VOYAGE TO THE RIO NEGRO 179 
coat, and at length emerged — weak and tottering, 
but still clean, white, and new to look at ; where- 
upon our Jacques moralised after this fashion. 
How is it," he said, "that almost every animal 
except man renews its youth and beauty at stated 
seasons? Birds moult their plumage — snakes 
slough their skins — even this despicable little bicho, 
the cockroach, casts off its old covering — and all 
come forth bright and beautiful as in the days of 
their youth ; but we " (casting his eyes on his 
brown wizened hand) "grow uglier and more dis- 
coloured every year, and the same skin in which 
we were born must serve unto our dying day ! " 
The Yuma was a lazy fellow, and we should not 
have missed him much, had he not taken away the 
montaria, which was very useful for fishing and 
shooting trips, and for landing at any time when it 
was impossible or inconvenient to take the larger 
boat close inshore. 
Within sight of our station at the Barreiras was 
the mouth of a considerable river, the Mauhe, upon 
which, at a distance of thirty hours' journey in a 
montaria, there stands the town of Luzea, anciently 
Aldea dos Mauhes, or Village of the Mauhe Indians. 
. . . Although Luzea was not to be found on any 
published map in 185 1, it was a place of growing 
importance, and boasted of a church and chapel, 
with a few shops and several white residents. It 
was founded by the Portuguese in 1800, with 243 
families of Mauhe and Mundrucii Indians, the 
government furnishing them with iron tools and 
building them a church. In 1803 the population 
already amounted to 1627 souls, of whom i 18 were 
whites. The progress of Luzea has been entirely 
