46 THE AMAZON ANT) MADEUTA RIVERS. 
For instuucp, tlio name of Balsamo, marked on tliem as that of a toAvn, 
is quite unknown in these regions, even as the name of a river or 
anything else ; while Pedemeira, likewise proclaimed us a town, is the 
name of a current of the Madeira amidst a most desolate wilderness, only 
trodden by the wild Caripuna Indians. Far and wide there is no vestige 
of any human habitation, no remains of walls, or other signs of bygone 
splendour ; nothing but the silent forest and the roaring river bounding 
over dark rocks : and yet the maps show the well-known round mark 
of a town on this spot, which cannot be mistaken on account of a striking 
change of direction of the stream, and of the corresponding longitude 
and latitude. 
Even on the lower Madeira, so much more accessible than the regions 
of the currents, which are visited only by wild Indians, the five tliousand 
inhabitants of the valley are so scattered on a surface of more than two 
thousand square leagues that wo ascended the river often for many 
days without seeing any kind of human habitation. 
The shores of the Amazon itself are so thinly peopled that the whole 
immense province of Amazonas numbers only some forty thousand 
inhabitants; while the other great affluents of the right border — the 
Xingu, Taj^ajoz, Purus, Tcffe, and Javary — ^Avhich probably have 
analogous soil and productions, are as yet in the undisputed possession 
of savages. 
Still it is to be wondered at that the population has not increased 
on the Lower Madeira, seeing its almost perfect navigability iip to Santo 
Antonio, and the exuberance of jirecious timber, fi-uits, and resins in 
its forests. 
The Portuguese in the past century had better hopes. They used 
the river as a way of communication to the province of Mato Grosso, and 
built the fort of Principe da Beira on the Guapord, to protect their 
navigation. 
As I mentioned above, the river is almost perfectly navigable beloAV 
the broad zone of catai-acts and currents, which, beginning at Santo 
Antonio, extends as far as Guajara. The few obstructions to free 
navigation can bo easily removed. At XJrod a few rocks blasted would 
serve to straighten and deepen the curved channel of 50 feet breadth, 
which at low Avater is less than a yard in depth. At Marmelo and 
Abelhas, near Crato, even simpler operations would suffice. 
At Crato, a lovely Estaneia (farm), the natural pastures (campos) 
