146 



THE LOWER AMAZONS 



Whilst preparing for my voyage it happened fortu- 

 nately that the half-brother of Dr. Angelo Custodio, a 

 young mestizo named Joao da Cunha Correia, was about 

 starting for the Amazons on a trading expedition in his 

 own vessel, a schooner of about forty tons burthen. A 

 passage for me was soon arranged with him through the 

 intervention of Dr. Angelo, and we started on the 5 th 

 of September, 1849. I intended to stop at some village 

 on the northern shore of the Lower Amazons, where it 

 would be interesting to make collections, in order to show 

 the relations of the fauna to those of Para and the coast 

 region of Guiana. As I should have to hire a house or 

 hut 'wherever I stayed, I took all the materials for house- 

 keeping — cooking utensils, crockery, and so forth. To 

 these were added a stock of such provisions as were 

 difficult to obtain in the interior ; also ammunition, 

 chests, store boxes, a small library of natural history 

 books, and a hundredweight of copper money. I en- 

 gaged, after some trouble, a Mameluco youth to accom- 

 pany me as servant — a short, fat, yellow-faced boy named 

 Luco, whom I had already employed at Para in collecting. 

 We weighed anchor at night, and on the following day 

 found ourselves gliding along the dark-brown waters of 

 the Moju. 



Joao da Cunha, like most of his fellow-countrymen, 

 took matters very easily. He was going to be absent 

 in the interior several years, and therefore intended to 

 diverge from his route to visit his native place, Cameta, 

 and spend a few days with his friends. It seemed not 

 to matter to him that he had a cargo of merchandise, 

 vessel, and crew of twelve persons, which required an 

 economical use of time ; * pleasure first and business 

 afterwards ' appeared to be his maxim. We stayed at 

 Cameta twelve days. The chief motive for prolonging 

 the stay to this extent was a festival at the Aldeia, two 

 miles below Cameta, which was to commence on the 

 2ist, and which my friend wished to take part in. On 

 the day of the festival the schooner was sent down to 

 anchor off the Aldeia, and master and men gave them- 

 selves up to revelry. In the evening a strong breeze 

 sprang up, and orders were given to embark. We 

 scrambled down in the dark through the thickets of 

 cacao, orange, and coffee trees which clothed the high 

 bank, and, after running great risk of being swamped 



