152 
THE AMAZON AND MADEIIU llIVEUS. 
on tlie other, — is tliis : — the hi*ave English traveller Chandless, 
whom we had the pleasm’o of meeting at Manaos, explored the Piiriis 
in 1866, his servant, an Italian, informed him on the way that he 
had decided on not accompany mg him farther up, and that he was 
going to return alone to the Amazon Valley. Chandless, wlio knew 
his man well, and who guessed rightly that it w’us not so much the 
increasing hardship of the voyage as the desire to make a good bargain 
for the Indian children a little lower down the river which caused this 
sudden resolve, tried to dissuade him from his purjjose, but in vain ! 
He went, and — never reached the Amazon. His master, on his return, 
foimd pieces of his canoe near an Indian maloeca on the shore, and 
there heard the pmlieulars of the horrible tale. The Italian had, imme- 
diately upon his arrival, begun bargaining for an Indian boy, and had 
at last purchased him for a hatchet ; but, as he was conveying him to 
liis canoe, the child began to scream piteously ; upon which his mother, 
running up, rescued him, and would not give him u|). Heroujjou the 
Italian demanded his hatchet back, but wns haughtily refused. A short 
skirmish ensued and the white man was killed, and, I suppose, roasted 
aud devoured. 
way to tlio new oainpo for tlie transport tliither of a few head of cattle, without 
hoHcUng in the least the protest of a horde of Ooroados who had been in the habit 
of visiting liiiu from time to time, and with whom he had always boon on a friondly 
footing. 
When the Indians saw that their old hunting-gi-ound, the abode of numerous 
herds of stags and deer, was lost to them, they demanded an indemnity first of hvo, 
and at last of two, Spanish ounces (about f lo) ; but they got for answer nothing but 
a sneer and hard words. They tried several times to block up the new path by 
felled trees ; but, as they saw that the negi-oes of the estancia removed the obstruction 
with less trouble than they took to make it, they seemed to give up the task and did 
not axipear for some time. ’ 
However, when the j'oung animals of the new herd were to be counted, and to be 
branded with the mark of the estancia — a festive occasion, on which the projirietor and 
all liis family went to a light house erected on the new possession— the Coroados 
made their appearance again, and were kindly received by the master, in spite of 
wM-nings from his subordinates. He offered the chieftam a piece of roast-meat, and, 
upon his request for a knife, handed to him his own dagger-Uke one, which was stuck 
in his girdle, after the fasliion of the place ; whereupon the Indian, with a movement 
qmck as lighfaiing, drove it into his chest up to the very handle ; and, as if this were 
a concerted signal, a crowd of aimed Coroados poured in from all sides, aud after 
a short resistance, killed eight white people, women and children included. ’ Only 
one boy of foui-teen years old escaped by a window; and he, throwing himself on 
one of the horses without, siuead the horrible news. In an expedition undertalieii 
liy the neighboui-8 to avenge the murder, a few Indians were killed; but tlie greater 
piirt of them escaped, and retired foi’ther into tlio iuteiior of the forests. 
Another bloody encounter— let us liope Hie last — occurred ui 18(i2, in tlie so-ealled 
I 
