3o8 VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS 



been compatible with the other objects I had in view. 

 But to perform this journey a Ughter canoe than mine 

 would have been necessary, and six or eight Indian 

 paddlers, which in my case it was utterly impossible 

 to obtain. There would be, however, an opportunity of 

 seeing this fine race of people on the Cupari, as a horde 

 was located towards the head waters of this stream. The 

 distance from Aveyros to the last civilized settlement 

 on the Tapajos, Itaituba, is about forty miles. The falls 

 commence a short distance beyond this place. Ten for- 

 midable cataracts or rapids then succeed each other at 

 intervals of a few miles : the chief of which are the Coaita, 

 the Bubure, the Salto Grande about thirty feet high, 

 and the Montanha. The canoes of Cuyaba tradesmen 

 which descend annually to Santarem are obliged to be 

 unloaded at each of these, and the cargoes carried by 

 land -on the backs of Indians, whilst the empty vessels 

 are dragged by ropes over the obstructions. The Cupari 

 was described to me as flowing through a rich moist 

 clayey valley, covered with forests and abounding in 

 game ; whilst the banks of the Tapajos beyond Aveyros 

 were barren sandy campos, with ranges of naked or 

 scantily-wooded hills, forming a kind of country which 

 I had always found very unproductive in Natural History 

 objects in the dry season which had now set in. 



We entered the mouth of the Cupari on the evening 

 of the following day (August 3rd). It was not more 

 than 100 yards wide, but very deep : we found no bottom 

 in the middle with a line of eight fathoms. The banks 

 were gloriously wooded ; the familiar foliage of the cacao 

 growing abundantly amongst the mass of other trees 

 reminding me of the forests of the main Amazons. We 

 rowed for five or six miles, generally in a south-easterly 

 direction although the river had many abrupt bends, 

 and stopped for the night at a settler's house situated 

 on a high bank and accessible only by a flight of rude 

 wooden steps fixed in the clayey slope. The owners were 

 two brothers, half-breeds, who with their families shared 

 the large roomy dwelling ; one of them was a blacksmith, 

 and we found him working with two Indian lads at his 

 forge, in an open shed under the shade of mango trees. 

 They were the sons of a Portuguese immigrant who had 

 settled here forty years previously and married a Mun- 

 durucu woman. He must have been a far more industri- 



