WINDINGS OF RIVER 



313 



versation amongst old and young, over the wood fires in 

 lonely settlements. 



August 6th and yth. — On leaving the sitio of Antonio 

 Malagueita we continued our way along the windings of 

 the river, generally in a south-east and south-south-east 

 direction but sometimes due south, for about fifteen 

 miles, when we stopped at the house of one Paulo Christo, 

 a mameluco whose acquaintance I had made at Ave5n:os. 

 Here we spent the night and part of the next day ; doing 

 in the morning a good five hours' work in the forest, ac- 

 companied by the owner of the place. In the afternoon 

 of the 7 th we were again under way ; the river makes a 

 bend to the east-north-east for a short distance above 

 Paulo Christo's establishment, it then turns abruptly to 

 the south-west, running from that direction about four 

 miles. The hilly country of the interior then commences ; 

 the first token of it being a magnificently-wooded bluff 

 rising nearly straight from the water to a height of about 

 250 feet. The breadth of the stream hereabout was not 

 more than sixty yards, and the forest assumed a new 

 appearance from the abundance of the Urucuri palm, a 

 species which has a noble crown of broad fronds with 

 symmetrical rigid leaflets. 



On the road, we passed a little shady inlet, at the mouth 

 of which a white-haired, wrinkle-faced old man was 

 housed in a temporary shed, washing the soil for gold. 

 He was quite alone : no one knew anything of him in 

 these paits, except that he was a Cuyabano, or native of 

 Cuyaba in the mining districts, and his little boat was 

 moored close to his rude shelter. Whatever success he 

 might have had remained a secret, for he went away, 

 after a three weeks' stay in the place, without communi- 

 cating with any one. 



We reached, in the evening, the house of the last civil- 

 ized settler on the river, Senhor Joao Aracu, a wiry, active 

 fellow and capital hunter, whom I wished to make a friend 

 of and persuade to accompany me to the Mundurucu 

 village and the falls of the Cupari, some forty miles further 

 up the river. 



I stayed at the sitio of Joao Aracu until the 19th, and 

 again, in descending, spent fourteen days at the same 

 place. The situation was most favourable for collecting 

 the natural products of the district. The forest was not 

 crowded with underwood, and pathways led through 



