480 



PROVINCE OF SOLIMOES. 



This town was commenced upon the eastern margin and twenty-five miles 

 above the mouth of the river Paratary, from whence the Padre, Frey Joze da 

 Magdalena, removed it to the same side of the Guanama, which enters the 

 northern side of the Amazons, below the eastern arm of the Hyapura : from 

 hence the Padre, Frey Antonio de Miranda, removed it to the site of Guaraya- 

 tyba, more to the eastward upon the margin of the Amazons, eight miles below 

 the Purii, from whence it was finally removed by Frey Mauricio Moreyra to 

 its present situation. 



The islands with which the Amazons in this part is studded, were for some 

 time inhabited by Cambeva, otherwise Omagoa Indians — names which signify 

 flat heads, from the custom which the mothers had of compressing their child- 

 ren's heads between two boards, thus distinguishing them from othljer nations. 

 This custom ceasing, their descendants are at the present day unknown. 



District of Teffe. 



This comarca, situated between the river from which it is named, and the 

 Coary, that separates it from the preceding one, is nearly ninety miles in width 

 along the Amazons. The two first rivers are very considerable ; but their 

 origins are not yet ascertained, nor the number and names of their principal con- 

 fluents, which issue from the centre of the district. All accounts are equally 

 silent as to any mountains existing in the interior, while the lands in the vicinity 

 of the Amazons, although flat, are never inundated by the floods, which over- 

 flow a considerable portion of its northern margin, in consequence of being 

 lower. 



The Coary discharges itself into a bay of the Amazons, almost seven miles 

 in width, and near it the Urucuparana, and the Urauha, orCuanu, both of short 

 navigation. 



Forty miles above, the river Catua enters the Amazons, and twenty more, 

 westward, the Cayama, its margins abounding with sarsaparilla ; and, further 

 on, the small river Giticaparana, a name implying the river of potatoes. Its 

 mouth is fifteen miles below the Teffe. From the number of Christians being 

 so small, and the only persons who clear away any of the woods for the pur- 

 poses of agriculture, the country exhibits the same aspect to the navigators of 

 the Amazons at this day that was presented to its first discoverers. The 

 majestic size of various kinds of trees demonstrates the fecundity and substan- 

 tial nature of the soil. 



Ega, a middling town, well situated upon the right bank of the Teffe, is 



