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FISHING FOR ELECTRIC EELS,
Page 180
Great Rivers of the World.
isi A WN © 1
AND ITS WONDERS.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE IN
THE AMAZONIAN FOREST,
BY THE AUTHOR OF
The Arctic World,†“The Mediterranean Illustrated,â€
de. de.
WITH TWENTY-EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS.
LONDON: THOMAS NELSON AND SONS.
EDINBURGH AND NEW YORK.
1894
1
Il.
Ill,
IV,
G@ontents.
rea
VOYAGES OF EXPLORATION, as Be ne es
LIEUTENANT HERNDON’S VOYAGE DOWN THE AMAZONS,
FROM MANAOS, EASTWARD, ae oe
IN THE VIRGIN FOREST,
39
121
163
Werist of Wllustrations.
FISHING FOR ELECTRIC EELS, on on oe
A SCENE ON THE APURIMAC, oe +e se
VEGETATION OF THE LOWER AMAZON,
VAMPIRE BATS, .. . a oe oy
SHOOTING WITH THE SARBUCAN, .. on oe
INTERIOR OF THE FOREST, oe
TICUNA INDIANS, on oe oe oe
MANUFACTURE OF TURTLE OIL, oe oe
INDIANS SHOOTING TURTLE, oe oe
BOAT SURROUNDED BY ALLIGATORS, oe
AN IGARAPE, 0 oe oe oe oe
GATHERING FRUIT OF THE CACAO, a
DRYING THE CACAO, eo o
A JAGUAR FISHING, o oe ee an
SCENE ON THE AMAZON BELOW SANTAREM. ..
COLLECTING INDIA-RUBBER,
AN ARCHIPELAGO IN THE LOWER AMAZON
A SCENE NEAR PARA, oe a
THE BANANA TREE, on we Be oe
THE VIRGIN FOREST, +e oe
AIR-PLANTS, os ee ore oe
HUMMING-BIRDS,
THE COW-TREE, .. or a oe
FIGHT BETWEEN A JAGUAR AND AN ANT-EATER,
A PAIR OF TOUCANS,
A PAIR OF TROGONS, os
ANTS AFTER BATTLE,
BOAT IN USE ON THE UPPER AMAZON,
Frontispiece
11
31
45
49
61
67
71
83
91
105
123
127
137
141
145
149
153
157
165
171
175
181
185
188
193
201
205
THE AMAZON AND ITS WONDERS.
CHAPTER LIL
VOYAGES OF EXPLORATION.
IEE River Amazon, or Amazons, the Queen
of the South American Rivers, and one
| of the great Rivers of the World, has its
sources in the Andes, on the west coast of South
America; and crosses that immense continent through-
out its entire breadth from east to west, falling into
the North Atlantic Ocean in about long. 50° W. If
we allow for its numerous windings, we may estimate
its length at fully four thousand miles. It is ninety-
six miles wide at its mouth, or delta ; and navigable
for two thousand two hundred miles from the sea-—
that is, for fully nine times the whole extent of the
Thames, So immense is the volume of water which
it pours into the sea, that the current preserves
10 THE RIVER-SOURCES.
its freshness and distinct riverine character for a
distance of three hundred miles from the land. The
voyager far out at sea can tell by their colour and
taste that the waters he is crossing are those of the
mighty American river.
We have spoken of its sources as lying up among
the Andes. As to this fact all geographers are
agreed; but they differ on the question of which
are those sources. Some connect the Amazons with
the Tungaragua, or Upper Marafion, which rises in
Lake Lauricocha, lat. 10° 30’ §., long. 76° 25’ W.;
others, with the Apurimace, one of the head streams
of the Ucayale, lat. 15° 38’ §., and long. 75° W.
Near the Spanish-Indian town of San Joaquim de
Ouraguas, the Tungaragua and the Ucayale, after
receiving several tributaries, unite in one broad
channel; and under the name of the Solimoens, the
great river flows onward to its confluence with the
Rio Negro, after which it is called the Amazons.
The Rio Negro is in itself a stately stream, with
a course of fourteen or fifteen hundred miles; and
another tributary, the Madeira, is also a river of
the first class, with a course of eighteen hundred
miles. In long. 65° the Amazons receives the
Coqueta, or Japura, coming from the north; and
SCENE ON THE APURIMAC.
ITS COURSE DESCRIBED. 13
in long. 71° 80’ W. the Napo, also from the north.
Here the great stream is five thousand four hun-
dred feet in breadth, and six hundred feet in depth.
Between the junction-points of the Rio Negro and the
Madeira —that is, between long. 60° W. and long.
58° 30’ W.—its average width is three miles ; but
it often broadens to six miles, and, studded as it is
with wooded islands, assumes all the appearance of
aninland lake. Further eastward the breadth greatly
increases ; and towards its embouchure the opposite
bank can scarcely be discerned. From the Rio Negro
to the sea—a distance of about eight hundred miles
in a straight line—its depth is never less than one
hundred and eighty feet; and its mighty flood is
navigable by the largest vessels up to the confluence
of the Tungaragua and the Ucayale. The numerous
shoals, and the masses of timber brought down from
the virgin forests, are, however, considerable obstacles
to its secure navigation.
The velocity of the current of the Amazons varies
from two miles and a half to four miles an hour,
but in the dry season it greatly diminishes; and in
the last seven hundred miles of the river’s course it
is slackened by the inconsiderable fall of the river,
s
14 TRIBUTARIES OF THE AMAZONS.
amounting to not more than twelve feet. Tremen-
dous inundations, which sweep over the surrounding
country for many miles, are of frequent occurrence.
The influence of the ocean-tides is felt as far inland
as Obidos, a town four hundred miles distant from
the coast. The remarkable phenomenon: of “the
bore†occurs at the embouchure of the Amazons
two days before and two days after full moon.
Then the ocean-waters accumulate, as it were, into
one vast liquid mass, and roll into the channel of the
estuary in three or four gigantic waves, each twelve
to fifteen feet high, driving back the river-current,
and producing a whirlpool of terrific violence.’
