i849.] 



ARRIVAL AT SANTAREM. 



95 



birds deposit their eggs in little hollows in the sand, and the 

 Indians say that during the heat of the day they carry water in 

 their beaks to moisten them and prevent their being roasted 

 by the glowing rays of the sun. Besides these there are divers 

 and darters in abundance, porpoises are constantly blowing in 

 every direction, and alligators are often seen slowly swimming 

 across the river. 



On the north bank of the Amazon, for about two hundred 

 miles, are ranges of low hills, which, as well as the country 

 between them, are partly bare and partly covered with brush 

 and thickets. They vary from three hundred to one thousand 

 feet high, and extend inland, being probably connected with the 

 mountains of Cayenne and Guiana. After passing them there 

 are no more hills visible from the river for more than two 

 thousand miles, till we reach the lowest ranges of the Andes : 

 they are called the Serras de Paru, and terminate in the Serras 

 de Montealegre, near the little village of Montealegre, about 

 one hundred miles below Santarem. A few other small villages 

 were passed, and here and there some Brazilian's country-house 

 or Indian's cottage, often completely buried in the forest. 

 Fishermen were sometimes seen in their canoes, and now and 

 then a large schooner passing down the middle of the river, 

 while often for a whole day we would not pass a house or see 

 a human being. The wind, too, was seldom enough for us to 

 make way against the stream, and then we had to proceed 

 by the laborious and tedious method of warping already 

 described. 



At length, after a prolonged voyage of twenty-eight days, we 

 reached Santarem, at the mouth of the river Tapajoz, whose 

 blue, transparent waters formed a most pleasing contrast to the 

 turbid stream of the Amazon. We brought letters of introduc- 

 tion to Captain Hislop, an old Scotchman settled here many 

 years. He immediately sent a servant to get a house for us, 

 which after some difficulty was done, and hospitably invited 

 us to take our meals at his table as long as we should find it 

 convenient. Our house was by no means an elegant one, 

 having mud walls and floors, and an open tiled roof, and all 

 very dusty and ruinous ; but it was the best we could get, so 

 we made ourselves contented. As we thought of going to 

 Montealegre, three days' voyage down the river, before settling 

 ourselves for any time at Santarem, we accepted Captain 



7 



