234 



THE LOWER AMAZONS 



years and a-half to a fuller exploration of its natural 

 productions. The results of both journies will be given 

 together in subsequent chapters of this work ; in the 

 meantime, I will proceed to give an account of Santarem 

 and the river Tapajos, whose neighbourhoods I investi- 

 gated in the years 185 1-4. 



A few words on my visit to Para in 185 1, may be 

 here introduced. I descended the river from Ega to 

 the capital, a distance of 1400 miles, in a heavily-laden 

 schooner belonging to a trader of the former place. The 

 voyage occupied no less than twenty-nine days, although 

 we were favoured by the powerful currents of the rainy 

 season. The hold of the vessel was filled with turtle oil 

 contained in large jars, the cabin was crammed with 

 Brazil nuts, and a great pile of salsaparilla, covered with 

 thatch of palm leaves, occupied the middle of the deck. 

 We had, therefore (the master and two passengers), but 

 rough accommodation, having to sleep on deck exposed 

 to the wet and stormy weather under little toldos or 

 arched shelters, arranged with mats of woven lianas and 

 maranta leaves. I awoke many a morning, with clothes 

 and bedding soaked through with the rain. With the 

 exception, however, of a slight cold at the commencement 

 I never enjoyed better health than during this journey. 

 When the wind blew from up river or oti the land, we 

 sped away at a great rate ; but it was often squally from 

 those quarters, and then it was not safe to hoist the sails. 

 The weather was generally calm, a motionless mass of 

 leaden clouds covering the sky and the broad expanse 

 of waters flowing smoothly down with no other motion 

 than the ripple of the current. When the wind came 

 from below, we tacked down the stream ; sometimes it 

 blew very strong, and then the schooner, having the wind 

 abeam, laboured through the waves, shipping often heavy 

 seas which washed everything that was loose from one 

 side of the deck to the other. 



On arriving at Para, I found the once cheerful and 

 healthy city desolated by two terrible epidemics. The 

 yellow fever, which visited the place the previous year 

 (1850) for the first time since the discovery of the country, 

 still lingered, after having carried off nearly 5 per cent, 

 of the population. The number of persons who were 

 attacked, namely, three-fourths of the entire population. 