In addition to the great tributaries already men-
tioned, we may name the Hyabary, the Jutay, the
Jurua, the Teffé, the Coary, the Madeira, the Purus,
the Tapajos, and the Xingu: these all flow into it
from the south. From the north it receives, besides
the Napo, the Negro, and the Japura, only the
Pulumayo, which has a course of about a thousand
miles.
We first hear of the Amazons in European history
in 1500, when its mouth was discovered by the
Spanish adventurer, Yanez Pingon; but little was
SPANISH EXPEDITIONS, 15
known of it until Francis d’Orellana descended its
stream from the confluence of the Rio Napo to the
ocean. This was in 1539. Among the many wild
and wonderful stories related by Orellana was that
of the existence of a tribe of female warriors on its
banks, who in their youth cut off the right breast
in order to allow of the freer use of their great
weapon, the bow. Hence the name of “ Amazonsâ€
came to be applied to the river; which was also
known as the “ Orellana,†from its explorer, and as
the “ Marafion,†from an Indian nation inhabiting
one part of its valley.
Various expeditions were afterwards made by the
Spaniards, which opened up the head waters of the
mighty river; though much that is fabulous is
mixed up with the little that is accurate in the
narratives of those expeditions that have come down
to us. In 1561, itis said, one Juan Alvarez Mal-
donado started from Cuzco, and descended the east-
ern range of the Andes. On reaching the plain, he
and his followers fell in with two pigmies. They
cruelly shot the female, and the male died of grief
shortly afterwards.
Descending the great river Mano—which must
have been one of the tributaries of the Amazons—
16 MALDONADO’S VOYAGE.
for about two hundred leagues, they landed upon a
beach, and a detachment of soldiers penetrated into
the forest. There they found trees so tall as to
exceed an arrow-shot in height; and so large that
six men, with outstretched arms and joined hands,
could hardly circle them. Lying on the ground
was a man, fifteen feet in height, with limbs in pro-
portion ; long snout, and projecting teeth; vesture
of beautiful leopard-skin, short and shrivelled; and
for a walking-stick a tree, which he played with as
if it had been a cane. On his attempting to rise,
the Spaniards, perhaps in terror, shot him dead, and
returned to the boat to give notice to their com-
panions. But when they reached the spot they
found that the dead body had been carried off.
Following the track towards a neighbouring hill,
they heard such shouts and vociferations proceeding
thence that they were astounded, and, horror-stricken,
fled. ;
Another strange story of those early expeditions
may interest the reader :—
‘Between the years 1639 and 1648 Padre Tomas
de Chaves, a Dominican, endeavoured to convert the
Indian tribe of the Chunchos; and twelve of these
accompanied him to Lucia, where they were baptized.
(608)
THE PADRE’S ADVENTURES, 17
He then returned, and lived among the Indians for
fourteen years, making excursions in various direc-
tions. His last was in 1654, among the Moxos—
Indians who live on the banks of the Mamoré, an
affluent of the Amazons basin. ‘There he cured a
cacique of some infirmity; and the “emperor†of
the Musus—the great Paititi, or Gilded King of the
Spaniards—despatched six hundred armed men to
the cacique of the Moxos, demanding that the reve-
rend father should be sent to cure his imperial con-
sort. The Moxos were induced to part with their
physician only under menace of extermination ; but
ib was obviously better a few should die of disease
than all be killed by the Musus. Accordingly, the
padre was borne away in triumph on the shoulders
of the emperor’s guards. After travelling thirty
days, he came to a stream so wide that its opposite
bank was scarcely visible: this is supposed to have
been the Beni, a principal tributary of the Madeira,
Here the Indian ambassadors had left their canoes,
which were duly loosed from their moorings: the
party embarked, rowed down the river for twelve
days, and then landed at a large town, inhabited by
an incredible number of savages, all soldiers, guard-
ing this great port of the river, and entrance Into
(603) 2
18 RECEIVED BY “‘ THE EMPEROR.â€
the empire of the Musus. No women were to be
seen : they lived in another town a league distant,
visiting the other only by day with food and drink
for the warriors, and returning at night,
The padre observed that the river at this place
divided into many arms, all of which appeared to
be navigable, and formed large islands, occupied by
populous towns. Thence he travelled for twenty-
seven days before he reached the imperial court.
The emperor came forth to meet him, attired in the
finest and most delicate feathers of various colours,
He treated his guest with distinguished courtesy ;
prepared for him a most sumptuous feast ; and told
him that, having heard of his wonderful medical
powers, he had sent for him to cure the queen of a
disease which had baffled the powers of all his
doctors. The good father protested that he was no
physician, never having been bred to the art; but
observing that the queen was tormented by devils
(“ obsesaâ€), he exorcised her according to the Roman
Catholic formulary, and she thankfully became a
Christian.
For eleven months the padre remained at the
emperor's court; at the end of which time, finding
that the wine and flour for the sacred elements
THE LAND OF GOLD. 19
were almost spent, and having baptized an infinite
number of infants on the point of death, he took
leave of their majesties—recommending to the queen
that she should hold fast the faith she had received,
and abstain from all offence towards God. He re-
fused from the Gilded King a great present of gold,
silver, pearls, and rich feathers; whereat the monarch
and his courtiers marvelled much.
We have allowed ourselves, however, to diverge
from a chronological record. The object of the
Spaniards was not, as our readers will remember, to
enlarge the bounds of geographical knowledge, but
to find that Land of Gold, that fabulous “ Dorado,â€
which was the object of so many hopes and the
cause of so much waste of life—that “Doradoâ€
which fired the fancies even of our English poets,
and stimulated the enterprise of Sir Walter Raleigh.
In 1560 the Marquis de Cafiete, then Viceroy of
Peru, despatched Don Pedro de Ursoa, with a large
company of soldiers, in quest of the Golden Land.
