ABORIGINES OF THE AMAZON. 
477 
of his peculiar customs, — changes his mode of life, his 
house, his costume, and his language, — becomes imbued 
with the prejudices of civilization, and adopts the forms 
and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion. In 
this state he is a different being from the true denizen 
of the forests, and it may be doubted, where his civili- 
zation goes no further than this, if he is not a degene- 
rate and degraded one ; but it is in this state alone that 
he is met with by most travellers in Brazil, on the banks 
of the Amazon, in Venezuela, and in Peru. 
I do not remember a single circumstance in my travels 
so striking and new, or that so well fulfilled all previous 
expectations, as my first view of the real uncivilized 
inhabitants of the river Uaupes. Though I had been 
already three years in the country, and had seen Indians 
of almost every shade of colour and every degree of 
civilization, I felt that I was as much in the midst of 
something new and startling, as if I had been instanta- 
neously transported to a distant and unknown country. 
The Indians of the Amazon and its tributaries, are of 
a countless variety of tribes and nations ; all of whom 
have peculiar languages and customs, and many of them 
some distinct physical characteristics. Those now found 
in the city of Para, and all about the country of the 
Lower Amazon, have long been civilized, — have lost 
their own language, and speak the Portuguese, and are 
known by the general names of Tapuyas, which is ap- 
plied to all Indians, and seems to be a corruption of 
“ Tupis,” the name applied to the natives of the coast- 
districts, on the first settlement of the country. These 
Indians are short, stout, and well made. They learn all 
