J AC ARES SAVAGES. 



287 



CHAPTER XII, 



Jacares savages — Mouth of Beni river — Obstructions to steamboat navigation-— 

 Madeira river falls — Lighten the boat — Pot holes — Granite— Pedreneira falls 

 — Caripuna savages — Pedro milks a savage woman — Bilious fever — Arrive 

 at the foot of San Antonio falls — The impracticability of navigating by 

 steamboats the falls of the Mamore and Madeira rivers — Proposed road 

 through the territory of Brazil to Bolivia — Physical strength of the white, 

 black, and red men, compared under a tropical climate — Tamandera island — 

 Turtle eggs— Oil hunters — Borba — Mouth of the Madeira river. 



A bark canoe lay by the Bolivia shore. Our negroes blew their 

 horns, which brought four savages and a black dog to the bank. Two 

 of them wore bark frocks, and two were naked — real red men. As we 

 floated along by the current, the following conversation took place between 

 the savages and the negroes : Savage — " Oh !" Negro in the bows — 

 " Oh !" Savage — " Venha ca" — come here — very clearly pronounced. 

 We told them to come to us, and they ran away, while we paddled 

 slowly on. These Indians are of the " Jacares" tribe ; they were soon 

 paddling after us fast. We waited but a short time. Their swift canoe 

 was constructed of one piece of bark, twenty feet long, and four feet 

 beam. The bark was simply rolled up at each end, and tied with a vine 

 from the woods ; between the sides, several stretchers, four feet long, were 

 fastened to the edge of the bark by. small creepers, and a grating, made 

 of round sticks fastened together with creepers, served as a flooring, 

 which kept the bottom of the canoe in shape, when the Indian stepped 

 into her. Two young men dressed in bark dresses sat in the stern, or 

 one end, with well made paddles. On the other end sat two naked 

 women, each with a paddle lying across her lap. As they came along- 

 side, amidships sat an old chief with a basket of yuca, a bunch of plan- 

 tains, a large lump of pitch, and several small pieces of a superior qual- 

 ity, called by the Brazilians " breu." The Indians use it for securing 

 arrowheads, we find it serviceable in sealing our bottles of fish, or fixing 

 the screw to our ramrod; besides which, the old man brought one small 

 richly green parrot for sale. We bought him out with knives and fish- 

 hooks. One of the women was good looking, the figure of the other was 

 somewhat out of the usual shape. On being presented with a shaving 

 glass, they expressed great pleasure, and one after the other looked as far 



