154: 
THE UPPER AMAZONS. 
Chap. III. 
the assizes as juryman, a public duty performed without 
remuneration, which took him six weeks away from his 
business. He was about to leave Barra himself, in a 
small boat, and recommended me to send forward my 
heavy baggage in the cuberta and make the journey 
with him. He would reach Ega, 370 miles distant from 
Barra, in twelve or fourteen days ; whilst the large 
vessel would be thirty or forty days on the road. I 
preferred, however, to go in company with my luggage, 
looking forward to the many opportunities I should 
have of landing and making collections on the banks of 
the river. 
I shipped the collections made between Para and the 
Rio Negro in a large cutter which was about descend- 
ing to the capital, and after a heavy day's work got all 
my chests aboard the Ega canoe by eight o'clock at 
night. The Indians were then all embarked, one of 
them being brought dead drunk by his companions, and 
laid to sober himself all night on the wet boards of the 
tombadilha. The cabo, a spirited young white, named 
Estulano Alves Carneiro, who has since risen to be a 
distinguished citizen of the new province of the Upper 
Amazons, soon after gave orders to get up the anchor. 
The men took to the oars, and in a few hours we crossed 
the broad mouth of the Rio Negro ; the night being 
clear, calm, and starlit, and the surface of the inky 
waters smooth as a lake. 
When I awoke the next morning, we were progressing 
by espia along the left bank of the Solimoens. The 
rainy season had now set in over the region through 
which the great river flows ; the sand-banks and all the 
