202 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [^October, 
and catching some insects, of which I found many new 
species. At length, the gay cottons and gauzes, the 
beads and cutlery, wines and spirits, sugar and butter, 
having been selected, we went on our way, Senhor Joao 
promising to get plenty of piassaba, salsa, and other 
products, ready to pay Senhor L. by the time he next 
sent to the city. 
The following day we reached St. Isabel, a miserable 
village overgrown with weeds and thickets, and having 
at this time but a single inhabitant, a Portuguese, with 
whom we took a cup of coffee, sweetening it however 
with our own sugar, as he had no such luxury. He 
was one of the many decent sort of men who drag on a \ 
miserable existence here, putting up with hardships and 
deprivations which in a civilized community would be | , 
only the result of the most utter poverty. f ! 
On the 8th we reached Castanheiro, and staid a day 
with another Portuguese, one of the richest traders on 
the river. He owed his wealth principally to having 
steadily refused to take goods on credit, which is the 
curse of this country : he thus was always his own 
master, instead of being the slave of the Barra and Para 
merchants, and could buy in the cheapest and sell in 
the dearest market. With economy and a character for 
closeness, he had accumulated some five or six thousand 
pounds, which went on rapidly increasing, as in this 
country living costs a man nothing, unless he drinks 
or gambles. He trades with the Indians, takes the 
product in his own canoe to Para, buys the articles he 
knows are most saleable, and gets a profit of about a 
hundred per cent, on all the business he does. It may 
