i849.] 



VOYAGE TO SANTAREM, 



93 



the little sea formed opposite the mouth of the Tocantms, and 

 sailed up a fine stream till we entered again among islands, 

 and soon got into the narrow channel which forms the com- 

 munication between the Para and Amazon rivers. We passed 

 the little village of Breves, the trade of which consists princi- 

 pally of india-rubber, and painted basins and earthenware, very 

 brilliantly coloured. Some of our Indians went on shore while 

 we stayed for the tide, and returned rather tipsy, and with 

 several little clay teapot-looking doves, much valued higher up 

 the country. 



We proceeded for several days in those narrow channels, 

 which form a network of water — a labyrinth quite unknown, 

 except to the inhabitants of the district. We had to wait daily 

 for the tide, and then to help ourselves on by warping along 

 shore, there being no wind. A small montaria was sent on 

 ahead, with a long rope, which the Indians fastened to some 

 projecting tree or bush, and then returned with the other end 

 to the large canoe, which was pulled up by it. The rope was 

 then taken on again, and the operation repeated continually 

 till the tide turned, when we could not make way against the 

 current. In many parts of the channel I was much pleased 

 with the bright colours of the leaves, which displayed all the 

 variety of autumnal tints in England. The cause, however, was 

 different : the leaves were here budding, instead of falling. On 

 first opening they were pale reddish, then bright red, brown, 

 and lastly green; some were yellow, some ochre, and some 

 copper-colour, which, together with various shades of green, 

 produced a most beautiful appearance. 



It was about ten days after we left Para that the stream 

 began to widen out and the tide to flow into the Amazon 

 instead of into the Para river, giving us the longer ebb to make 

 way with. In about two days more we v/ere in the Amazon 

 itself, and it was with emotions of admiration and awe that we 

 gazed upon the stream of this mighty and far-famed river. 

 Our imagination wandered to its sources in the distant Andes, 

 to the Peruvian Incas of old, to the silver mountains of Potosi, 

 and the gold-seeking Spaniards and wild Indians who now 

 inhabit the country about its thousand sources. What a grand 

 idea it was to think that we now saw the accumulated waters 

 of a course of three thousand miles ; that all the streams that 

 for a length of twelve hundred miles drained from the snow- 



