388 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. YI. 
the most industrious tribes, Shumanas, Passes, and 
Cambevas, having settled on the site and adopted civi- 
lised habits, their industry being directed by a few 
whites, who seem to have been men of humane views 
as well as enterprising traders. One of these old em- 
ployers, Senhor Guerreiro, a well-educated Paraense, 
was still trading on the Amazons when I left the coun- 
try, in 1859 : he told me that forty years previously 
Fonte Boa was a delightful place to live in. The neigh- 
bourhood was then well cleared, and almost free from 
mosquitoes, and the Indians were orderly, industrious, 
and happy. What led to the ruin of the settlement was 
the arrival of several Portuguese and Brazilian traders 
of a low class, who in their eagerness for business taught 
the easy-going Indians all kinds of trickery and im- 
morality. They enticed the men and women away from 
their old employers, and thus broke up the large 
establishments, compelling the principals to take their 
capital to other places. At the time of my visit there 
were few pure-blood Indians at Fonte Boa, and no true 
whites. The inhabitants seemed to be nearly all mamelu- 
cos, and were a loose-living, rustic, plain-spoken and igno- 
rant set of people. There was no priest or schoolmaster^ 
within 150 miles, and had not been any for many years : 
the people seemed to be almost without government of 
any kind, and yet crime and deeds of violence appeared 
to be of very rare occurrence. The principal man of 
the village, one Senhor Justo, was a big, coarse, ener- 
getic fellow, sub-delegado of police, and the only trades- 
man who owned a large vessel running directly between 
Fonte Boa and Para. He had recently built a large 
