152 



THE LOWER AMAZONS 



voyages, that it was only the Portuguese and uneducated 

 Brazilians who deposited anything. The pure Indians 

 gave nothing, and treated the whole affair as a humbug ; 

 but they were all civilized Tapuyos. 



On the 30th, at 9 p.m., we reached a broad channel 

 called Macaco, and now left the dark, echoing Jaburu. 

 The Macaco sends off branches towards the north-west 

 coast of Marajo. Whilst waiting for the tide I went 

 ashore in the montaria with Joao da Cunha. The forest 

 was gloomy and forbidding in the extreme, the densely- 

 packed trees producing a deep shade, under which all 

 was dark and cold. There was no animal life visible — 

 vertebrate, articulate, or molluscous. At its commence- 

 ment the Macaco is about half a mile wide, and runs from 

 S.S.W. to N.N.E. ; towards the north it expands to a 

 breadth of two or three miles. It is merely a passage 

 amongst a cluster of islands, between which a glimpse 

 is occasionally obtained of the broad waters of the main 

 Amazons. A brisk wind carried us rapidly past its 

 monotonous scenery, and early in the morning of the ist 

 of October we reached the entrance of the Uituquara, 

 or the Wind-hole, which is 15 miles distant from the end 

 of the Jaburu. This is also a winding channel, 35 miles 

 in length, threading a group of islands, but it is mu::h 

 narrower than the Macaco. 



On emerging from the Uituquara on the 2nd, we all 

 went ashore : the men to fish in a small creek ; Joao da 

 Cunha and I, to shoot birds. We saw a flock of scaiet 

 and blue macaws (Macrocercus Macao) feeding on the 

 fruits of a Bacaba palm, and looking like a cluster of 

 flaunting banners beneath its dark-green crown. We 

 landed about flfty yards from the place, and crept caiti- 

 ously through the forest, but before we reached them 

 they flew oS with loud harsh screams. At a wild-fiuit 

 tree we were more successful, as my companion shot an 

 anaca (Derotypus coronatus), one of the most beautful 

 of the parrot family It is of a green colour, and has a 

 hood of feathers, red bordered with blue, at the back of 

 its head, which it can elevate or depress at pleasire. 

 The anaca is the only new- world parrot which nearly 

 resembles the cockatoo of Australia. It is found in all 

 the low lands throughout the Amazons region, but is aot 

 a common bird anywhere. Few persons succeed in taning 

 it, and I never saw one that had been taught to sp^k. 



