ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
As they had not been able to spend a single penny 
since we had left Diamantino they had accumulated a 
considerable sum of cash. I warned them, as I had done 
with Benedicto, to be careful and not waste their money. 
They went out for a walk. Some hours later they re¬ 
turned, dressed up in wonderful costumes, with fancy 
silk ties, patent leather shoes, gold chains and watches, 
and gaudy scarf-pins. In a few hours they had wasted 
nearly the entire sum I had paid out to them. Every¬ 
thing was extremely expensive in Para, certainly three or 
four times the price which things would fetch in London 
or New York. 
Two days later white Filippe and Antonio embarked 
for Rio de Janeiro, with hardly a word of farewell to 
me. Alcides refused to travel on the same steamer with 
his companions, and left by a later one. 
The city of Para is much too well known for me to 
enter into a long description of it. Since its discovery in 
the year 1500, when Vincente Yanes Pinzon cast anchor 
in the Maranon or Amazon, Belem has become a beautiful 
city. As everybody knows, it is the capital of the Para 
province, which has an area of 1,149,712 square kilo¬ 
metres. Geographically, Belem could not be situated in 
a better position, and is bound some day to become the 
most flourishing city of the Brazilian Republic. It is 
undoubtedly the key to the great Amazon River, although 
it is not actually at the mouth of the Amazon, but 138 
kilometres from the ocean. Through it is bound to pass 
the trade, not only of that riverine portion of Brazil, but 
also of Peru and Bolivia. 
Belem (Para) is mostly known to Europeans as the 
nest of yellow fever. During the last few years it has been 
freed absolutely from that scourge, the cases of yellow 
fever being now few and far between, owing to the won¬ 
derful progress made by hygiene, and the praiseworthy 
efforts made by the province to keep the city in a healthy 
condition. 
338 
