254 



EGAS. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Egas — Trade — Lake Coari — Mouth of Eio Negro — Barr a—Trade— -Productions. 



Egas has a population of about eight hundred inhabitants, and is the 

 largest and most thriving place above Barra. It occupies an important 

 position with regard to the trade of the river, being nearly midway be- 

 tween Barra and Loreto, (the Peruvian frontier,) and near the mouths of 

 the great rivers Jurua, Japura, and Teffe. 



There are now eight or ten commercial houses at Egas that drive a 

 tolerably brisk trade between Peru and Para, besides employing agents 

 to go into the neighboring rivers and collect from the Indians the pro- 

 ductions of the land and the water. 



Trade is carried on in schooners of between thirty and forty tons 

 burden, which commonly average five months in the round trip between 

 Egas and Para, a distance of fourteen hundred and fifty miles, with an 

 expense (consisting of pay and support of crew, with some small pro- 

 vincial and church taxes) of about one hundred and fifty dollars. M. 

 Castelnau estimates these provincial and church taxes at about thirteen 

 per cent, on the whole trade. Here is the bill of lading of such a ves- 

 sel bound down: 150 arrobas of sarsaparilla : cost at Egas, $4 the ar- 

 roba; valued in Para at from $7 to $7 50. 300 pots manteiga: cost at 

 Egas, $1 40 the pot; value in Para, $2 50 to $3 50. 200 arrobas of 

 salt fish: cost at Egas, 50 cents the arroba; value in Para, $1 to $1 25. 



Thus it appears that the cargo, which cost at Egas about thirteen 

 hundred dollars, is sold in Para, in two months, for twenty-six hundred 

 dollars. The vessel then takes in a cargo of coarse foreign goods, worth 

 there twenty-five hundred dollars, which she sells, in three months, in 

 Egas, at twenty per cent, advance on Para prices; making a profit of 

 six hundred and twenty-five dollars. This, added to the thirteen hun- 

 dred of profit on the down trip, and deducting the one hundred and 

 fifty of expenses, will give a gain of seventeen hundred and seventy-five 

 dollars in five months, which is about two hundred and seventy-five 

 dollars more than the schooner costs. 



There are five such vessels engaged in this trade, each making two 

 trips a year ; so that the value of the trade between Para and Egas 

 may be estimated at thirty-eight thousand dollars annually. Between 



