240 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [February, 
reedy shallows, where our heavily-laden canoe was only 
got over by great exertions. At night we reached a 
fine sandy beach, where we staid, but had not been for- 
tunate enough to get any fish, so had nothing for supper 
but farinha mingau and a cup of coffee; and I then hung 
my hammock under a little palm-leaf shed, that had been 
made by some former traveller. 
Our breakfast was a repetition of our supper, and we 
again started onwards, but every half-hour had to stop 
and partly unload our boat, and drag it over some im- 
pediment. In many places there was a smooth ledge of ^ , 
' ^ 
rock with only a little water trickling over it, or a series 
of steps forming miniature cascades. The stream was 
now sunk in a little channel or ravine fifteen or twenty - 
feet deep, and with an interminable succession of turn- 
ings and -windings towards every point of the compass. 
At length, late in the evening, we reached the port of , 
Pimichiii, formerly a village, but now containing only- 1 
two houses. We found an old shed without doors and 
with a leaky roof— the traveller’s house — of which we . 
took possession. 
Our canoe being unloaded, I went to one of the cot- 
tages to forage, and found a Portuguese deserter, a very 
civil fellow, who gave me the only eatable thing he had 
in the house, which was a piece of smoke-dried fish, as 
hard as a board and as tough as leather. This I gave . 
to the Indians, and got him to come and take a cup of ■ 
coffee with me, which, though he had some coffee-trees 
around his house, was still quite a treat, as he had no 
sugar or molasses. Prom this place a road leads over-'\| 
land about ten miles through the forest to Javita, a vil-' 
