CHAPTER VIII. 
THE UPPER RIO NEGRO. 
Quit Earra for the Upper Eio Negro — Canoe and cargo — Great width | 
of the river — Carvoeiro and Earcellos — Granite rocks — Castanheiro , : 
— A polite old gentleman — S, Joze — A new language — The cataracts 
' — S. Gabriel — Nossa Senhora da Guia — Senhor L. and his family — 
Visit to the river Cobati — An Indian village — The Serra — Cocks of 
the rock — Eeturn to Guia — Frei Joze dos Santos Innocentos. 
It was on the last day of August, 1850, at about two J 
o’clock on a fine bright afternoon, that I bade adieu to ^ | 
Barra, looking forward with bope and expectation to the 
distant and little-known regions I was now going to visit. |j [ 
I found our canoe a tolerably roomy one, it being about 1 
thirty-five feet long and seven broad. The after-part I 
had a rough deck, made of split palm-stems, covered 
with a tolda, or semicircular roof, high enough to sit up L 
comfortably within it, and well thatched with palm-leaves. F 
A part of the front opening was stopped up on each side, f 
leaving a doorway about three feet wide. The forepart f 
was covered with a similar tolda, but much lower, and J k 
above it was a flat deck, formed like the other, and sup- 
ported by upright poles along the sides. This is called||;| 