Marching northward from Cuzco, he embarked upon
the Huallaga ; but at Lamus, a small town near that
river, was murdered by his lieutenant, Lope de
Aguirre, who then assumed the command of the
expedition. Aguirre passed from the Huallaga into
20 AGUIRRE’S EXPEDITION.
the Amazons, which he descended to its mouth.
Thence he coasted the rich shores of Guiana and
Venezuela, and seized upon the small island of Santa
Margarhita. His ambition increasing with his suc-
cess, he landed at Cumana, with the bold design of
founding an empire by his sword; but being de-
feated by some Spanish troops who had already
occupied the country, he was taken prisoner and
sent to Trinidad, where he was tried for treason,
condemned, and hung.
Aguirre is spoken of as a cruel and violent, as he
certainly was a courageous and resolute, man. Hum-
boldt reprints his letter to King Philip IL, and it
affords a striking illustration of his character. Thus
it runs :—
“On going out of the river Amazons, we landed
at an island called Santa Margarhita. There we re-
ceived news from Spain of the great heresy of the
Lutherans. It frighted us exceedingly ; and finding
among our number one of that faction, named Monte-
verde, I had him cut in pieces, as was just ; for
believe me, signor, wherever I am, people shall live
according to the law.
“In the year 1559 the Marquis de Cafiete sent
to the Amazons Don Pedro de Ursoa, a Navarrese,
HIS LETTER TO PHILIP II. 21
or rather a Frenchman. We sailed on the largest
rivers of Peru, until we came to a gulf of fresh
water. We had already gone three hundred leagues,
when we killed that bad and ambitious captain.
Then we chose for leader a cavalier of Seville, Don
Fernando de Guzman ; and swore fealty to him, as
is done to thyself. I was named Quartermaster-
general; but because I did not assent to all his
- commands, he wanted to kill me. But I killed this
new king, his captain of the guards, his lieutenant-
general, his chaplain, a woman, a knight of the
order of St. John, two ensigns, and five or six of
his servants. I then resolved to punish thy minis-
ters and thy auditors: I named captains and ser-
geants. These, again, wanted to kill me; but I
had them all hanged. In the midst of these adven-
tures we navigated eleven months, until we arrived
_at the mouth of the river. We sailed upwards of
fifteen hundred leagues. Heaven knows how we
voyaged over so vast an extent of water! I advise
thee, O great king, never to send Spanish fleets into
that accursed river,â€
An anecdote of this wild adventurer, related by
Ulloa, recalls, “ with a difference,†the Roman story
of Virginius and his daughter.
22 A TRAGIC INCIDENT.,
It would seem that a favourite daughter was his
companion in all his marches. At the close of his
reckless career, when defeated and surrounded go
that escape was impossible, he called her to him
and said: “I had hoped to have made thee a queen,
This is now impossible; but I cannot endure the
thought that you should live to be pointed out as
the child of a felon and a traitor. Thou must pre-
pare for death at my hands.†She begged him to
allow her a few minutes for prayer. He consented ;
but growing impatient at the length of her devo-
tions, or fearing that his enemies would be upon
him, he fired upon her while she was still kneeling.
The unfortunate lady staggered towards him ; but
taking her by the hand as she approached, he drove
his knife into her bosom, and she fell at his feet,
murmuring, “ Basta, padre mio !â€. (“It is enough,
my father !’’)
From the voyages of such wayward rovers as
these, it could not be expected that geographical
science would gain much that was useful or exact ;
and, in truth, our first accurate information of the
Amazons and its valley is due to the labours of the
Roman Catholic missionaries, who worked among
TEXIERA’S EXPLORATION. 23
the Indians with so much courage and devoted-
ness. ‘The first missionary stations in the upper
portions of the valley—the Montafia, as the Span-
iards called it—-were founded by the Jesuit fathers,
Cuxia and Ceuva, in 1637, beginning at the vil-
lage of St. Francis de Borja, on the left bank of the
Marafion.
In the same year, if Ulloa may be credited,
Pedro Texiera, a Portuguese captain, ascended the
Amazons with a fleet mounting forty-seven large
guns, After an eight months’ voyage from Para, he
arrived at the port of Payamino (or Frayamixa), on
the river Napo. Leaving his fleet there, he repaired
with some of his officers to Quito. The “royal
audience,†or Spanish administrator of that city,
determined on sending explorers with him on his
return ; and the Jesuit fathers, Acufia and Artieda,
were chosen for this purpose, with orders to report
all they saw and heard to the King of Spain.
Passing through the town of Archidona, which is
situated on the head waters of the Napo, they suc-
ceeded, after meeting with many adventures, and
undergoing severe sufferings, in joining the Portu-
guese fleet at the port of Payamino, and after a
journey of ten months’ duration, by land and water,
24 : MISSIONARY LABOURS.
arrived at Para, whence they sailed for the mother-
country.
The Spanish Government was at that time
engaged in a contest with Portugal; and being
unable to obtain any assistance, good Father Artieda
returned to Quito. Indefatigable in his efforts to
diffuse a knowledge of the religion of the Cross, he
appealed for help to the “royal audience†and the
Jesuits’ College of Quito, and by the latter was
furnished with five or six missionary priests. They
seem to have been very cordially received by the
Indians ; and so successful were their labours, that
by 1666 they had established thirteen large and
populous mission-settlements in the valley of the
Upper Marafion, and in the immediate neighbourhood
of the mouths of the Pastasa, the Ucayale, and the
Huallaga.
