Chap. III. 
EESIDENCE AT EGA. 
181 
was half Indian himself, but was a far worse master 
to the red-skins than the whites usually are. We 
finished our rounds by paying our respects to a venerable 
native merchant, Senor Romao de Oliveira, a tall, cor- 
pulent, fine-looking old man, who received us with a 
naive courtesy quite original in its way. He had been 
an industrious, enterprising man in his younger days, 
and had built a substantial range of houses and ware- 
houses. The shrewd and able old gentleman knew 
nothing of the world beyond the wilderness of the Soli- 
moens and its few thousands of isolated inhabitants ; 
yet he could converse well and sensibly, making obser- 
vations on men and things as sagaciously as though he 
had drawn them from long experience of life in a Euro- 
pean capital. The semi-civilised Indians respected old 
Romao, and he had, consequently, a great number in his 
employ in different parts of the river : his vessels were 
always filled quicker with produce than those of his 
neighbours. On our leaving, he placed his house and store 
at my disposal. This was not a piece of empty polite- 
ness, for some time afterwards, when I wished to settle 
for the goods I had had of him, he refused to take any 
payment. 
I made Ega my head-quarters during the whole of 
the time I remained on the Upper Amazons (four years 
and a half). My excursions into the neighbouring 
region extended sometimes as far as 300 and 400 miles 
from the place. An account of these excursions will be 
given in subsequent chapters ; in the intervals between 
them I led a quiet, uneventful life in the settlement ; 
