MONTE ALEGRE. 



325 



partly in money and partly in clothes, at the rate of four dollars per 

 month. I paid the Muras, from Barra to Santarem, at the same rate. 

 The Peruvian Indians were generally paid in cotton cloth, at the rate of 

 about twelve and a half cents per day. 



We gave passage to the French Jew who had given us lodgings 

 in his house at Santarem. I had great difficulty in keeping the 

 peace between him and Potter, who had as much antipathy toward 

 each other as uneducated Frenchmen and Englishmen might be sup- 

 posed to have. 



We drifted with the current all night, and stopped in the morning at 

 a small cocoa plantation belonging to some one in Santarem. The 

 water of the river was, at this time, nearly up to the door of the house; 

 and the country seemed to be all marsh behind. I never saw a more 

 desolate, sickly-looking place; but a man who was living there with 

 his wife and six children (all strong and healthy looking) told me they 

 were never sick there. This man told me that he could readily sup- 

 port himself and his family but for the military service he was com- 

 pelled to render at Santarem, which took him away from his work and 

 his family for several months in every year. 



Thirty miles from the mouth of the Tapajos we passed the mouth of 

 a creek called Igarape Mahica, which commences close to the Tapajos. 

 We found the black waters of that river at the mouth of the creek, and 

 therefore it should be properly called a furo, or small mouth of the 

 Tapajos. 



We stopped at 9 p. m. under some high land close to the mouth of 

 a small river called Curua, on account of a heavy squall of wind and 

 rain. 



March 30. — We passed this morning the high lands on the left bank 

 of the river, among which is situated the little town of Monte Alegre. 

 This is a village of fifteen hundred inhabitants, who are principally 

 engaged in the cultivation of cocoa, the raising of cattle, and the man- 

 ufacture of earthen-ware, and drinking-cups made from gourds, which 

 they varnish and ornament with goldleaf and colors, in a neat and 

 pretty style. 



In the afternoon we crossed the river, here about four miles wide, 

 and stopped at the village of Prainha. 



Prainha is a collection of mud huts on a slight green eminence on 

 the left bank of the river, ninety miles below Santarem. The inhabit- 

 ants, numbering five hundred, employ themselves in gathering India- 

 rubber and making manteiga. The island opposite the town having a 

 lake in the centre abounding with turtle. 