Almost simultaneously, the Franciscan monks
were advancing as missionaries and explorers from
Lima, by way of Tarma and Jauxa, into the country
drained by the head waters of the Ucayale; and in
1673, the missionary station of Santa Cruz de
Sonomora was founded on the river Pangoa, a
tributary of the latter. This was due to the heroic
efforts of Father Manuel Biedma, who, with wonder-
MANUEL BIEDMA’S ENTERPRISE. 25
ful perseverance, opened up mule roads in various
directions, and in 1686, embarking with Antonio
Vital at Sonomora, bravely descended the Ucayale
to a point near its junction with the Pachitea. Here
he planted a station called San Miguel de los Conibos,
the charge of which he intrusted to Vital; and
started on his return to Sonomora by water, but was
killed by the savages. Vital, on hearing of his
death, and finding himself alone, without hope of
succour, resolved to continue his voyage down the
river; and embarking in a canoe with six Indians,
safely reached the Jesuit missions at the mouth of
the Ucayale. . Obtaining there the necessary instruc-
tions, he ascended the Marafion, the Huallaga, and
the Mayo as far as it is navigable. Then, disem-
barking, he proceeded overland to Lima and Jauxa.
At the same time, Franciscan missionaries, start-
ing from Tarma, and penetrating into the valleys of
Chanchamayo and Vitoc, set on foot the missions
of the Cerro de la Sol and the Pajonal. The former
is described ag a mountain of rock and red earth,
traversed by strata of salt thirty yards in breadth,
from which the Indians over a considerable extent
of country obtain their supply. The Pajonal is a
broad grassy plain lying between the Pachitea and
> 26 THE PAMPA DEL-SACRAMENTO.
a great curve of the Ucayale. It measures one
hundred and twenty miles in length from north to
south, and ninety from east to west.
Missions were afterwards established in the
Pampa del Sacramento under the following cir-
cumstances :—
Those planted by Biedma and others on the
Ucayale, in 1673 to 1686, were swept away
during the Indian revolt of 1704. Twenty-two
years later, the Christianized Indians on the Hual-
laga, crossing the hills that border the eastern bank of
the river, came upon a beautiful wooded level, which,
the day of its discovery being the feast of Corpus
Christi, they named the Pampa del Sacramento.
Thither the Roman mission-priests made haste to
penetrate; and though they met with many difi-
culties, and some of them perished in their Christian
work, they persevered until numerous conversions
had been effected, and several stations founded.
It has been justly remarked by Herndon that the
difficulty of penetrating into these countries, where
the path is to be opened up for the first time, can
be conceived only by one who. has travelled over
the roads already trodden. The broken and preci-
pitous mountain-track—the deep morass—the dense
MADAME GODIN’S ADVENTURES. 27
and intertangled forest—the dangers arising from
Indians, wild beasts, reptiles—the scarcity of pro-
yisions—the awful deluges of rains—the perils of the
impetuous and rock-obstructed river, at every moment
menacing the wreck of the frail canoe,—these are
obstacles which might daunt the heart of any but
the gold-hunter or the missionary. It is to the
patient and noble labours of the latter that the
world owed all its knowledge of the vast regions
watered by the great South American rivers.
Some remarkable adventures on the Amazons
were experienced in 1769 by Madame Godin des
Odonais, on her way from Quito to join her husband,
who had contemplated an expedition up the river,
at Cayenne, where he was detained by illness.
' From Quito, on receiving intelligence of her
husband’s ‘ill-health, Madame Godin proceeded to
Riobamba, and then she crossed the Andes, to
embark at Canelos, on a. tributary of the Amazons,
with the view of descending that mighty river. |
She found the village infested with the small-pox,
so that only two Indians remained free from the
contagion. These had no boat, but they undertook
to construct one, and to pilot it as far down as the
28 A DREARY DETENTION.
mission of Andoas, on the Bobonaza river, a distance .
of from one hundred and forty to one hundred and
fifty leagues. The canoe being finished, Madame
Godin started from Canelos; but on the third day ot
their voyage the Indians absconded, and she and her
attendants (her brothers, a nephew, a physician, her
negro, and three female half-breeds) were left without
any experienced hand to steer their frail craft.
Next day at noon, however, they discovered a
canoe lying in a small cove near a leaf-thatched
hut, in which was a native recovering from illness,
who consented to pilot them. Two days passed
very pleasantly, but on the third the poor man
accidentally fell overboard, and being too weak to
contend with the current, was drowned. ‘The canoe,
again abandoned to persons incapable of managing
it, was soon afterwards capsized, compelling the .
party to land and build themselves a hut, while one
of them was sent to Andoas in quest of assistance.
Five-and-twenty weary days passed by, however,
and he did not return, nor came there any messenger
from him. The castaways therefore set to work to
build a raft, on which they ventured to embark,
with their provisions and property. ‘The raft, ill-
constructed, drove against the branch of a sunken
A PAINFUL JOURNEY, 29
tree and was overset, all the stores being destroyed,
and the whole party plunged into the water. For-
tunately, at the point where the accident happened
the river was very narrow, and no loss of life was
experienced—Madame Godin herself, after twice sink-
ing, being rescued by her brothers.
They now resolved on continuing their course
along the river-bank; a difficult task, the track
winding through a dense forest, where festoons of
lianas and uprooted trees formed a succession of
obstacles. Often it was necessary, axe in hand, to
cut open a path. By following the course of the
river in all its windings, they found their journey
seemingly prolonged ; and therefore struck into the
wood to take a more direct line. But in a few
days they lost themselves, and, their provisions
being exhausted, were compelled to subsist on a
few seeds, wild fruit, and the palm cabbage.
Their feet bleeding with wounds, and their frames
spent with hunger, thirst, and fatigue, they threw
themselves on the ground, utterly incapable of
moving another step; and there they lay for three
or four days, until death released them from their
sufferings. Madame Godin alone survived; half-
delirious, stupified, and tortured by the agony of
30 MADAME GODIN’S DANGER,
thirst, she summoned energy enough to leave the
scene of death, and to drag herself along in the hope
of meeting with assistance. Her clothes were torn
to shreds, and her feet were bare. Cutting the
shoes from her dead brother’s feet, she fastened them
on her own; and tottered onward, onward for eight
days or more. Such was the nature of her suffer-
ings, intensified necessarily by her solitariness, and
by the natural dread of spending night after night
in the forest-depths, that her hair turned gray. On
the second day she fortunately discovered some fresh
water, and on the third day some wild fruit and
birds’ eggs; and though she found the effort of
swallowing very painful at first, she in this way
recruited her strength sufficiently to endure the
further fatigues of her journey.
