I 
I . 
154 
THE AMAZON AND MADElILi RIMSiiS. 
whispered tides of their liorrid deeds. Several times tlio savages 
iittaeked aud killed the soldiers while fishing in. the Gvmpord, nLr 
the fort of Principe da Peii-a, nav, under its veiy guns, though these 
iu-o by no means so formidable as might he supposed;* apd the com- 
manding officer had to prohibit such eNciu-sions, save in sufficient 
numbers aud under due precautionary arrangements. The Poliviau 
traders would annihilate the whole tribe Avithout any scruple, if they 
could. iMore than once, they have tried to got up a general insur- 
rection, and have invited the cominauder of Principe da Beira to take 
part in it; but, even if ho had eonsented (which he could not udthont 
acting against the clear wishes of his Govennuent), its success u-ould 
liaTO been very doubtful. As it is now, the sou of the forest has 
decidedly the upper hand, and scarcely ever gets what ho deserves for 
ns murders; but, twenty or thii-ty years hence, perhaps the tables 
will be turned, and then will ensue what happens everywhere when 
le white race and the red get to close quarters. Eimry stroke of the 
settler’s axe will be as a nail driven into the coffin of the native • for 
at every such stroke, he will be thrust farther away from the main 
sources of his life-the principal rivers and the hunting-grounds near 
Iho la^apets, but aLso stripped tlit ebZ ^ ^ ^ of 
at the nails, &x-„ xvhidi tliev n-avB tn nlr • its iith yoo l-carviiigs, ni order to got 
pZofiof thlfirSnlrs (sugar-brand;); upon wZlI 
u... i, „ I, .1. t zi.1' 
All the httlo forts on the southern and south-eastm-n borders of thn rooim 
snualar condition at the time of tho war win, ooiaeis ot the tealm were m 
there is not a single fortresl w nV^ T. in all South America 
excluding the renoifucd Hnmaita iAfiir * «"®Yei-s to modern requirements, not 
sm-roundlg it. S thf ™P8 
of getting a sufficient number of thfm to fin-h Sirtt ‘hfflculty 
would be advisable— one near distant places, iron forts made in Eui-ot.o 
mouth of the Beni or tho Mamore.*^ " " ^ Madeira, and another neai- tho 
