PROVINCE OF THE AMAZONS 227 



and the sole labouring class, but having got to know that 

 the laws protected them against forced servitude, were 

 rapidly withdrawing themselves from the place. When 

 the new province of the Amazons was established, in 

 1852, Barra was chosen as the capital, and was then 

 invested with the appropriate name of the city of 

 Manaos. 



The situation of the town has many advantages ; the 

 climate is healthy ; there are no insect pests ; the soil is 

 fertile and capable of growing all kinds of tropical pro- 

 duce (the coffee of the Rio Negro, especially, being of 

 very superior quality), and it is near the fork of two 

 great navigable rivers. The imagination becomes excited 

 when one reflects on the possible future of this place, 

 situated near the centre of the equatorial part of South 

 America, in the midst of a region almost as large as 

 Europe, every inch of whose soil is of the most exube- 

 rant fertility, and having water communication on one 

 side with the Atlantic, and on the other with the Spanish 

 republics of Venezuela, New Granada, Ecuador, Peru, 

 and Bolivia. Barra is now the principal station for the 

 lines of steamers which were established in 1853, and 

 passengers and goods are transhipped here for the Soli- 

 moens and Peru. A steamer runs once a fortnight be- 

 tween Para and Barra, and a bi-monthly one plies be- 

 tween this place and Nauta in the Peruvian territory. 

 The steam-boat company is supported by a large annual 

 grant, about 50,000/. sterling, from the imperial govern- 

 ment. Barra was formerly a pleasant place of residence, 

 but it is now in a most wretched plight, suffering from 

 a chronic scarcity of the most necessary articles of food. 

 The attention of the settlers was formerly devoted almost 

 entirely to the collection of the spontaneous produce of 

 the forests and rivers ; agriculture was consequently 

 neglected, and now the neighbourhood does not produce 

 even mandioca-meal sufficient for its own consumption. 

 Many of the most necessary articles of food, besides all 

 luxuries, come from Portugal, England, and North 

 America. A few bullocks are brought now and then 

 from Obydos, 500 miles off, the nearest place where cattle 

 are reared in any numbers, and these furnish at long 

 intervals a supply of fresh beef, but this is generally 

 monopolized by the families of government officials. 

 Fowls, eggs, fresh fish, turtles, vegetables, and fruit, were 