Were it told, says M. Godin, in his narrative of
his wife’s adventures,—were it told in a romance
that a delicate female, accustomed to the luxurious
conveniences of life, had been precipitated into a
river; that, after being rescued when on the point
of drowning, this female, the eighth member of a
party, had penetrated into unknown and _ pathless
woods, and travelled in them for weeks, ignorant in
what direction she bent her steps; that, enduring
VEGETATION OF THE LOWFR AMAZON.
oe
THROUGH THE PATHLESS FOREST. 33
hunger, thirst, and fatigue to very exhaustion, she
should have seen her two brothers, both stronger
than herself, a young nephew, three young women-
servants, and the domestic left behind by the physi-
cian, who started in advance to look for help, all
expire by her side, and she surviving them all;
that, after remaining by their dead bodies two whole
days and nights, in a country abounding in jaguars
and poisonous serpents, without once seeing any of
_ these creatures, she should afterwards have strength
to rise, and, covered with rags, continue her way
"through the pathless forest for eight successive days,
until she reached the bank of the Bobonaza, the
author would be charged with exaggeration; and
yet every statement is literally true.
Of late years, however, we have been accustomed
to hear of daring enterprises undertaken by women,
and of great sufferings heroically borne. Madame
Godin’s narrative, therefore, does not excite in us the
surprise or incredulity that it excited in the minds
of her contemporaries, strange and exciting as it
certainly is.
After resting, for the ninth night of her wander-
ings, on the bank of the Bobonaza, she was roused
at daybreak by a noise at about two hundred paces
(603) 3
34 ARRIVAL AT LAGUNA.
from her. In her first alarm she rushed into the
wood; but a little reflection convinced her that she
had nothing to fear; that, indeed, her condition
could not possibly be worse than it then was. She
returned to her resting-place, and found a couple of
Indians launching their canoe into the river. They
received Madame Godin with the greatest kindness,
and readily agreed to conduct her to Andoas.
On arriving at the Jesuit mission there, she might
well have expected that her troubles would be at an.
end. But the missionary then in charge was a man
of cold and avaricious nature: he behaved with a
rudeness and a greed which so disgusted Madame
Godin that she insisted on leaving immediately for
Laguna. Her welcome there was of a very different
character. Dr. Romero, the new chief of the missions,
paid her every attention that her feeble condition
demanded; and his kind and skilful treatment during
her six weeks’ residence at Laguna did much towards
the re-establishment of her health. A messenger
was sent to Ouraguas, whither the unfaithful phy-
sician had betaken himself; and soon afterwards he
joined her at Laguna, bringing with him “ four silver
dishes, a silver saucepan, a velvet petticoat, one of
Pusiana and one of taffety, some linen, and various
ON BOARD THE GALLIOT, 35
insignificant articles ;’—-the rest of her property
Madame Godin never recovered. The physician
endeavoured to persuade her to return to Rio-
bamba; but this she resolutely refused, being bent
on joining her husband. After some delay, the
Portuguese authorities provided her with a galliot,
properly equipped, and attended by a couple of
canoes, to descend the river. The descent was ac-
complished with comparative ease, and each rapid
passed in safety. At the different towns she halted
for rest and refreshment; and her voyage, though
difficult and tedious, was unattended by any actual
danger.
Madame Godin’s sufferings, however, were not
entirely at an end. One of her thumbs was in a
very bad condition, owing to the wounds it had sus-
tained from thorns in the wood. These not having
been extricated, had not only occasioned an abscess,
but had injured the tendon, and even the bone itself.
It was proposed to amputate the thumb; but by
dint of care and fomentations she had nothing worse
to undergo than the extraction of a couple of splin-
ters at San Pablo. She lost, however, the use of
the tendon.
The galliot continued the descent of the river,
36 HUSBAND AND WIFE.
through the shades of the virgin forest—then almost
wholly unknown to science—until it reached the
fortress of Curupe, about sixty leagues above Para.
Here M. de Martel, an officer of the garrison of Para,
arrived, by order of the governor, to take command
of the galliot, and conduct Madame Godin to Fort
Oyapok. A little beyond the mouth of the Amazons
estuary, at a spot off the coast where the currents
are very impetuous, he lost one of his anchors; and
as it would have been rash to proceed with only a
single anchor, he sent in a boat to Oyapok to seek
assistance. By this means M. Godin, who had left
Cayenne and reached Oyapok, heard of his wife’s
approach, and embarked on board a galliot of his
own to meet her. On the fourth day of his depart-
ure he fell in with her vessel opposite to Mayacare.
And thus, after an absence which circumstances had
extended over a period of twenty months, and patient
endurance, on both sides, of misfortunes and suffer-
ings, he once more embraced a cherished wife, who
had shown herself possessed of the most heroic quali-
ties. They anchored at Oyapok on the 22nd of
July 1770.
Of late years the virgin treasures of the forests of
RECENT TRAVELLERS. 37
the Amazons, and the extraordinary beauty of their
scenery, have attracted many travellers; and both
natural history and geographical science have profited
largely by the adventurous researches of a Wallace,
an Edwards, a Biard, an Agassiz, and a Bates.
Borrowing from their labours, we proceed in the
following pages to sketch the principal features of
a region which may hereafter become THE GARDEN
OF THE WORLD.
THE AMAZONS: RECAPITULATION.
(The Amazons has some claim to be considered the Queen of
Rivers. The basin which it drains comprises about two million
square miles, or a superficial area nearly equal to that of Europe.
In conjunction with its tributaries and sub-tributaries, it
supplies the states of Brazil, the Guianas, Peru, Venezuela,
Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia with an inland navigation of
fifty thousand miles.
From its sources—which lie within sixty miles of the Pacifie—
to its mouth in the Atlantic it measures four thousand miles in
length. Its mouth is about one hundred and fifty miles wide,
and extends the tidal influence for six hundred miles; while
such is its volume of water and such its force of current that it
drives back the ocean upwards of fifty leagues.
