188 THE UPPER AMAZONS. Chap. III. 
days. The trade and population, however, did not 
increase with these changes. The people became more 
civilised/' that is, they began to dress according to 
the latest Parisian fashions, instead of going about 
in stockingless feet, wooden clogs and shirt sleeves ; 
acquired a taste for money getting and office holding ; 
became divided into parties, and lost part of their 
former simplicity of manners. But the place remained, 
when I left it in 1859, pretty nearly what it was when 
I first arrived in 1850 — a semi-Indian village, with 
much in the ways and notions of its people, more like 
those of a small country town in Northern Europe than 
a South American settlement. The place is healthy, 
and almost free from insect pests ; perpetual verdure 
surrounds it ; the soil is of marvellous fertility, even 
for Brazil ; the endless rivers and labyrinths of chan- 
nels teem with fish and turtle ; a fleet of steamers 
might anchor at any season of the year in the lake, 
which has uninterrupted water communication straight 
to the Atlantic. What a future is in store for the sleepy 
little tropical village ! 
After speaking of Ega as a city, it will have a ludi- 
crous effect to mention that the total number of its 
inhabitants is only about 1200. It contains just 107 
houses, about half of which are miserably built mud- 
walled cottages, thatched with palm-leaves. A fourth 
of the population are almost always absent, trading or 
collecting produce on the rivers. The neighbourhood 
within a radius of thirty miles, and including two other 
small villages, contains probably 2000 more people. 
The settlement is one of the oldest in the country, 
