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247 



treated them with great barbarity. The name of the 

 tribe is no longer known in the neighbourhood, but it is 

 probable their descendants still linger on the banks of 

 the Lower Tapajos, a traditional hatred towards the 

 Portuguese having been preserved amongst the semi- 

 civilized inhabitants to the present day. The fact of the 

 Urari poison having been in use amongst the Tapajocos 

 is curious, inasmuch as it shows there was at that time 

 communication between distant tribes along the course 

 of the main Amazons. The Indians now living on the 

 banks of the Tapajos are ignorant of the Urari, the drug 

 being prepared only by tribes which live on the rivers 

 flowing into the Upper Amazons from the north, 1200 

 miles distant from the Tapajos. 



The city of Santarem suffered greatly during the dis- 

 orders of 1835-6. According to the accounts I received, 

 it must have been just before that time a much more 

 flourishing place than it is now. There were many more 

 large proprietors, rich in slaves and cattle ; the produce 

 of cacao was greater ; and a much larger trade was done 

 with the miners of Matto Grosso, who descended the 

 Tapajos with their gold and diamonds, to exchange for 

 salt, hardware, and other heavy European goods. An 

 old Scotch gentleman, Captain Hislop, who had lived 

 here for about thirty-five years, told me that Santarem 

 was then a most delightful place to live in. Provisions 

 were abundant and cheap ; labour was easily obtained ; 

 and the greatest order, friendliness, and contentment 

 prevailed. The political squabble amongst the whites, 

 which began the troubles, ended, in this part of the 

 country, in a revolt of the Indians. At the beginning 

 of the disorders two parties were formed, one tolerant of 

 the ' Bicudos ' (long-snouts), as the Portuguese were 

 nicknamed, and supporters of the legal Brazilian Govern- 

 ment ; the other in favour of revolution, expulsion of the 

 Portuguese, and native rule. The latter co-operated with 

 a large body of rebels who had collected at a place on the 

 banks of the river, not far distant ; and on a certain day, 

 according to agreement, the town was invaded by the 

 horde of scoundrels and mistaken patriots. All the 

 Portuguese and those who befriended them, that these 

 infuriated people could lay their hands on, were brutally 

 massacred. A space filled with mounds, amongst the 

 myrtle bushes in the woods behind Santarem, now marks 



