SONGS OF CANOE-MEN 



99 



that there was no room to sleep in the cabin ; so we 

 passed the nights on deck. The captain or supercargo, 

 called in Portuguese caho, was a mameluco, named Manoel, 

 a quiet, good-humoured person, who treated me with the 

 most unatfected civility during the three days* journey. 

 The pilot was also a mameluco, named John Mendez, a 

 handsome young fellow, full of life and spirit. He had 

 on board a wire guitar or viola, as it is here called ; and 

 in the bright moonlight nights, as we lay at anchor hour 

 after hour waiting for the tide, he enlivened us all with 

 songs and music. He was on the best of terms with the 

 cabo, both sleeping in the same hammock slung between 

 the masts. I passed the nights wrapped in an old sail 

 outside the roof of the cabin. The crew, five in number, 

 were Indians and half-breeds, all of whom treated their 

 two superiors with the most amusing familiarity, yet I 

 never sailed in a better managed vessel than the St. 

 John. 



In crossing to Cameta we had to await the flood-tide 

 in a channel called Entre-as-Ilhas, which lies between 

 two islands in mid-river, and John Mendez, being in 

 good tune, gave us an extempore song, consisting of a 

 great number of verses. The crew lay about the deck 

 listening, and all joined in the chorus. Some stanzas 

 related to me, telling how I had come all the way from 

 ' Ingalaterra ' to skin monkeys and birds and catch in- 

 sects ; the last-mentioned employment of course giving 

 ample scope for fun. He passed from this to the subject 

 of political parties in Cameta ; and then, as all the hearers 

 were Cametaenses and understood the hits, there were 

 roars of laughter, some of them rolling over and over on 

 the deck, so much were they tickled. Party spirit runs 

 high at Cameta, not merely in connection with local 

 politics, but in relation to affairs of general concern, 

 such as the election of members to the Imperial ParUa- 

 ment, and so forth. This political strife is partly at- 

 tributable to the circumstance that a native of Cameta, 

 Dr. Angelo Custodio Correia, had been in almost every 

 election one of the candidates for the representation of 

 the province. I fancied these shrewd but unsophisticated 

 canoe-men saw through the absurdities attending these 

 local, contests, and hence their inclination to satirize 

 them ; they were, however, evidently partisans of Dr. 

 Angelo. The brother of Dr. Angelo, Joao Augusto 



