250 
TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [February, 
fish, and made a supper with the eggs and some farinha ; 
I then hung up my hammock, and my companion lay 
on the ground by the side of the fire ; and I slept well, 
undisturbed by dreams of snakes or jaguars. 
The next morning I called on the Commissario, for 
the old man T had seen the evening before was only a 
capitao. I found him in his house : he was an Indian 
who could read and write, but not differing in any other 
respect from the Indians of the place. He had on a 
shirt and a pair of short-legged trowsers, but neither 
shoes nor stockings. I informed him why I had come 
there, showed him my Brazilian passport, and requested 
the use of the Convento (a house formerly occupied by 
the priests, but now kept for travellers) to live in. After 
a little demur, he gave me the key of the bouse, and so 
I said good-morning, and proceeded to take possession. 
About the middle of the day, the Indians who had 
started with me the day before arrived ; they had been 
afraid to come on in the dark, so had encamped in the 
road. I now got the house swept out, and my things 
taken into it. It consisted of two small rooms, and a 
little verandah at the back ; the larger room contained a 
table, chair, and bench, and in the smaller I hung up my 
hammock. My porters then came to be paid for bring- 
ing over my goods. All wanted salt, and I gave them a 
basinful each and a few fish-hooks, for carrying a heavy^ , 
load ten miles : this is about their regular payment. 
I had now reached the furthest point in this directionl 
that I had wished to attain. I had passed the boundary - 
of the mighty Amazon valley, and was among the streams- 
that go to swell another of the world’s great waters — the| 
