338 



THE UPPER AMAZONS 



in a cuberta which was returning to Ega, the first and only- 

 town of any importance in the vast soHtudes of the 

 SoHmoens, from Santarem, whither it had been sent with 

 a cargo of turtle oil in earthenware jars. The owner, an 

 old white-haired Portuguese trader of Ega named Daniel 

 Cardozo, was then at Barra, attending the assizes as jury- 

 man, a public duty performed without remuneration, 

 which took him six weeks away from his business. He 

 was about to leave Barra himself, in a small boat, and re- 

 commended me to send forward my heavy baggage in 

 the cuberta and make the journey with him. He would 

 reach Ega, 370 miles distant from Barra, in twelve or 

 fourteen days ; whilst the large vessel would be thirty or 

 forty days on the road. I preferred, however, to go in 

 company with my luggage, looking forward to the many 

 opportunities I should have of landing and making col- 

 lections on the banks of the river. 



I shipped the collections made between Para and the Rio 

 Negro in a large cutter which was about descending to the 

 capital, and after a heavy day's work got all my chests 

 aboard the Ega canoe by eight o'clock at night. The 

 Indians were then all embarked, one of them being 

 brought dead drunk by his companions, and laid to sober 

 himself all night on the wet boards of the tombadilha. 

 The cabo, a spirited young white, named Estulano Alves 

 Carneiro, who has since risen to be a distinguished citizen 

 of the new province of the Upper Amazons, soon after gave 

 orders to get up the anchor. The men took to the oars, 

 and in a few hours we crossed the broad mouth of the Rio 

 Negro ; the night being clear, calm, and starlit, and the 

 surface of the inky waters smooth as a lake. 



When I awoke the next morning, we were progressing by 

 espia along the left bank of the Solimoens. The rainy 

 season had now set in over the region through which the 

 great river flows ; the sand-banks and all the lower lands 

 were already under water, and the tearing current, two 

 or three miles in breadth, bore along a continuous line of 

 uprooj;ed trees and islets of floating plants. The prospect 

 was most melancholy ; no sound was heard but the dull 

 murmur of the waters ; the coast along which we travelled 

 all day was encumbered every step of the way with fallen 

 trees, some of which quivered in the currents which set 

 around projecting points of land. Our old pest, the 

 Motuca, began to torment us as soon as the sun gained 



