286 VOYAGE UP THE TAP A J OS 



undertaken. All travellers on the branch rivers have to 

 carry cloth, casha9a, and small wares, to exchange for 

 produce or food with the Indians ; a small quantity of 

 copper money, the only coin whose value is understood 

 amongst the remote settlers, being nevertheless necessary 

 to balance exchanges. When I had to send collections 

 down to Para to be shipped for England, which happened 

 three or four times a year, I used to arrange with any 

 trader who was dispatching a vessel to the capital with 

 produce ; the owners very often charging nothing for the 

 carriage. Sometimes I had to entrust chests full of choice 

 specimens to Indians for a voyage of thirty or forty days : 

 a word to the Pilot recommending him to keep the boxes 

 iree from damp was quite sufficient . I never suffered any 

 loss or damage. 



Our course lay due west for about twenty miles. The 

 wind increased as we neared Point Cururu, where the river 

 bends from its northern course. A vast expanse of water 

 here stretches to the west and south, and the waves, with 

 a strong breeze, run very high. As we were doubling the 

 Point, the cable which held our montaria in tow astern, 

 parted, and in endeavouring to recover the boat, without 

 which we knew it would be difficult to get ashore on many 

 parts of the coast, we were very near capsizing. We tried 

 to tack down the river ; a vain attempt with a strong 

 TDreeze and no current. Our ropes snapped, the sails 

 flew to rags, and the vessel, which we now found was 

 deficient in ballast, heeled over frightfully. Contrary to 

 Jose's advice, I ran the cuberta into a little bay, thinking 

 to cast anchor there and wait for the boat coming up with 

 the wind ; but the anchor dragged on the smooth sandy 

 bottom, and the vessel went broadside on to the rocky 

 beach. With a little dexterous management, but not 

 until after we had sustained some severe bumps, we 

 managed to get out of this difficulty, clearing the rocky 

 point at a close shave with our jib-sail. Soon after we 

 drifted into the smooth water of a sheltered bay which 

 leads to the charmingly situated village of Altar do Chao ; 

 and we were obliged to give up our attempt to recover 

 the montaria. 



The little settlement, Altar do Chao— altar of the 

 ground, or Earth altar — owes its singular name to the 

 existence at the entrance to the harbour of one of those 



