62 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
music and dance were modified from the Landiim, 
one of the national dances of Portugal. 
On the 27th, about midday, we reached San- 
tarem, at the junction of the river Tapajoz with the 
Amazon, and came to anchor in front of Captain 
Hislop's house, which stood at the eastern ex- 
tremity of the town, on a grassy terrace sloping 
down to a broad sandy beach. At the back rose 
a morro or low rounded hill, which hid the rest 
of the town from view, and was crowned by a fort, 
for merely looking at which, in 1837, Lieutenant 
Mawe had been made prisoner, and sent down to 
Para under guard. We were cordially received by 
Mr. Hislop, who invited us to dine with him, and 
sent out to seek a house for us. We found him 
a sturdy, rosy Scotsman, who had in his younger 
days followed the sea, but had been settled on the 
Amazon no fewer than forty-five years. He had at 
one time traded extensively to Cuyaba, the capital 
of the mountainous province of Matto Grosso, which 
is reached by ascending the Tapajoz nearly to its 
source, and passing thence by a short portage to 
one of the head-streams of the Paraguay, whereon 
Cuyaba is situated. The staple produce of Cuyaba 
was diamonds and gold-dust, and Santarem could 
offer in exchange guarana, the produce of planta- 
tions in the immediate neighbourhood, and salt, 
brought from Portugal : two articles of the first 
necessity to the miners of Cuyaba, and at that time 
scarcely to be had except from Santarem. Mr. 
Hislop had for some years back nearly relinquished 
the Cuyaba trade, having suffered serious losses in 
it from the roguery of his agent and the failure of 
some of his creditors there, and now limited himself 
