Chap. II. 
DESCENT OF THE TAPAJOS. 
145 
ing to see his parents cheerfully agreed to accompany me 
to Santarem. The loss of a man at this juncture would 
have been very annoying, with Captain Antonio ill at 
Aveyros, and not a hand to be had anywhere in the 
neighbourhood ; but if we had not called at Andre's 
sitio, we should not have been able to have kept 
Ricardo from running away at the first landing-place. 
He was a lively, restless lad, and although impudent 
and troublesome at first, had made a very good servant ; 
his companion, Alberto, was of quite a different dispo- 
sition, being extremely taciturn, and going through all 
his duties with the quietest regularity-. 
We left at 11 a.m., and progressed a little before the 
wind began to blow from down river, when we were 
obliged again to cast anchor. The terral began at 
six o'clock in the evening, and we sailed with it past the 
long line of rock-bound coast near Itapuama. At 
ten o'clock a furious blast of wind came from a cleft 
between the hills, catching us with the sails close-hauled, 
and throwing the canoe nearly on its beam-ends, when 
we were about a mile from the shore. Jose had the 
presence of mind to slacken the sheet of the mainsail, 
whilst I leapt forward and lowered the sprit of the 
foresail ; the two Indians standing stupified in the prow. 
It was what the canoemen call a trovoada secca or white 
squall. The river in a few minutes became a sheet 
of foam ; the wind ceased in about half an hour, but 
the terral was over for the night, so we pulled towards 
the shore to find an anchoring place. 
We reached Tapaiuna by midnight on the 23rd, and 
on the morning of the 24th arrived at the Retire, where 
VOL. II. L 
