36o 



THE UPPER AMAZONS 



statements to the contrary that have been published by 

 travellers ; my servant ran away, and I was robbed of 

 nearly all my copper money. I was obliged then to 

 descend to Para, but returned, after finishing the examina- 

 tion of the middle part of the Lower Amazons and the 

 Tapajos, in 1855, with my Santarem assistant and better 

 provided for making collections on the upper river. This 

 second visit was in pursuit of the plan before mentioned, 

 of exploring in detail the whole valley of the Amazons, 

 which I formed in Para in the year 1 8 5 1 . 



During so long a residence I witnessed, of course, many 

 changes in the place. Some of the good friends who made 

 me welcome on my first arrival, died, and I followed their 

 remains to their last resting-place in the little rustic 

 cemetery on the borders of the surrounding forest. I 

 lived there long enough, from first to last, to see the young 

 people grow up, attended their weddings and the christen- 

 ings of their children, and, before I left, saw them old 

 married folks with numerous families. In 1850 Ega was 

 only a village, dependent on Para 1400 miles distant, as 

 the capital of the then undivided province. In 1852, 

 with the creation of the new province of the Amazons, it 

 became a city ; returned its members to the provincial 

 parliament at Barra ; had its assizes, its resident judges, 

 and rose to be the chief town of a comavca or county. A 

 year after this, namely, in 1853, steamers were introduced 

 on the Solimoens, and from 1855, one ran regularly every 

 two months between Rio Negro and Nauta in Peru, touch- 

 ing at all the villages, and accomplishing the distance in 

 ascending, about 1200 miles, in eighteen days. The trade 

 and population, however, did not increase with these 

 changes. The people became more 'civilized', that is, 

 they began to dress according to the latest Parisian fashion, 

 instead of going about in stockingless feet, wooden clogs 

 and shirt sleeves ; acquired a taste for money getting and 

 office holding ; became divided into parties, and lost part 

 of their former simplicity of manners. But the place 

 remained, when I left it in 1859, pretty nearly what it Vas 

 when I first arrived in 1850 — a semi-Indian village, with 

 much in the ways and notions of its people, more like those 

 of a small country town in Northern Europe than a South 

 American settlement. The place is healthy, and almost 

 free from insect pests ; perpetual verdure surrounds it ; 

 the soil is of marvellous fertility, even for Brazil ; the 



