1850.] SENHOR BRANDAO. 187 
hunters to be remarkably acute, and to render necessary 
all their caution and skill to capture the animals. They 
bring forth one, or rarely two, young ones, which they 
clasp in theh arms or paddles while giving suck. They 
are harpooned, or caught in a strong net, at the narrow 
entrance of a lake or stream, and are killed by driving 
a wooden plug with a mallet up their nostrils. Each 
yields from five to twenty-five gallons of oil. The flesh 
is very good, being something between beef and pork, 
and this one furnished us with several meals, and was 
an agreeable change from our fish diet. 
As I now expected a canoe shortly to arrive, bringing 
me letters and remittances from England, after which I 
was anxious to set off for the Upper Rio Negro as soon 
as possible, I determined to return to Barra, and having 
agreed for a passage in -a canoe going there, I took leave 
of my kind host. I must however first say a few words 
about him. Senhor Jose Antonio Brandao had come 
over from Portugal when very young, and had married 
early and settled, with the intention of spending his life 
here. Very singularly for a Portuguese, he entirely de- 
voted himself to agriculture. Pie built himself a coun- 
try house at Manaqiiery, on a lake near the main river, 
brought Indians from a distance to settle with him, 
cleared the forest, planted orange, tamarind, mango, and 
many other fruit-bearing trees, made pleasant avenues, 
gardens, and pastures, stocked them well with cattle, 
sheep, pigs, and poultry, and set himself down to the 
full enjoyment of a country life. But about twenty 
years ago, while his family were yet young, disturbances 
and revolutions broke out, and he, as well as all natives 
