CHAPTER XXIII 
Santarem to Belem (Par!) — The Amazon —From Belem to Manaos 
— The Madeira-Mamori Railway 
S ANTAREM was an old settlement of no great in¬ 
terest. It had a few relatively fine ancient build¬ 
ings and many ugly new ones. 
Early on November sixth the steamer proceeded on 
her way to Belem (Para). On leaving Santarem we 
first emerged into the great Amazon River, a regular 
sea of fresh water, where we tossed about in a strong 
northeasterly gale. Unless one knew, one never could 
have imagined oneself on a river, as the stream was so 
wide at that point that the opposite bank could not be 
seen at all. 
Things were a little better when we entered the 
channel of Monte Alegre. On that channel was the little 
town of the same name, half of the buildings being along 
the water’s edge, the other half on the summit of a low 
hill near by. There is a sulphur spring there with won¬ 
derful medicinal properties, and coal is also said to be 
found. 
A colony of Spaniards had been imported to work, 
but they were dissatisfied and had left. Tobacco, made 
up into fusiform sticks six feet long and tied into bundles, 
was exported from that place in considerable quantities; 
the inhabitants were also engaged in breeding cattle, 
growing Indian corn, and drying fish — the pirarucu 
(Vastres gig as), a salmonoid vulgarly called the cod-fish 
of the Amazon. A big trade was done in that dried fish 
all over that region. 
333 
