ST. PAULO 



499 



inhabitants were utterly debased, the few Portuguese 

 and other immigrants having, instead of promoting in- 

 dustry, adopted the lazy mode of life of the Indians, 

 spiced with the practice of a few strong vices of their own 

 introduction. 



The head man of the village, Senhor Antonio Ribeiro, 

 half-white half-Tucuna, prepared a house for me on 

 landing, and introduced me to the principal people. The 

 summit of the hill is grassy table-land, of two or three 

 hundred acres in extent. The soil is not wholly clay, 

 but partly sand and gravel ; the village, itself, however, 

 stands chiefly on clay, and the streets therefore, after 

 heavy rains, become filled with muddy puddles. On 

 damp nights, the chorus of frogs and toads which swarm 

 in weedy back-yards, creates such a bewildering uproar, 

 that it is impossible to carry on a conversation in-doors 

 except by shouting. My house was damper even than 

 the one I occupied at Fonte Boa, and this made it ex- 

 tremely difficult to keep my collections from being spoilt 

 by mould. But the general humidity of the atmosphere 

 in this part of the river was evidently much greater than 

 it is lower down ; it appears to increase gradually in 

 ascending from the Atlantic to the Andes. It was im- 

 possible at St. Paulo to keep salt for many days in a solid 

 state, which was not the case at Ega, when the baskets 

 in which it is contained were well wrapped in leaves. Six 

 degrees further westward, namely, at the foot of the 

 Andes, the dampness of the climate of the Amazonian 

 forest region appears to reach its acme, for Poeppig 

 found at Chinchao that the most refined sugar, in a few 

 days, dissolved into syrup, and the best gunpowder be- 

 came liquid, even when enclosed in canisters. At St. 

 Paulo, refined sugar/^kept pretty well in tin boxes, and 

 I had no difficulty in keeping my gunpowder dry in 

 canisters, although a gun loaded over night could very 

 seldom be fired off in the morning. 



The principal residents at St. Paulo were the priest, 

 a white from Para, who spent his days and most of his 

 nights in gambling and rum-drinking, corrupting the 

 young fellows and setting the vilest example to the Indians ; 

 the sub-delegado, an upright, open-hearted, and loyal 

 negro, whom I have before mentioned, Senhor Jose 

 Patricio ; the Juiz de Paz, a half-caste named Geraldo, 

 and lastly, Senhor Antonio Ribeiro, who was Director of 



