WEATHER 



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the owner of the vessel, under whose tuition I made good 

 progress in learning the Tupi language during the voyage. 



Our men took it in turns, two at a time, to go out 

 fishing ; for which purpose we carried a spare montaria. 

 The master had brought from Barra, as provisions, 

 nothing but stale, salt pirarucu — half-rotten fish, in large, 

 thin, rusty slabs — farinha, coffee, and treacle. In these 

 voyages passengers are expected to provide for them- 

 selves, as no charge is made except for freight of the 

 heavy luggage or cargo they take with them. The 

 Portuguese and myself had brought a few luxuries, such 

 as beans, sugar, biscuits, tea, and so forth ; but we 

 found ourselves almost obliged to share them with our 

 two companions and the pilot, so that before the voyage 

 was one-third finished, the small stock of most of these 

 articles was exhausted. In return, we shared in what- 

 ever the men brought. Sometimes they were quite un- 

 successful, for fish is extremely difficult to procure in 

 the season of high water, on account of the lower lands 

 lying between the inlets and infinite chain of pools and 

 lakes being flooded from the main river, thus increasing 

 tenfold the area over which the finny population has 

 to range. On most days, however, they brought two or 

 three fine fish, and once they harpooned a manatee, or 

 Vacca marina. On this last-mentioned occasion we made 

 quite a holiday ; the canoe was stopped for six or seven 

 hours, and all turned out into the forest to help to skin 

 and cook the animal. The meat was cut into cubical 

 slabs, and each person skewered a dozen or so of these 

 on a long stick. Fires were made, and the spits stuck 

 in the ground and slanted over the flames to roast. A 

 drizzling rain fell all the time, and the ground aiound the 

 fires swarmed with stinging ants, attracted by the entrails 

 and slime which were scattered about. The meat has 

 somewhat the taste of very coarse pork ; but the fat, 

 which lies in thick layers between the lean parts, is of a 

 greenish colour, and of a disagreeable, fishy flavour. The 

 animal was a large one, measuring nearly ten feet in 

 length, and nine in girth at the broadest part. The 

 manatee is one of the few objects which excite the dull 

 wonder and curiosity of the Indians, notwithstanding 

 its commonness. The fact of its suckling its young at 

 the breast, although an aquatic animal resembling a fish, 

 seems to strike them as something very strange. The 



