270 



TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON, 



where do they get the fire from?*' I asked. "Oh! God 

 prepares it for them," said she ; and on my hinting that fires 

 were not often found in the forest unless Ht by human hands, 

 she at once silenced my objections by triumphantly asking 

 me, " if anything was impossible with God ? " at the same time 

 observing that perhaps I was a Protestant, and did not believe 

 in God or the Virgin. So I was obliged to give up the point ; 

 and though I assured her that Protestants did generally 

 believe in God and went to church, she replied that she did 

 not know, but had always heard to the contrary. 



At length, on the 2nd of July, we reached Para, where I 

 was kindly received by my friend Mr. C., and was glad to 

 learn that there was a vessel in port that would probably sail 

 for London in about a week. Several times on the voyage 

 down I had had fits of ague, and was still very weak and quite 

 unable to make any exertion. The yellow fever, which the 

 year before had cut off thousands of the inhabitants, still 

 attacked new-comers, and scarcely a ship was in port but had 

 a considerable portion of her crew in the hospital. The 

 weather was beautiful; the summer or dry season was just 

 commencing, vegetation was luxuriantly verdant, and the 

 bright sky and clear fresh atmosphere seemed as if they could 

 not harbour the fatal miasma which had crowded the cemetery 

 with funeral crosses, and made every dwelling in the city a 

 house of mourning. Once or twice I attempted to walk out 

 into the forest, but the exertion generally brought on shiverings 

 and sickness, so I thought it best to remain as quiet as 

 possible till the time of my departure. 



Since I had left the city it had been much improved. 

 Avenues of almond and other trees had been formed along 

 the road to Nazar^ and round the Largo de Palacio; new 

 roads and drives had been made, and some new buildings 

 erected : in other respects the city was the same. The dirty, 

 straggling, uncovered market, the carts of hacked beef, the 

 loud chanting of the Negro porters, and the good-humoured 

 smiling faces of the Indian and Negro girls selling their fruits 

 and " doces," greeted me as of old. Fowls had risen in price 

 from about 2s. to 35*. 6<f., and fruits and vegetables in about the 

 same proportion ; while in changing English money for 

 Brazilian I now got about ten per cent, less than I used, and 

 yet everybody complained of trade being very bad, and prices 



