VOYAGE TO EGA 



337 



lashings of our sails, and caused our anchor to drag. 

 Angelo Custodio, however, seized a rope which was 

 attached to the foremast and leapt ashore ; had he not 

 done so, we should probably have been driven many 

 miles backwards up the storm-tossed river. After the 

 cloud had passed, the regular east wind began to blow, 

 and our further progress was effectually stopped for the 

 night. The next day we all went ashore, after securing 

 well the canoe, and slept from eleven o'clock till five under 

 the shade of trees. 



The distance between Point Cururu and Santarem was 

 accomplished in three days, against the same difficulties 

 of contrary and furious winds, shoaly water, and rocky 

 coasts. I was thankful at length to be safely housed, with 

 the whole of my collections, made under so many priva- 

 tions and perils, landed without the loss or damage of a 

 specimen. The men, after unloading the canoe and deliver- 

 ing it to its owner, came to receive their payment. They 

 took part in goods and part in money, and after a good 

 supper, on the night of the 7th October, shouldered their 

 bundles and set off to walk by land some eighty miles to 

 their homes. I was rather surprised at the good feeling 

 exhibited by these poor Indians at parting. Angelo 

 Custodio said that whenever I should wish to make another 

 voyage up the Tapajos, he would be always ready to serve 

 me as pilot. Alberto was undemonstrative as usual ; 

 but Ricardo, with whom I had had many sharp quarrels, 

 actually shed tears when he shook hands and bid me the 

 final * adeos 



CHAPTER X 



THE UPPER AMAZONS VOYAGE TO EGA 



I MUST now take the reader from the picturesque, hilly 

 country of the Tapajos, and its dark, streamless waters, 

 to the boundless wooded plains and yellow, turbid current 

 of the Upper Amazons or Solimoens. I will resume the 

 narrative of my first voyage up the river, which was inter- 

 rupted at the Barra of the Rio Negro in the seventh chapter 

 to make way for the description of Santarem and its 

 neighbourhood. 



I embarked at Barra on the 26th of March, 1850, three 

 years before steamers were introduced on the upper river, 



Y 



