78 
NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
thunderstorm ; but for the last two days on board, 
and for three or four days after landing, there was 
almost continual drizzle — a break in the dry season 
such as is always expected at Santarem towards the 
end of October. I considered myself indebted to 
it for the burst of flowers on the bushes of the 
campo, of which I had not failed to profit. It was 
followed by dry sunny weather, and as I was told I 
might still expect near two months of summer, I 
resolved to put in execution a project I had formed 
at Para of visiting Obidos and the river Trombetas. 
Having obtained berths on board a batelao or 
cattle -boat, bound for Obidos and Faro, we em- 
barked on the 19th of November, and after a 
tedious voyage of nine days — the distance from 
Santarem being only 70 miles — arrived at Obidos 
towards night of the 28th. . . . Had the vege- 
tation of the south bank, along which our course 
lay, been more interesting, I would not have 
demurred at the delay, for I was able to get on 
shore every day when the vessel was anchored or 
lying to for a wind ; but nearly the whole coast, to 
a considerable breadth, was clad with plantations of 
Cacao (called cacoals in Portuguese, cacoales in 
Spanish) ; for it is in this part of the Amazon that 
Cacao cultivation is most extensively carried on. 
The cacoals either reach to the very margin of the 
river or have an intervening narrow fringe of such 
weeds, shrubby and herbaceous, as grow commonly 
on inundated river-banks. A few of these were 
new, but they were nearly all of insignificant 
aspect. 
After doubling Ponta Paricatuba — the north- 
western extremity of the island or peninsula of that 
