382 
TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. 
afford but a few moments between the glare of the de- 
scending sun and the darkness of night. . Nature itself, 
dressed in an eternal and almost unchangeable garb of 
verdure, presents but a monotonous scene to him who 
has beheld it from childhood. In the interior of the 
country there is not a road or path out of the towns, 
along which a person can walk with comfort or pleasure ; 
all is dense forest, or more impassable clearings. Here 
are no flower -bespangled meadows, no tofy glades, or 
smooth shady walks to tempt the lover of nature ; here 
are no dry gravelled roads, where, even in the intervals of 
rain, we may find healthy and agreeable exercise ; here 
are no field- side paths among golden corn or luxuriant 
clover. Here are no long summer evenings, to wander 
in at leisure, and admire the slowly changing glories of the 
sunset ; nor long winter nights, with the blazing hearth, 
which, by drawing all the members of a family into close 
contact, promote a social intercourse and domestic en-^ 
joyment, which the inhabitants of a tropical clime can 
but faintly realize. 
At length the canoe arrived in which I was to go to^ 
Para, and I soon agreed for my passage and set to work 
getting my things together. I had a great number of 
cases and boxes, six large ones which I had left with 
Senhor Henrique the year before, being still in his pos- 
session, because the great men of Barra were afraid they 
might contain contraband articles, and would not let 
them pass. 
I now got them embarked, by making a declaration 
of their contents, and paying a small duty on them. 
Out of a hundred live animals which I had purchased or 
