94 
VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. Chap. 11. 
by Captain Antonio with great consideration, and 
promised two good Indians when I should be ready to 
continue my voyage. 
Little happened worth narrating, during my forty 
days' stay at Aveyros. The time was spent in the 
quiet, regular pursuit of Natural History : every morn- 
ing I had my long ramble in the forest, which extended 
to the back-doors of the houses, and the afternoons 
were occupied in preserving and studying the objects 
collected. The priest was a lively old man, but rather 
a bore from being able to talk of scarcely anything ex- 
cept homoeopathy, having been smitten with the mania 
during a recent visit to Santarem. He had a Portu- 
guese Homoeopathic Dictionary, and a little leather 
case containing glass tubes filled with globules, with 
which he was doctoring the whole village. A bitter 
enmity seemed to exist between the female members 
of the priest's family and those of the captain's ; the 
only white women in the settlement. It was amusing 
to notice how they flaunted past each other, when going 
to church on Sundays, in their starched muslin dresses. 
I found an intelligent young man living here, a native 
of the province of Goyaz, who was exploring the neigh- 
bourhood for gold and diamonds. He had made one 
journey up a branch river, and declared to me, that 
he had found one diamond, but was unable to con- 
tinue his researches, because the Indians who accom- 
panied him refused to remain any longer : he was 
now waiting for Captain Antonio to assist him with 
fresh men, having offered him in return a share in the 
results of the enterprise. There appeared to be no 
