EXCURSION ON THE RIO NEGRO. 



325 



passed several large lakes ; but great sheets of water so 

 abound here that they are nameless, and hardly attract 

 attention. The vegetation also is different from that of 

 the Amazons. As yet we have seen few palms ; and the 

 forest is characterized by a great number of trees, the 

 summits of which are evenly and gently arched, forming 

 flattened domes. The most remarkable of these, on ac- 

 count of its lofty height and spreading foliage, is the 

 Sumaum^ra, to which I have alluded before. But this 

 Timbrella-like mode of growth is by no means confined 

 to one tree, but, like the buttressed trunks, characterizes 

 a number of Brazilian trees. It is, however, more frequent 

 here than we have seen it elsewhere. The shores seem 

 very scantily inhabited ; indeed, during our whole journey 

 yesterday, we met but one canoe, which we hailed, in order 

 to inquire our distance from the little hamlet of Taua 

 P^assu, where we meant to drop anchor for the night. 

 It was the boat of an Indian family going down the 

 river. We were reminded that we were leaving inhab- 

 ited regions, for the man who was rowing was quite 

 naked ; his wife and children peeped out from under the 

 tolda in the stern of the boat. We received from them 

 the welcome intelligence that we were not far from our 

 destination, where we accordingly arrived soon after night- 

 fall. At this hour we could form but little idea of the ap- 

 pearance of the place ; yet, by the moonlight, we could see 

 that its few houses (some eight or ten, perhaps) stood on a 

 crescent-shaped terrace, formed by the bank of a little bay 

 which puts in just at this point. The gentlemen went on 

 shore, and brought back the padre of the village to tea. 

 He seems a man of a good deal of intelligence, and was 

 eloquent upon the salubrity of the village, its freedom 



