344 



THE UPPER AMAZONS 



this word, but he showed by his expressions that he did 

 not attach the idea of a Creator to it. He seemed to think 

 it meant some deity or visible image which the whites 

 worshipped in the churches he had seen in the villages. 

 None of the Indian tribes on the Upper Amazons have an 

 idea of a Supreme Being, and consequently have no word 

 to express it in their own languages. Vicente thought 

 the river on which we were travelling encircled the whole 

 earth, and that the land was an island like those seen 

 in the stream, but larger. Here a gleam of curiosity and 

 imagination in the Indian mind is revealed : the necessity 

 of a theory of the earth and water has been felt, and a 

 theory has been suggested. In all other matters not 

 concerning the common wants of life the mind of Vicente 

 was a blank, and such I always found to be the case with 

 the Indian in his natural state. Would a community of 

 any race of men be otherwise, were they isolated for 

 centuries in a wilderness like the Amazonian Indians, 

 associated in small numbers wholly occupied in procuring 

 a mere subsistence, and without a written language, or a 

 leisured class to hand down acquired knowledge from 

 generation to generation ? 



One day a smart squall gave us a good lift onward ; 

 it came with a cold, fine, driving rain, which enveloped 

 the desolate landscape as with a mist : the forest swayed 

 and roared with the force of the gale, and flocks of birds 

 were driven about in alarm over the tree- tops. On 

 another occasion a similar squall came from an unfavour- 

 able quarter : it fell upon us quite unawares when we had 

 all our sails out to dry, and blew us broadside foremost 

 on the shore. The vessel was fairly lifted on to the tall 

 bushes which lined the banks, but we sustained no injury 

 beyond the entanglement of our rigging in the branches. 

 The days and nights usually passed in a dead calm, or 

 with light intermittent winds from up river and con- 

 sequently full against us. We landed twice a day to give 

 ourselves and the Indians a little rest and change, and 

 to cook our two meals — breakfast and dinner. There 

 was another passenger beside myself — a cautious, middle- 

 aged Portuguese, who was going to settle at Ega, where 

 he had a brother long since established. He was accom- 

 modated in the fore-cabin, or arched covering over the 

 hold. I shared the cabin-proper with Senhores Estulano 

 and Manoel, the latter a young half-caste, son-in-law to 



