DESCENT OF THE TAPAJOS 333 



Chico Honorio, who had a larger and much better provided 

 canoe than our own. The wind was strong from below 

 all day, so we remained at this place in his company. He 

 had his wife with him, and a number of Indians, male and 

 female. ^fiWe slung our hammocks under the trees, and 

 breakfasted and dined together, our cloth being spread on 

 the sandy beach in the shade ; after killing a large quantity 

 of fish with timho, of which we had obtained a supply at 

 Itapuama. At night we were again under way with the 

 land breeze. The water was shoaly to a great distance off 

 the coast, and our canoe having the lighter draught went 

 ahead, our leadsman crying out the soundings to our com- 

 panion : the depth was only one fathom, half a mile from 

 the coast. We spent the next day (25th) at the mouth 

 of a creek called Pini, which is exactly opposite the village 

 of Boim, and on the following night advanced about 

 twelve miles. Every point of land had a long spit of sand 

 stretching one or two miles towards the middle of the river, 

 which it was necessary to double by a wide circuit. The 

 terral failed us at midnight when we were near an espera, 

 called Marai, the mouth of a shallow creek. 



Sept. 26th. — I did not like the prospect of spending the 

 whole dreary day at Marai, where it was impossible to 

 ramble ashore, the forest being utterly impervious, and 

 the land still partly under water. Besides, we had used 

 up our last stick of firewood to boil our coffee at sunrise, 

 and could not get a fresh supply at this place. So there 

 being a dead calm on the river in the morning, I gave 

 orders at ten o'clock to move out of the harbour, and try 

 with the oars to reach Paquiatuba, which was only five 

 miles distant. We had doubled the shoaly point which 

 stretches from the mouth of the creek, and were making 

 way merrily across the bay, at the head of which was the 

 port of the little settlement, when we beheld to our dis- 

 may, a few miles down the river, the signs of the violent 

 day-breeze coming down upon us — a long, rapidly advanc- 

 ing line of foam with the darkened water behind it. Our 

 men strove in vain to gain the harbour ; the wind overtook 

 us, and we cast anchor in three fathoms, with two miles of 

 shoaly water between us and the land on our lee. It came, 

 with the force of a squall : the heavy billows washing over 

 the vessel and drenching us with the spray. I did not 

 expect that our anchor would hold ; I gave out, however, 

 plenty of cable and watched the result at the prow ; Jose 



