Chap. III. 
CHAITGES AT EGA. 
1S7 
travellers; my servant ran away, and I was robbed of 
nearly all my copper money. I was obliged then to 
descend to Para, but returned, after finishing the exa- 
mination of the middle part of the Lower Amazons 
and the Tapajos, in 1855, with my Santarem assistant 
and better provided for making collections on the upper 
river. This second visit was in pursuit of the plan 
before mentioned, of exploring in detail the whole 
valley of the Amazons, which I formed in Para in the 
year 1851. 
During so long a residence I witnessed, of course, 
many changes in the place. Some of the good friends 
who made me welcome on my first arrival, died, and I 
followed their remains to their last resting-place in the 
little rustic cemetery on the borders of the surrounding 
forest. I lived there long enough, from first to last, to 
see the young people grow up, attended their weddings 
and the christenings of their children, and, before I left, 
saw them old married folks with numerous families. 
In 1850 Ega was only a village, dependent on Para 
1400 miles distant, as the capital of the then undivided 
province. In 1852, with the creation of the new pro- 
vince of the Amazons, it became a city ; returned its 
members to the provincial parliament at Barra ; had its 
assizes, its resident judges, and rose to be the chief 
town of a comarca or county. A year after this, 
namely, in 1853, steamers were introduced on the 
Solimoens, and from 1855, one ran regularly every two 
months between the Kio Negro and Nauta in Peru, 
touching at all the villages, and accomplishing the 
distance in ascending, about 1200 miles, in eighteen 
