Chap. YL 
RIYER SCENERY. 
393 
mid-day hours. This Indian was a man of steady reso- 
lution, ambitious and enterprising ; very rare qualities 
in the race to which he belonged, weakness of reso- 
lution being one of the fundamental defects in the 
Indian character. He was now on his return home to 
the banks of the Issa from Para, whither he had been to 
sell a large quantity of salsaparilla that he had collected, 
with the help of a number of Indians, whom he induces, 
or forces, to work for him. One naturally feels inclined 
to know what ideas such a favourable specimen of the 
Indian race may have acquired after so much experi- 
ence amongst civilised scenes. On conversing with our 
fellow-passenger, I was greatly disappointed in him ; 
he had seen nothing, and thought of nothing, beyond 
what concerned his little trading speculation, his mind 
being, evidently, what it had been before, with regard 
to all higher subjects or general ideas, a blank. The 
dull, mean, practical way of thinking of the Amazonian 
Indians, and the absence of curiosity and speculative 
thought which seems to be organic or confirmed in their 
character, although they are improveable to a certain 
extent, make them, like common-place people every- 
where, most uninteresting companions. Caracara-i dis- 
embarked at Tunantins with his cargo, which consisted 
of a considerable number of packages of European wares. 
The river scenery about the mouth of the J apura is 
extremely grand, and was the subject of remark amongst 
the passengers. Lieutenant Nunes gave it as his 
opinion, that there was no diminution of width or 
grandeur in the mighty stream up to this point, a dis- 
tance of 1500 miles from the Atlantic; and yet we did 
