160 
TRAVEi.s ON THE AMAZON. [December 
sent after him, and it would probably be several days 
before we had an answer, and perhaps much longer be- 
fore the men were procured. 
The Padre was a very well-educated and gentlemanly 
man, and made us as comfortable as he could, though, as 
he had only two small rooms to share with us, he was 
putting himself to much inconvenience on our account. 
He is already known to the English reader from having 
accompanied Prince Adalbert of Prussia up the Xingu, 
and he well deserves all the encomiums the Prince has 
bestowed upon him. He was very fond of enigmas, 
which he amused himself and his friends by inventing 
and solving. I much delighted him by turning such of 
our best as would bear the process into Portuguese ; and 
I also translated for him the old puzzle on the word 
tobacco’’— in Portuguese, “ tabaco,” which did just as 
well — and much pleased him. I took here some fine | 
insects, but it was too late in the season : from July to ^ 
October it would be, I have no doubt, a fine locality. 
A week passed away, and the men came not, and as 
I was very anxious to be off, the Padre agreed with a 
trader to let me have three of his Indians, he taking in- 
stead those that the Commandante would probably soon 
send for me. One of the Indians however did not 
choose to come, and was driven to the canoe by severe 
lashes, and at the point of the bayonet. He was very^ 
furious and sullen when he came on board, vowing that 
he would not go with me, and would take vengeance on 
those who had forced him on board. He complained^ 
bitterly of being treated like a slave, and I could not much 
blame him. I tried what I could to pacify him, oflfering 
i ' 
