Chap. II. 
MISSION VILLAGE. 
105: 
Italian monk, was away at another station called Wishi- 
tiiba, two days' journey farther up the river. Report 
said of him that he had no zeal for religion or devotion 
to his calling, but was occupied in trading, using the 
Indian proselytes to collect salsaparilla and so forth, with 
a view to making a purse wherewith to retire to his 
own country. The semi-civilised Indians, who speak the 
Tupi language, called him Pai tucura, or Father Grass- 
hopper : his peaked hood having a droll resemblance to 
the pointed head of the insect. I afterwards became 
acquainted with Fre Isidore, and found him a man of 
superior intelligence and ability. He complained much 
of the ill treatment the Indians received at the hands 
of traders and the Brazilian civil authorities, and said 
that he and his predecessors had incessantly to contend 
for the rights secured to the aborigines by the laws of 
the empire. The plan of assembling families in formal, 
blank-looking settlements, like this of Santa Cruz, 
seemed to me very ill chosen. The Indians would be 
happier in their scattered wigwams, embowered in 
foliage on the banks of shady rivulets where they 
prefer to settle when left to themselves. 
A narrow belt of wood runs behind the village : be- 
yond this is an elevated barren campo, with a clayey 
and gravelly soil. To the south the coast country is of 
a similar description ; a succession of scantily-wooded 
hills, bare grassy spaces, and richly-timbered hollows. 
We traversed forest and campo in various directions 
during three days without meeting with monkeys, or in- 
deed with anything that repaid us the time and trouble. 
The soil of the district appeared too dry ; at this season 
