PROVINCE OF SOLIMOES. 



479 



rivers issue and flow to the Amazons ; one of thera enters it eight miles above 

 the mouth of the Madeira, and the other, called Paratary, one hundred miles 

 farther to the west. Eighteen miles below the principal mouth of the Rio 

 Negro is the lake d'El Rey, near the southern margin of the Amazons. The 

 Purupuru Indians, who inhabit the central part of the country, give their chief 

 the name of Maranuxauha. 



The margins of the Amazons and the Rio Negro, upwards, are infested with 

 a small musquito, called pium, whose painful sting leaves a red mark, accom- 

 panied with insufferable itching and a disposition to ulcerate. One hundred 

 and sixty miles is about the width of this district on the northern side. 



Cratto, yet a small town, but well situated upon the margin of the Madeira, 

 a considerable distance above Borba, has a church dedicated to St. Joam Bap- 

 tista, and its inhabitants are generally Indians and Mesticoes, who collect some 

 cocoa, cloves, and sarsaparilla, with provisions of the first necessity. They catch 

 great numbers of the tortoise at the beach of Tamandoa, which they keep in 

 an enclosure in the water. It is one of the ports for canoes coming from Matto- 

 Grosso, and many circumstances concur in warranting the prediction that it 

 will become one of the principal towns of Solimoes. 



District of Coary. 



This district extends between the river from which it takes its name and 

 the principal arm of the Puru, with one hundred and twenty miles of width on 

 the northern part. The Muras possess the environs of the Amazons; the 

 Purupurus, and the Catauixis, the centre of the country, with other uncivilized 

 nations. Three channels from the Puru irrigate a portion of the eastern part 

 of this comarca in the proximity of the Amazons ; — the Cochiuara which dis- 

 charges itself twenty-five miles from the mouth of its superior ; the Coyuanna, 

 twenty miles above the preceding ; and the Arupanna, more to the westward. 

 The first gives also its name to this portion of the district; the margins of the 

 whole afford cocoa, sarsaparilla, and the oil of capivi. 



Alvellos, a small town, is situated upon a large bay, fifteen miles above the 

 mouth of the Coary, of which it formerly had the name. Its inhabitants, for 

 the main part descendants of the Uamanys, Sorimoes, Catauyseys, Jumas, 

 Irijus, Cuchiuaras, and TJayupes, collect cloves, cocoa, capivi, and sarsapa- 

 rilla, and make butter from the eggs of the Tortoise, which are very numerous ; 

 and they are also employed in making earthen-ware, mats, and in weaving- 

 cotton cloth. The ants are here particularly destructive. 



