1850.] 
CANOE AND CARGO. 
195 
the jangada, or raft, and serves for the Indians to stand 
on, while rowing with ohrs formed of paddle-blades fixed 
to long poles. The canoe was well loaded with all the 
articles most desired by the semicivilized and savage in- 
habitants of the Upper Rio Negro. There were bales of 
coarse cotton cloth and of the commonest calico, of flimsy 
but brilliantly-coloured prints, of checked and striped 
cottons, and of blue or red handkerchiefs. Then there 
were axes and cutlasses, and coarse pointed knives in 
great profusion, fish-hooks by thousands, flints and steels, 
gunpowder, shot, quantities of blue, black, and white 
beads, and countless little looking-glasses ; needles and 
thread, and buttons and tape were not forgotten. There 
was plenty of caxaga (the rum of the country) and wine 
for the trader’s own use, as well as a little brandy for 
medicine,” and tea, coffee, sugar, vinegar, oil for cook- 
ing and for light, biscuit, butter, garlic, black pepper, 
and other little household luxuries, sufficient to last the 
family for at least six months, and supply the pressing 
wants of any famishing traveller. 
My host, Senhor Joao Antonio de Lima, was a middle- 
sized, wiry, grizzly man, with a face something like the 
banished lord in the National Gallery. He had however 
all the politeness of his countrymen, placed the canoe 
and everything in it “ at my orders,” and made himself 
very agreeable. Our tolda contained numerous boxes 
and packages of his and my own, but still left plenty of 
room for us to sit or lie down comfortably ; and in the 
cool of the morning and evening we stood upon the plank 
at its mouth, or sat upon its top, enjoying the fresh air 
and the cool prospect of dark waters around us. For 
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