Its principal tributaries are: the Napo, the Pulumayo, the
Japura, and the Negro—the last connecting it with the Orinoco
—from the north; and the Huallaga, the Javari (or Cavary),
the Jutay, the Jurua, the Teffé, the Coary, the Purus, the
Madeira, the Tapajos, and the Xingu, from the south.
38 GEOGRAPHICAL DETAILS.
The main stream, the Marafion, is navigable inland for three
thousand three hundred and sixty miles.
While, as we have said, the Rio Negro connects the Amazons
with the Orinoco, through the Rio Branco and the Cassiquiare,
the Tapajos brings it within a distance of only eighteen miles
from a branch of the river La Plata; so that a short canal
would complete this wondrous system of inland water-com-
munication, and enable a boat to pass from the Orinoco into
the Plata.
The principal towns on the Amazons are Manoa, Obidos,
Ega, Santarem, and Para. Steamers now ply upon the river;
and it is a curious fact that the wind almost always blows from
the eastward, thus assisting them in their ascent, while in their
return voyage they have the advantage of the strong, swift
current. ]
CHAPTER II.
LIEUTENANT HERNDON’S VOYAGE DOWN THE AMAZONS.
N 1851 Lieutenant Herndon, of the United
States Navy, received instructions from
his Government to undertake the explor-
ation of the valley of the Amazons; and for this
purpose set out from Lima in the month of May, and
proceeded to cross the barrier of the Andes. De-
scending the westward face of the mountain-range in
the following month, he arrived at Tarma ; where
the reader and ourselves will find it convenient to
take up the narrative of his expedition.
The houses of Tarma—which is finely situated in
an amphitheatre of mountains, clothed nearly to their
summits with waving crops of barley —are built of
adobe, or sun-baked clay, with wood and iron work
of the rudest description : those of the better class
are whitewashed within and without. To gain a
good view of the inhabitants, the traveller should
40 DRESS OF THE NATIVES.
frequent the market-place on market-day, which un-
fortunately is Sunday. He will then see the men
dressed in ponchos, breeches buttoned at the knee,
long woollen stockings, and tall straw hats. The
women disport themselves in blue woollen skirts,
tied round the waist, and left open in front so as
to display the white cotton petticoat, with a mantle
of two or three yards of bright-coloured plush, called
“Spanish baize,†thrown over the shoulders: the
skirts of women of the well-to-do class generally
consist of a coloured print, or muslin. It is not
thought necessary, except when attired for company,
to don the bodice of the dress; and this is allowed
to hang down behind, and is covered by a gay shawl,
passed around the bust, with the end falling grace-
fully over the left shoulder. The hair is always
neatly dressed—parted in the middle, and hanging
down the back in two long plaits. It is crowned
by a trim low hat, ornamented with an abundance
of black ribbon.
Tarma seems to be a great place for fiestas, or
feast-days, which are encouraged by the Church,
notwithstanding the riot and drunkenness too often
connected with them. The public entertainments
on such occasions consist of music, bell-ringing,
AN INDIAN DANCE. 4]
rocket-firing, and Indian dances. A dozen “ vaga-
bonds†get themselves up in what is supposed to be
the costume of the ancient Indians: a red blanket
pendent from one shoulder and a white blanket from
the other; short blue breeches, trimmed at the knee
with white fringe; stockings of any colour; and
shoes or sandals of raw hide, tied around the burly
ankles. A low-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, made
of wool, and adorned with a circle of ostrich feathers,
completes the paraphernalia. Thus attired, the
pseudo-Indians march through the streets, halting
every now and then to perform a kind of dance to
the droning music of a reed pipe and a rude flat
drum, both in the hands of the same performer.
Each dancer carries a club of hard wood, with
which, at certain intervals of the dance, he beats
time on a small shield of hide or wood. An ad-
ditional musical accompaniment is supplied by the
iingling of the small bells called “ cascabells,†which
are attached to the feet and knees.
By way of Cerro de Pasco and San Rafael, Lieuten-
ant Herndon proceeded to Huanuco, situated on the
left bank of the Huanuco or Huallaga river. It is
one of the most ancient towns in Peru, though it does
42 AT TINGO MARIA.
not contain a single memorial of interest. After a
brief rest he descended the Chinchao valley, passing
a pretty village surrounded by cotton, coffee, orange,
and plantain trees. Here, by the wayside, he
noticed a pretty shrub with a gay red flower, which
is called San Juan, because it blooms about St. John’s
Day. The country increased in picturesqueness of
effect as he advanced; and a very fine picture, of a
wild and striking character, was presented by the
mal-paso, or rapid, of Palma, on the Huallaga,
where the river, obstructed in its impetuous flow,
broke into waves that dashed in foam and spray
against the worn and jagged rocks, or swirled around
and past them in thunderous violence,
At Tingo Maria our traveller reached the head of
the canoe navigation of the river. The town, or vil-
lage, is situated in a plain two thousand two hundred
and sixty feet above the sea-level, which produces
fertile crops of sugar-cane, rice, cotton, tobacco,
indigo, maize, yuccas, and sachapapus, or wood-
potatoes—the “large, mealy, purple-streaked, tuber-
ous root of a vine, in taste like a yam, and very
good food.†In the surrounding woods prowls the
puma, or American tiger, while deer and peccaries
and monkeys abound. Several varieties of glossy-
THE VAMPIRE BAT. 43
plumaged curassows, wild turkeys, numerous species
of parrots, black ducks, and cormorants, represent
the bird-world ; rattlesnakes and vipers, the world
of reptiles. Bats are also met with, and among
these the vampire. Herndon describes an individual
shot by one of his companions as “ disgusting-look-
ing,’ though its fur was delicate, and of a glossy,
rich maroon colour. Its mouth was amply pro-
vided with teeth: two long sharp tusks in the front
part of each jaw; with two smaller, like those of a
hare or sheep, between the upper tusks; and four,
considerably smaller, between the lower. ‘The nos-
trils seem fitted to act as a suction apparatus:
above them is a triangular cartilaginous snout,
nearly half an inch in length, and a quarter broad
at the base; with a semicircular flap below them,
nearly as broad, but not so long. Herndon conceived
the idea that these might be placed over the punc-
ture made by the teeth, and the air underneath ex-
hausted by the nostrils; thus converting them into
an admirable cupping-glass. But the truth seems
to be that this much-dreaded bat is no blood-sucker
at all, and that the stories told about it are as
unveracious as those of Baron Munchausen.
