246 



A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



adjoining sketch is a portrait of my little house-maid, 

 Alexandrina, who, from her mixture of Negro and Indian 

 blood, is rather a curious illustration of the amalgamation 

 of races here. She consented yesterday, after a good deal 

 of coy demur, to have her portrait taken. Mr. Agassiz 

 wanted it especially on account of 'her extraordinary hair, 

 which, though it has lost its compact negro crinkle, and 

 acquired something of the length and texture of the Indian 

 hair, retains, nevertheless, a sort of wiry elasticity, so that, 

 when combed out, it stands off from her head in all direc- 

 tions as if electrified. In the examples of negro and Indian 

 half-breeds we have seen, the negro type seems the first to 

 yield, as if the more facile disposition of the negro, as 

 compared with the enduring tenacity of the Indian, showed 

 itself in their physical as well as their mental characteristics. 

 A few remarks, gathered from Mr. Agassiz's notes on the 

 general character of the population in this region may not 

 be without interest. 



" Two things are strongly impressed on the mind of the 

 traveller in the Upper Amazons. The necessity, in the first 

 place, of a larger population, and, secondly, of a better class 

 of whites, before any fair beginning can be made in develop- 

 ing the resources of the country ; and, as an inducement to 

 this, the importance of taking off all restraint on the navi- 

 gation of the Amazons and its tributaries, opening them to 

 the ambition and competition of other nations. Not only 

 is the white population too small for the task before it, 

 but it is no less poor in quality than meagre in numbers. 

 It presents the singular spectacle of a higher race receiving 

 the impress of a lower one, of an educated class adopting 

 the habits and sinking to the level of the savage. In the 

 towns of the Solimoens the people who pass for the white 



