about a mile inside of its mouth. 

 The river at this point is one hundred and eighty yards broad ; water 

 clear and apparently deep. Just below Egas, where we arrived at half- 

 past ten, it expands into a lake ; or, rather, the lake here contracts into 

 the river. The town is situated on a low point that stretches out into 

 the lake, and has a harbor on each side of it. The point rises into a 

 regular slope, covered with grass, to the woods behind. The lake is 

 shallow, and is sometimes, with the exception of two or three channels, 

 which have always six or eight feet of water in them, entirely dry from 

 Egas to Nogueyra, a small village on the opposite side. 



On landing we showed our passports to the sub-dele gado, an officer of 

 the general government who has charge of the police of the district, 

 and to the military commandant, and forthwith inducted ourselves into 

 the house of M. Fort, our French friend of Tabatinga, who had placed 

 it at our disposal. 



