SALSAPARILHA. 
385 
1852.] 
Captain Hislop ; but Mr. Bates, whom I most wished 
to see, had left a week before on an excursion up the 
Tapajoz. Having laid in a stock of sugar, vinegar, oil, 
biscuits, and fresh bread and meat, we proceeded on our 
journey, which we were anxious to complete as soon as 
possible. 
On the 18th we passed Gurupa; and on the 19th, 
entered the narrow channels which form the communi- 
cation with the Para river, — ^bidding adieu to the turbid 
mighty flood of the never-to-be-forgotten Amazon. 
We here met a vessel from Para, fifty days out, having 
made a much shorter distance than we, descending the 
river, had come in five. 
On the 22nd we reached Breves, a neat little village 
with well-supplied shops, where I bought half-a-dozen of 
the pretty painted basins, for the manufacture of which 
the place is celebrated ; we here also got some oranges, 
at six for a halfpenny. 
The next day we staid at a sitio built upon piles, for 
the whole country about here is covered at spring-tides. 
The master of the canoe had a lot of salsaparilha to put 
up properly for the Para market, and staid a day to do 
it. The salsaparilha is the root of a prickly, climbing 
plant, allied to our common black bryony; the roots 
are dug by the Indians, and tied up in bundles of va- 
rious lengths and sizes ; but, as it is a very light cargo, 
it is necessary to form it into packages of a convenient 
and uniform size and length, for closer stowage these 
are cylindrical, generally of sixteen pounds each, and 
are about three and a half feet long and five or six 
inches in diameter, cut square and even at the ends, and 
c c 
