10 
SANTAEEM. 
Chap. I. 
piece. This is the war trumpet of many tribes of 
Indians, with which the sentinels of predatory hordes, 
mounted on a lofty tree, give the signal for attack to 
their comrades. Those Brazilians who are old enough 
to remember the times of warfare between Indians and 
settlers, retain a great horror of the ture, its loud harsh 
note heard in the dead of the night having been often 
the prelude to an onslaught of bloodthirsty Muras on 
the outlying settlements. The rest of the men in the 
procession carried bows and arrows, bunches of javelins, 
clubs, and paddles. The older children brought with 
them the household pets ; some had monkeys or coatis on 
their shoulders, and others bore tortoises on their heads. 
The squaws carried their babies- in aturas, or large 
baskets, slung on their backs, and secured with a broad 
belt of bast over their foreheads. The whole thing was 
^accurate in its representation of Indian life, and showed 
more ingenuity than some people give the Brazilian red 
man credit for. It was got up spontaneously by the 
Indians, and simply to amuse the people of the place. 
The entire produce in cacao, salt fish, and other articles 
of a very large district, passes through the hands of the 
Santarem merchants, and a large trade, for this country, 
is done with the Indians on the Tapajos in salsaparilla, 
balsam of copaiiba, India-rubber, farinha, and other pro- 
ductions. I was told the average annual yield of the 
Tapajos in salsaparilla, was about 2000 arrobas (of 32 lbs. 
each). The quality of the drug found in the forests of 
the Tapajos, is much superior to that of the Upper 
Amazons, and always fetches double the price at Para. 
The merchants send out young Brazilians and Portuguese 
