FROM RIO DE JAXEIRO TO THE RAPIDS OP THE MADEIRA. 
35 
The steamers of this Company are from 500 to GOO tons burden, and 
of 200 horse-power. Tlrcy arc well fitted out; the quarter-deek e.speciaUy 
is sheltered against sun and rain by a solid roof, thus forming an agree- 
able lounge. Here the meuls arc taken ; and in the evening the slender 
iron columns of tlie roof support the bauimocks, wliich every one prefers 
to tbe hot beds in the cabins below. 
Our company was a very motley one. There was the Brazilian civil 
(iflieial, deeming it ratlier hard to bo seut to such a place of exile as Serpa 
or Maiiaos ; there was the Portuguese Vendeiro, unable to take interest in 
anything save his percentages ; and there was the American colonist from 
one of the Southern States, who emigrated in disgust at the defeat of his 
party, tried life at Santarem at the mouth of the Tapajoz, but found it so 
dreadfully “ didl ” that he is going to move heaven and earth at Para to 
get repaid for the cost of his passage home again. There were merchants 
from Venezuela and Bolivia, who, coming in their barques for hundreds 
of leagues through cm’rents and cataracts, have sold then- goods at Para, 
and bought others to retreight their boats, which they have loft at Serpa 
or Manaos. Then there was the officer of the Ihruvian navy, come 
quietly as a civilian to inspect, in a friendly way, the state of things in 
bis neighbour’s home, and to report to his Goveniment how much, or 
how little, the Brazilians have done within the last few years to protect 
these regions against a siu'prise from his countrymen ; * and last, but not 
least, there was the Italian missionary, a long-bearded Capuchin monk, 
certainly regretting in his innermost heart that blessed time when cassock 
and scapulary could place themselves as insurmountable barriers between 
Governments and Indians, and when his Church alone had the privilege 
of dealing with the latter. These were our fellow-passengers who peacc- 
frdly extended themselves in their hammoclcs, side by side, beneath the 
sheltering roof of the Belem, indulging in that dreamy dolce far niente, 
inevitably produced by a glaiing sun and the soft rocking of a vessel, or 
chatting quietly, as the evening breeze slightly roused their drowsy 
spirits. 
The steamer now passed through the large Bahia de Marajo, whose 
* Tabatiuga, tho BraziRan frontier fort, against Peril, is in a most dilapidated 
state. A Brazilian officer of rank once told me, >vitli that openness which diaracterisos 
tho educated Brazilian, “ 0 nos.so colebre Tabatinga, o baluarte contra o Peru, quo 
olios chamao uma fortaleza, 6 antes uma fraqiieza! ” (Onr oelobmted Tabatinga, tho 
bulwark against Porn, that they call a fortress, is rather a weakness.) 
D 2 
