192 
THE UPPER AMAZONS. 
Chap. III. 
quick as they have liitherto shown themselves to be to 
leave the towns and return into their half wild condi- 
tion on the advancing civilisation of the places. The 
inflexibility of character, although probably organic, is 
seen to be sometimes overcome. The principal black- 
smith of Ega, Senhor Macedo, was also an Indian, and 
a very sensible fellow. He sometimes filled minor offices 
in the government of the place. He used to come 
very frequently to my house to chat, and was always 
striving to acquire solid information about things. 
When Donati's comet appeared, he took a great inter- 
est in it. We saw it at its best from the 3rd to the 
10th of October (1858), between which dates it was 
visible near the western horizon, just after sunset ; the 
tail extending in a broad curve towards the north, and 
forming a sublime object. Macedo consulted all the 
old almanacs in the place to ascertain whether it was 
the same comet as that of 1811, which he said he well 
remembered. Before the Indians can be reclaimed in 
large numbers, it is most likely they will become 
extinct as a race. There is less difficulty with regard 
to the mamelucos, who, even when the proportion of 
white blood is small, sometimes become enterprising 
and versatile people. The Indian element in the blood 
and character seems to be quite lost, or dominated in 
the offspring of white and mameluco, that is in the 
fruits of the second cross. I saw a striking example of 
this in the family of a French blacksmith, who had 
lived for many years on the banks of the Solimoens, and 
had married a mamejuco woman. His children might 
have all passed as natives of Northern Europe, a little 