Mr. Bates speaks of it as the largest of all tho
44 NOT VERY PREPOSSESSING.
South American bats, and as measuring twenty-eight
inches across its outstretched wings. Nothing, he
says, in animal physiognomy can be more hideous
than the countenance of this creature when viewed
from the front: the large, leathery ears project
from the sides and top of the head—the curt, leaf-
shaped appendage of the nose (whence its scientific
name, phyllostoma)—its grin—and its keen black
eye,—all combine to make up a figure reminding
the spectator of some mocking imp of fable. It is,
perhaps, not to be wondered at that the common
folk should have attributed, in their usual fashion,
demon-like instincts to so demoniac-looking a crea-
ture. Nevertheless, it is the most harmless of all
bats, and a vegetarian in its diet, except that it
occasionally partakes of a “relish†of insects.
At Tingo Maria Herndon met with his first speci-
men of a blow-gun—the usual weapon of the Indian
hunter in the forests of the Amazons. It may be
made of any long, straight piece of wood; and con-
sists of a pole or staff about eight feet long, and
two inches in diameter near the mouth-end, tapering
to half an inch at the extremity, which is divided
longitudinally. A canal or groove is then hollowed
VAMPIRE BATS.
THE INDIAN BLOW-GUN. 47
out along the centre of each part, which is well
smoothed and polished by rubbing with fine sand
and wood. The two parts are then brought to-
gether, firmly. fastened with twine, and coated with
a thick layer of wax, which has been mixed with
some forest-resin to make it hard. Sometimes a
couple of boar’s-teeth are fitted on each side of the
mouth-piece ; and a curved front-tooth from any
small animal, placed on the top, serves as a sight.
Through this tube is propelled an arrow, or rather a
dart, about a foot long, and as thick as a lucifer-
match, made of very light wood, or of the middle
fibre of a species of palm-leaf. The end of the arrow
placed next to the mouth is wrapped with a light,
delicate kind of wild cotton, called hutmba ; while
the other end, which has an extremely sharp point,
is dipped in a vegetable poison prepared from the
juice of a creeping plant, mixed with strong red
pepper, or any other deleterious substance. The
Indian mode of using this sarbucan, or zarabutuna,
is as follows :—The marksman places it to his mouth
by holding it with both hands close to the mouth-
piece, and then propels the arrow by blowing
through the tube with all his force. A skilled
Indian will kill a small bird at thirty or forty
48 EMBARKING ON THE RIVER.
paces. The quiver for carrying the poisoned darts
or arrows is frequently a handsome bit of work;
the body being formed of neatly-plaited strips of
maranta-stalks, and the rim made of the highly-
polished, cherry-coloured wood of the mirra-piranga
tree.
Lieutenant Herndon embarked at Tingo Maria to
descend the river. He and his party occupied two
canoes ; the larger of which, about forty feet long by
two and a half feet broad, and hollowed from a
single log, carried a crew of five men and a boy.
One of these, the pwntero or bow-man, looks out for
rocks or sunken trees ahead; another, the popero,
or steersman, stands on a little platform at the
stern and directs the movements of the boat ; while
the rest are bogas, or rowers, who paddle away at
need with equal skill and vigour, having one foot
in the bottom of the canoe and the other on the
gunwale. In the open, unencumbered parts of the
river they drifted down with the current, in a lazy,
indifferent ease; but on approaching a mal-paso, or
rapid, they gathered themselves together like men
who knew they had hard work to do, and meant to
do it; and, guided by lookout-man and steersman,
SHOOTING WITH THE SARBUCAN.
A TROOP OF MONKEYS. 51
shot through the boiling waters at a tremendous
pace, but in entire security. These mal-pasos are —
of frequent occurrence, and sometimes their passage
is not unattended with danger.
The Indians, remarks our voyager, have very
keen senses, and hear and see much that is in-
audible and invisible to the duller white man; a
circumstance due, of course, to the conditions under
which they live, and the training that they receive
from their very infancy. One morning the lieu-
tenant’s canoe-men began to paddle with unusual
energy. What was the matter? Oh, they heard
monkeys ahead. But they paddled fully a mile
before Mr. Herndon could distinguish the sounds
they spoke of. At last they came up with a troop
of large red monkeys, grunting, among the foliage
of some tall trees on the river-side, like a herd of
angry hogs. They landed, and in a few minutes
the lieutenant was pushing his way through the
tangled copse with as much excitement as if he
were a boy once more, and hunting squirrels.
Three of the unfortunate monkeys were killed; one
falling to the American’s rifle, and two to the
Indians’ blow-guns. ‘The tenacity of life of these
animals is very remarkable; the one killed by
52 HOWLER MONKEYS.
Mr. Herndon was, as the Indians expressively said,
banado en municion (bathed in shot). In size they
resembled a common terrier-dog, and their bodies
were covered with long, soft, maroon-coloured hair.
They are called cotomonos, from a large swelling
(coto) under the jaw; the said coto being a thin
long apparatus in the windpipe, by means of which
they produce their characteristic noise. The male,
cwraso, which is also the designation of the chief of
an Indian tribe, has a long red beard.
These monkeys seem to have belonged to the
tribe of Howlers, whose frightful unearthly cries
make night in the forest hideous. Mr. Bates
observes that it is curious to watch them while
venting their “hollow cavernous roar,’ which is
produced by a “drum-shaped expansion of the
larynx,†and causes but little muscular exertion.
