124 
VOYAGE UP THE TAPAJOS. 
Chap. 11. 
the branch rivers of the Amazons which flow from the 
south through the interior of Brazil, with the first 
cataracts. We started on the 19th ; our direction on 
that day being generally south-west. On the 20th our 
course was southerly and south-easterly. This morning 
(August 21st) we arrived at the Indian settlement, the 
first house of which lies about thirty-one miles above 
the sitio of J oao Aracu. The river at this* place is 
from sixty to seventy yards wide, and runs in a zigzag 
course between steep clayey banks twenty to fifty 
feet in height. The houses of the Mundurucus to the 
number of about thirty are scattered along the banks 
for a distance of six or seven miles. The owners appear 
to have chosen all the most picturesque sites — tracts 
of level ground at the foot of wooded heights, or little 
havens with bits of white sandy beach — as if they had 
an appreciation of natural beauty. Most of the dwell- 
ings are conical huts, with walls of framework filled in 
with mud and thatched with palm leaves, the broad eaves 
reaching halfway to the ground. Some are quadran- 
gular, and do not differ in structure from those of 
the semi-civilised settlers in other parts ; others are 
open sheds or ranches. They seem generally to contain 
not more than one or two families each. 
At the first house we learnt that all the fighting men 
had this morning returned from a two days' pursuit of 
a wandering horde of savages of the Pararauate tribe, 
who had strayed this way from the interior lands and 
robbed the plantations. A little further on we came 
to the house of the Tushaua or chief, situated on 
the top of a high bank, which we had to ascend by 
