56 



TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. [September, 



beef, poultry, and pork, with oranges, bananas, and abundance 

 of other fruits and vegetables, thrive with little care. With 

 these articles in abundance, a house of wood, calabashes, cups 

 and pottery of the country, they may live in plenty without 

 a single exotic production. And then what advantages there 

 are in a country where there is no stoppage of agricultural 

 operations during winter, but where crops may be had, and 

 poultry be reared, all the year round ; where the least possible 

 amount of clothing is the most comfortable, and where a 

 hundred little necessaries of a cold region are altogether 

 superfluous. With regard to the climate I have said enough 

 already; and I repeat, that a man can work as well here as 

 in the hot summer months in England, and that if he will only 

 work three hours in the morning and three in the evening, he 

 will produce more of the necessaries and comforts of life than 

 by twelve hours' daily labour at home. 



Nothing more of importance occurred, and we arrived safely 

 at Para on the 30th of September, just five weeks from the 

 day we left. We had not had a wet day the whole voyage, 

 yet found to our surprise that it had been there the same as 

 usual — a shower and a thunderstorm every second or third 

 day. 



