96 



TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. 



[SeptembeTy 



Hislop's kind invitation as far as regarded dinner, but managed 

 to provide breakfast and tea for ourselves. 



The town of Santarem is pleasantly situated on a slope at 

 the mouth of the Tapajoz, with a fine sandy beach, and a little 

 hill at one end, where a mud fort commands the approach 

 from the Amazon. The houses are neat and the streets regular, 

 but, owing to there being no wheeled vehicles and but few 

 horses, they are overgrown with grass. The church is a 

 handsome building with two towers, and the houses are mostly 

 coloured white or yellow, with the doors and windows painted 

 bright green. There is no quay or wharf of any kind, every- 

 thing being landed in montarias, so that you can seldom get 

 on shore without a wet shoe and stocking. There is a fine 

 beach extending for some miles above and below the town, 

 where all the washing of the place is done, the linen being 

 beautifully bleached on the hot sand. At all hours of the day 

 are plenty of bathers, and the Negro and Indian children are 

 quite amphibious animals. At the back of the town are 

 extensive sandy campos, scattered over with myrtles, cashews, 

 and many other trees and bushes, and beyond are low hills, 

 some bare, and others covered with thick forest. 



The trade here is principally in Brazil-nuts, sarsaparilla — 

 which is the best on the Amazon, — farinha, and salt-fish, — 

 some of which articles are obtained from the Mundrucus, an 

 industrious tribe of Indians inhabiting the Tapajoz. There 

 are here, as in Para, many persons who live an idle life, entirely 

 supported by the labours of a few slaves which they have 

 inherited. The local executive government consists of a 



Commandante Militar," who has charge of the fort and a 

 dozen or two of soldiers ; the " Commandante dos trabalha- 

 dores," who superintends the Indians engaged in any public 

 service ; the " Juiz de direito," or civil and criminal judge of 

 the district ; the " Delegardo de policia," who has the 

 management of the passport office, the police, etc., the " Vi- 

 cario,'' or priest, and a few subordinate officers. In the evening 

 some of these, and a few of the principal traders, used gener- 

 ally to meet in front of Captain Hislop's house, which was in 

 an airy situation overlooking the river, where they would sit 

 and smoke, take snuff, and talk politics and law for an hour or 

 two. 



Besides the Captain, there were two Englishmen in San- 



