1850.] 



A POLITE OLD GENTLEMAN. 



139 



He owed his wealth principally to having steadily refused to 

 take goods on credit, which is the curse of this country : he 

 thus was always his own master, instead of being the slave of 

 the Barra and Para merchants, and could buy in the cheapest 

 and sell in the dearest market. With economy and a character 

 for closeness, he had accumulated some five or six thousand 

 pounds, which went on rapidly increasing, as in this country 

 living costs a man nothing, unless he drinks or gambles. He 

 trades with the Indians, takes the product in his own canoe to 

 Para, buys the articles he knows are most saleable, and gets a 

 profit of about a hundred per cent, on all the business he does. 

 It may give some insight into the state of this country to know 

 that, though this man is distinguished from almost all other 

 traders by his strict integrity and fairness, which all allow, yet 

 he is seldom spoken well of, because he does not enter into 

 the extravagance and debauchery which it is thought he can 

 well afford. 



A little further on we passed some more curious Indian 

 picture-writings on a granite rock, of which I took a sketch. 

 On the nth we reached Wanawaca, the seat of a Brazilian 

 from Pernambuco, banished to the Rio Negro for joining in 

 some insurrection. I had heard the most horrible stories of 

 this man's crimes. He had murdered the Indians, carried 

 away their wives and daughters, and committed barbarities 

 that are too disgusting to mention. Yet, as I had a letter 

 of introduction to him, and he was a friend of Senhor L., we 

 went to call upon him. I found him a mild, quiet, polite, 

 white-haired old gentleman, who received us with great civility, 

 gave us a very good breakfast, and conversed in an unusually 

 rational manner. When we had gone, Senhor L. asked me 

 if I was not surprised to see such a mild-looking man. " But," 

 said he, " these soft-spoken ones are always the worst. He is 

 a regular hypocrite, and he will stick at nothing. Among his 

 friends he will boast of his crimes, and he declares there is 

 nothing that he will not do for his own pleasure or profit." 



The next day we stayed at another village, Sao Joze, where 

 we were to leave our little vessel, and proceed in two smaller 

 ones, as the stream was now so rapid that we could not make 

 much way, and the Falls a little higher up were quite impass- 

 able for our larger canoe. Here we stayed two days, unloading 

 and loading. I found plenty to do capturing the butterflies, 



