396 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA 



their primitive state on the banks of the Issa, 240 miles to 

 the west of Ega, within the memory of Hving persons. 

 The only large body of them now extant are located on 

 the Japura, at a place distant about 150 miles from Ega : 

 the population of this horde, however, does not exceed, 

 from what I could learn, 300 or 400 persons. I think it 

 probable that the lower part of the Japura and its extensive 

 delta lands formed the original home of this gentle tribe 

 of Indians. 



The Passes are always spoken of in this country as the 

 most advanced of all the Indian nations in the Amazons 

 region. I saw altogether about thirty individuals of the 

 tribe, and found them generally distinguishable from 

 other Indians by their lighter colour, sharper features, and 

 more open address. But these points of distinction were 

 not invariable, for I saw individuals of the Juri and Mir- 

 anha tribes from the Upper Japura ; of the Catoquinos, 

 who inhabit the banks of the Jurua, 300 miles from its 

 mouth ; and of the Tucunas of St. Paulo, who were 

 scarcely distinguishable from Passes in all the features 

 mentioned. It is remarkable that a small tribe, the 

 Caishanas, who live in the very midst of all these superior 

 tribes, are almost as debased physically and mentally 

 as the Muras, the lowest of all the Indian tribes on the 

 Amazons. Yet were they seen separately, many Caish- 

 anas could not be distinguished from Miranhas or Juris, 

 although none have such slender figures or are so frank 

 in their ways as to be mistaken for Passes. I make these 

 remarks to show that the differences between the nations 

 or tribes of Indians are not absolute, and therefore that 

 there is no ground for supposing any of them to have had 

 an origin entirely different from the rest. Under what 

 influences certain tribes, such as the Passes, have become 

 so strongly modified in mental, social, and bodily features, 

 it is hard to divine. The industrious habits, fidelity, and 

 mildness of dispositio^l of the Passes, their docility and, 

 it may be added, their personal beauty, especially of the 

 children and women, made them from the first very 

 attractive to the Portuguese colonists. They were, conse- 

 quently, enticed in great number from their villages and 

 brought to Barra and other settlements of the whites. 

 The wives of governors and military officers from Europe 

 were always eager to obtain children for domestic ser- 

 vants : the girls being taught to sew, cook, weave ham- 



