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SANTAREM 



company of an American physician. They do not Hve 

 apart ; family ties are so strong, that all attempts to 

 induce people to separate from their leprous relatives 

 have failed ; but many believe that the malady is not 

 contagious. The disease commences with glandular 

 swellings in different parts of the body, which are suc- 

 ceeded by livid patches on the skin, and at the tips of 

 the fingers and toes. These spread, and the parts em- 

 braced by them lose their sensibility, and decay. In 

 course of time, as the frightful atrophy extends to the 

 internal organs, some vital part is affected, and the 

 sufferer dies. Some of the best families in the place are 

 tainted with leprosy ; but it falls on all races alike ; white, 

 Indian, and negro. I saw some patients who had been 

 ill of it for ten and a dozen years ; they were hideously 

 disfigured, but bore up cheerfully ; in fact, a hopeful spirit, 

 and free, generous living had been the means of retarding 

 in them the progress of the disorder ; none were ever 

 known to be cured of it. One man tried a voyage to 

 Europe, and was healed whilst there, but the malady 

 broke out again on his return. I do not know whether 

 the dry and hot soil of Santarem has anything to do with 

 the prevalence of this disease ; it is not confined to this 

 place, many cases having occurred at Para, and in other 

 provinces, but it is nowhere so rife as here ; the evil fame 

 of the settlement indeed has spread to Portugal, where 

 Santarem is known as the ' Cidade dos Lazaros or City 

 of Lepers. 



When the Portuguese first ascended the Amazons to- 

 wards the middle of the 17th century, they found the 

 banks of the Tapajos in the neighbourhood of Santarem, 

 peopled by a warlike tribe of Indians, called the Tapa- 

 jocos. From these, the river and the settlement (San- 

 tarem in the Indian language is called Tapajos), derive 

 their name. The Tapajos, however, amongst the Brazilian 

 settlers in this part, is most generally known by the 

 Portuguese name of Rio Preto, or the Black River. Ac- 

 cording to Acunna, the historian of the Teixeira expedition 

 (in 1637-9), the Tapajocos were very numerous, one village 

 alone having contained more than 500 families. Their 

 weapons were poisoned darts. Notwithstanding their 

 numbers and courage, they quickly gave way before the 

 encroaching Portuguese settlers, who are said to have 



