192 



THE LOWER AMAZONS 



of the English Penny Magazine ; most of them, however, 

 were translations of romances chiefly French. They cir- 

 culated freely amongst the many readers at Villa Nova. 

 At the time of my visit Uncle Tom's Cabin, translated 

 into Portuguese, was a great favourite. I found a love 

 of reading not at all uncommon amongst the better sort 

 of people in the towns and villages on the Amazons ; it 

 seems natural to the climate, and is promoted by the 

 occupation being well suited to the hot and 3azy hours 

 of mid-day. It is a pity the Portuguese language, on 

 account of the poverty of its modern literature, is so 

 poor a medium for acquiring knowledge, and that books 

 are so scarce in Northern Brazil, otherwise the Amazonian 

 people would not be condemned to the wretchedly narrow 

 range of information which is now generally their lot. 

 A system of popular education supported entirely by the 

 government, has been established for some time in Brazil, 

 and a primary school for boys exists in every small town 

 from Para to the frontiers of the Em.pire. Padre Tor- 

 quato was the schoolmaster, as well as the priest at Villa 

 Nova. He had about thirty scholars, who were of all 

 shades of colour, from the negro and Indian to the pure 

 white. The schoolmasters, as mentioned in a former 

 chapter, receive the same amount of salary as the priests, 

 namely, 600 milreis, or about 70/. a year ; but they are 

 entitled to a bonus if the - number of scholars exceeds a 

 certain limit. In some of the larger villages, schools for 

 girls have also been established. It is very desirable 

 that these should be well supported, for the future ad- 

 vancement of the Brazilian people towards a better social 

 condition depends in a great measure on the improvement 

 in the education of their women. 



Villa Nova, like most places on the main Amazons, 

 is very healthy ; it is considerably m^ore so than Santarem, 

 where the climate is much drier and hotter, or the regions 

 further west, where the air is sultry and stagnant. The 

 cool and invigorating east wind becomes neutralized be- 

 fore reaching the Rio Negro, but at Villa Nova, in average 

 season? it blows daily, with the exception of a few weeks' 

 interval in November, from the beginning of September 

 to the end of January. The river, here about two and 

 a half miles broad, makes a bold sweep of ten or twelve 

 miles free of islands, the blue ridge of the Parentins ter- 

 minating the prospect down stream. The broad, rapidly 



