274 POLITENESS OF THE COMMAND ANTE. 



naval officer, with the rank of captain of frigate, had ordered hirn to do 

 everything in his power to assist me ; the only boat fit for the service 

 in the port was a small one belonging to a citizen, whom he daily ex- 

 pected from Bolivia — my friend, Don Antonio — and it was possible we 

 could get that, and he might supply a crew from his small force of forty 

 segro soldiers. 



The commandante assured me there were no boats at the town of 

 Matto Grosso, such as are used for descending the Madeira river, and 

 the chance of getting men there was very uncertain. The voyage up 

 the Itenez, from the fort to that town, would occupy over a month, 

 I found our only hope was now vested in the kindness of this Brazilian 

 officer, and of Don Antonio, who had not yet overtaken us; but as he had 

 already promised me the boat, the commandante politely offered to have 

 her at once put in order for me. As we could swing our hamacs under 

 the guard-shed, near the river, and better attend to our preparations 

 there, the Cuyavabos moved our baggage up, and we took our quarters 

 with the negro-guard, instead of among the twenty huts inhabited by 

 black families of the station. 



The walls of the fort are built of stone, in the shape of a hollow square, 

 with diamond corners, thirty-five feet high. There are two entrances 

 on the northwest front ; one a large door-way, at which is a constant 

 sentinel, and a subterraneous passage from the inside, leading to the 

 bank, just above the annual rise of the river in the rainy season, or thirty 

 feet above its present level. The third entrance is through the south- 

 west wall, fastened by large iron-bound and double wooden doors. The 

 trenches round the walls are twenty feet deep. In walking round 

 the ramparts, I only saw two heavy iron guns mounted, which pointed 

 down the river towards the territory of Bolivia. The date over the main 

 entrance of the fort was nearly erased by the weather. We could with 

 difficulty make out " Joseph I, June 20, 1776." The commandante was 

 unable to give us much of its past history. The Portuguese engineers 

 who built it came up the Madeira river from the Amazon, bringing with 

 them a small colony, who settled here by order of the King of Portugal, 

 and, after building the fort, moved away, leaving none but the garrison 

 within its immense walls, which enclose over an acre of land. The stone 

 of which it is built was quarried near by. The magazine on the south- 

 east side, half a mile distant, also built of stone, has gone to ruin and is 

 not used. A subterraneous passage leads from the fort to it. 



The country around is low and overflowed in the wet season, with the 

 exception of three small hills in sight, to the northeast. These are 

 situated to the southwest of that ridge of mountains marked on the 



