296 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS 



My men slept ashore, and on their coming aboard in 

 the morning Pinto was drunk and insolent. According 

 to Jose, who had kept himself sober, and was alarmed at 

 the other's violent conduct, the owner of the house and 

 Pinto had spent the greater part of the night together, 

 drinking aguardente de beiju, — a spirit distilled from the 

 mandioca root. We knew nothing of the antecedents of 

 this man, who was a tall, strong, self-willed fellow, and it 

 began to dawn on us that this was not a very safe travelling 

 companion in a wild country like this. I thought it better 

 now to make the best of our way to the next settlement, 

 Aveyros, and get rid of him. Our course to-day lay along 

 a high, rocky coast, which extended without a break for 

 about eight miles. The height of the perpendicular rocks 

 was from loo to 150 feet ; ferns and flowering shrubs 

 grew in the crevices, and the summit supported a luxuri- 

 ant growth of forest, like the rest of the river banks. The 

 waves beat with loud roar at the foot of these inhospitable 

 barriers. At two p.m. we passed the mouth of a small 

 picturesque harbour, formed by a gap in the precipitous 

 coast. Several families have there settled ; the place 

 is called Ita-puama, or * standing rock from a remark- 

 able isolated cliff, which stands erect at the entrance to 

 the little haven. A short distance beyond Ita-puama we 

 found ourselves opposite to the village of Pinhel, which 

 is perched, like Boim, on high ground, on the western side 

 of the river. The stream is here from six to seven miles 

 wide. A line of low islets extends in front of Pinhel, and 

 a little further to the south is a larger island, called 

 Capitari, v/hich lies nearly in the middle of the river. 



June 2yd. — The wind freshened at ten o'clock in the 

 morning of the 23rd. A thick black cloud then began 

 to spread itself over the sky a long way down the river ; 

 the storm which it portended, however, did not reach us, 

 as the dark threatening mass crossed from east to west, 

 and the only effect it had was to impel a column of cold 

 air up river, creating a breeze with which we bounded 

 rapidly forward. The wind in the afternoon strengthened 

 to a gale ; we carried on with one foresail only, two of the 

 men holding on to the boom to prevent the whole thing 

 from flying to pieces. The rocky coast continued for 

 about twelve miles above Ita-puama : then succeeded a 

 tract of low marshy land, which had evidently been once 

 an island whose channel of separation from the mainland 



