1848.] 



FRUn OF THE ASS A I PALM, 



55 



ten feet long, and very handsomely marked with yellow and 

 black slanting lines. In the wood we got some assai, and 

 made a quantity of the drink so much liked by the people 

 here, and which is very good when you are used to it. The 

 fruit grows in large bunches on the summit of a graceful palm, 

 and is about the size and colour of a sloe. On examining it, 

 a person would think that it contained nothing eatable, as 

 immediately under the skin is a hard stone. The very thin, 

 hardly perceptible pulp, between the skin and the stone, is 

 what is used. To prepare it, the fruit is soaked half an hour 

 in water, just warm enough to bear the hand in. It is next 

 rubbed and kneaded with the hands, till all the skin and pulp 

 is worn off the stones. The liquid is then poured off, and 

 strained, and is of the consistence of cream, and of a fine 

 purple colour. It is eaten with sugar and farinha ; with use 

 it becomes very agreeable to the taste, something resembling 

 nuts and cream, and is no doubt very nourishing ; it is much 

 used in Para, where it is constantly sold in the streets, and, 

 owing to the fruit ripening at different seasons, according to 

 the locality, is to be had there all the year round. 



On the east side of the river, along which we had kept in 

 our descent, there was more cultivation than on the side we 

 went up. A short distance from the shore the land rises, and 

 most of the houses are situated on the slope, with the ground 

 cleared down to the river. Some of the places are kept in 

 tolerable order, but there are numbers' of houses and cottages 

 unoccupied and in ruins, with land once cultivated, overgrown 

 with weeds and brushwood. Rubber-making and gathering 

 cacao and Brazil-nuts are better liked than the regular cultiva- 

 tion of the soil. 



In the districts we passed through, sugar, cotton, coffee, 

 and rice might be grown in any quantity and of the finest 

 quahty. The navigation is always safe and uninterrupted, and 

 the whole country is so intersected by igaripes and rivers that 

 every estate has water-carriage for its productions. But the 

 indolent disposition of the people, and the scarcity of labour, 

 will prevent the capabilities of this fine country from being 

 developed till European or North American colonies are 

 formed. There is no country in the world where people can 

 produce for themselves so many of the necessaries and luxuries 

 of life. Indian corn, rice, mandiocca, sugar, coffee, and cotton, 



