226 



THE LOWER AMAZONS 



coast to the city of Barra, which lies about seven or eight 

 miles within the mouth of the river. We stopped for an 

 hour in a clean little bay, to bathe and dress, before 

 showing ourselves again among civilized people. The 

 bottom was visible at a depth of six feet, the white sand 

 taking a brownish tinge from the stained but clear water. 

 In the evening I went ashore, and was kindly received 

 by Senhor Henriques Antony, a warm-hearted Italian, 

 established here in a high position as merchant, who was 

 the never-failing friend of stray travellers. He placed 

 a couple of rooms at my disposal, and in a few hours I 

 was comfortably settled in my new quarters, sixty-four 

 days after leaving Obydos. 



The town of Barra is built on a tract of elevated, but 

 very uneven land, on the left bank of the Rio Negro, 

 and contained in 1850, about 3000 inhabitants. There 

 was originally a small fort here, erected by the Portu- 

 guese to protect their slave-hunting expeditions amongst 

 the numerous tribes of Indians which peopled the banks 

 of the river. The most distinguished and warlike of 

 these were the Manaos, who had many traits in common 

 with the Omaguas, or Cambevas, of the Upper Amazons, 

 the Mundurucus of the Tapajos, the Jurunas of the 

 Xingu, and other sections of the Tupi nation. The 

 Manaos were continually at war with the neighbouring 

 tribes, and had the custom of enslaving the prisoners 

 made during their predatory expeditions. The Portu- 

 guese disguised their slave-dealing motives under the 

 pretext of ransoming (resgatando), these captives ; indeed, 

 the term resgatar (to ransom) is still applied by the traders 

 on the Upper Amazons to the very general, but illegal, 

 practice of purchasing Indian children of the wild tribes. 

 The older inhabitants of the place remember the time 

 when many hundreds of these captives were brought down 

 by a single expedition. In 1809, Barra became the chief 

 town of the Rio Negro district ; many Portuguese and 

 Brazilians from other provinces then settled here ; 

 spacious houses and warehouses were built, and it grew, 

 in the course of thirty or forty years, to be, next to 

 Santarem, the principal settlement on the banks of the 

 Amazons. At the time of my visit it was on the decline,- 

 in consequence of the growing distrust, or increased 

 cunning, of the Indians, who once formed a numerous 



