RIVER SCENERY 



497 



We had on board, amongst our deck-passengers, a 

 middle-aged Indian, of the Juri tribe ; a short, thick- 

 set man, with features resembUng much those of the 

 late Daniel O'Connell. His name was Caracara-i (Black 

 Eagle), and his countenance seemed permanently twisted 

 into a grim smile, the effect of which was heightened by 

 the tattooed marks — a blue rim to the mouth, with a 

 diagonal pointed streak from each corner towards the ear. 

 He was dressed in European style — black hat, coat, and 

 trousers — looking very uncomfortable in the dreadful 

 heat which, it is unnecessary to say, exists on board a 

 steamer, under a vertical sun, during mid-day hours. 

 This Indian was a man of steady resolution, ambitious 

 and enterprising ; very rare qualities in the race to which 

 he belonged, weakness of resolution being one of the 

 fundamental defects in the Indian character. He was 

 now on his return home to the banks of the Issa from 

 Para, whither he had been to sell a large quantity of 

 salsaparilla that he had collected, with the help of a 

 number of Indians, whom he induces, or forces, to work 

 for him. One naturally feels inclined to know what ideas 

 such a favourable specimen of the Indian race may have 

 acquired after so much experience amongst civilized scenes. 

 On conversing with our fellow-passenger, I was greatly 

 disappointed in him ; he had seen nothing, and thought 

 of nothing, beyond what concerned bis little trading 

 speculation, his mind being, evidently, what it had been 

 before, with regard to all higher subjects or general ideas, 

 a blank. The dull, mean, practical way of thinking of 

 the Amazonian Indians, and the absence of curiosity and 

 speculative thought which seems to be organic or con- 

 firmed in their character, although they are improvable 

 to a certain extent, make them, like common-place people 

 everywhere, most uninteresting companions. Caracara-i 

 disembarked at Tunantins with his cargo, which consisted 

 of a considerable number of packages of European wares. 



The river scenery about the mouth of the Japura is 

 extremely grand, and was the subject of remark amongst 

 the passengers. Lieutenant Nunes gave it as his opinion, 

 that there was no diminution of width or grandeur in the 

 mighty stream up to this point, a distance of 1500 miles 

 from the Atlantic ; and yet we did not here see the two 

 shores of the river on both sides at once ; lines of islands, 

 or tracts of alluvial land, having by-channels in their 



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