TRAVELS 



AMAZON AND RIO NEGRO. 



CHAPTER L 



PARA. 



Arrival at Para — Appearance of the City and its Environs — The 

 Inhabitants and their Costume — Vegetation — Sensitive Plants — 

 Lizards — Ants and other Insects — Birds — Chmate — Food of the 

 Inhabitants. 



T was on the morning of the 26th of May, 1848, that 

 after a short passage of twenty-nine days from Liver- 

 pool, we came to anchor opposite the southern 

 entrance to the River Amazon, and obtained our 

 first view of South America. In the afternoon the pilot came 

 on board, an^ the next morning we sailed with a fair wind up 

 the river, which for fifty miles could only be distinguished from 

 the ocean by its calmness and discoloured water, the northern 

 shore being invisible, and the southern at a distance of ten or 

 twelve miles. Early on the morning of the 28th we again 

 anchored ; and when the sun rose in a cloudless sky, the city 

 of Para, surrounded by the dense forest, and overtopped by 

 palms and plantains, greeted our sight, appearing doubly 

 beautiful from the presence of those luxuriant tropical produc- 

 tions in a state of nature, which we had so often admired in 

 th^ cpns^rvatories of Kew and Chatsworth. The canoes 