When howlers are seen in the woods, there are gene-
rally three or four of them perched on the topmost
branches of a tree. Their harrowing ery does not
appear to be caused by any sudden alarm, though
it probably serves to intimidate enemies,
Parts of these animals are used by the Indians,
who are by no means particular in their selection
of remedies, for the cure of various diseases, The
J
“ FLOATING GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM.†53
female carries the young upon her back until it is
able to go alone.
“When I arrived at the beach with my game,â€
says the lieutenant, “I found that the Indians had
made a fire, and were roasting theirs. They did
not take the trouble to clean and skin the animal,
but simply put him in the fire, and when well
scorched, took him off and cut pieces from the fleshy
parts with a knife; if these were not sufficiently
well done, they roasted them further on little stakes
stuck up before the fire. I tried to eat a piece, but
it was so tough that my teeth would make no im-
pression upon it.â€
With so much that is curious and interesting
both in animal and vegetable life to engage the
attention, and with so constant a succession of fresh
and novel landscapes, the voyager down the Amazons
finds time very agreeably occupied, and day after
day glides by like the changes of a dream. Excite-
ment is not wanting; for occasionally the roar of
the puma is heard in the neighbouring forest, and
occasionally the voyager’s canoe is tossed in the
eddies of a boiling rapid. Then ever and anon he
reaches some river-side town, with its little port, or
54 “THE LOST SOUL.â€
mooring-place, and has an opportunity of examining
the manners and customs of its inhabitants, most of
whom are Mestizos, or descendants of mixed marri-
ages. A convent is always one of the appendages
of these strange, solitary, remote abodes, where only
the ebb of the wave of civilized life seems to expend
itself.
Among the birds of the Amazonian valley, the
voyager will probably be much impressed by that
which the Spaniards call £1 alma perdida, or “the
lost soul.†Its song is peculiarly soft and plaintive, _
and echoes through the silent forest like the wail of
Marguerite in Goethe’s Faust. The Quichua Indians
call it Pa-pa ma-ma, and relate in connection with
it the following story :—An Indian and his -wife
went out into the woods to work, carrying with
them their babe. While the mother repaired to
a spring to obtain some fresh water, the child was
left in charge of the father, who received the most
emphatic instructions to take good care of it. On
coming to the first spring the woman found it dry,
and started off in search of another. Meanwhile
her- husband grew alarmed at her long absence, left
the child, and went to look for her. When they
returned the infant was gone; and to their repeated
THE MANATEE, OR SEA-COW. 55
cries, as they roamed the woods in quest of it, they
received no answer but the melancholy notes of a
little bird, then heard for the first time, pa-pa.
ma-ma.
The manatee, or sea-cow, the Spanish vaca marina
and Portuguese peiwe boy, is an inhabitant of the
Amazons and its principal tributaries. When full
grown, ib averages about nine feet in length and six
feet in girth. In appearance it is not unlike a
large seal, with a smooth skin, dark on the upper
part of the body, dirty white on the under, and
thinly besprinkled with coarse hairs. The eyes and
ears—or, rather, what serve for ears
are very
small. The mouth, too, is small, but with a thick
wide upper lip. It has no teeth, but is furnished
with a kind of cushion attached to both jaws, which
is well adapted for the mastication of vegetable food.
The broad, flat tail is placed horizontally ; and, in
conjunction with two large fins, placed near the
jaws, enables it to make its way through the water
with considerable velocity.
The capture of a manatee is made by the Indian
canoe-men the occasion of a holiday. They all dis-
embark, and hasten into the forest to perform the
56 THE LAKE-COUNTRY.
processes of skinning and cooking. The finer flesh
is cut into dice-shaped pieces, and each person
skewers a dozen or so of these on a long stick.
Large fires having been kindled, the impromptu
spits are stuck in the ground around them, so as to
stand over the flames and expedite the roast. The
Indians are very partial to this dish, but the white
voyager is apt to pronounce the meat coarse and
tough; while the fat, which is of a greenish colour,
has a decidedly disagreeable flavour.
As the voyager nears the confluence of the
Huallaga with the Marafion, he gets into what is
known as the lake-country ; and thence, even to
the mouth of the Amazons, the river is bordered on
each side by large lakes which communicate with
the river by irregular channels, winding through the
dark glades of the virgin forest. They are fre-
quented by immense numbers of cranes, cormorants,
and water-fowl generally, and also by legions of
turtle. The Indians have a tradition that many of
these remote forest-pools are guarded by an immense
serpent, which can create such a tempest and tumult
in their waters as to swamp the canoes, whereupon
it immediately devours their rowers. It is known
2
A WONDERFUL ANIMAL. 57
as the Yacu Mama, or “mother of the waters ;â€
and the Indians will not enter a lake with which
they are unfamiliar until they have roused every
echo with the clang of their horns. If the serpent
be there, it immediately answers; and to be fore-
warned is, in this case as in every other, to be fore-
armed,
Here is a description of the monster given by
Father Manuel de Vernazza, writing in 1845 :—
“The wonderful nature of this animal,’ he says,
“its figure, its size, and other circumstances, en-
chain our attention, and lead us to reflect upon the
infinite power and wisdom of the Creator. — Its
appearance alone suffices to confound, intimidate,
and inspire respect into the heart of the boldest.
He never seeks or follows the victims on whom he
feeds; but such is the force of his inspiration,
that he draws in with his breath any bird or quad-
ruped that may pass within twenty to fifty yards
of him, according to its size. The one which I
killed from my canoe, with five shots of a fowling-
piece, was two yards in thickness and fifteen feet
in length; but the Indians of this region have
assured me that there are animals of this kind of
three or four yards diameter, and from thirty to
58 JUNCTION OF THE HUALLAGA.
forty feet long. These swallow entire hogs, stags,
tigers, and men with the greatest facility; but, by
the mercy of Providence, it moves and turns itself
very slowly, on account of its extreme weight.
When in motion it resembles a thick log of wood
covered with scales, and dragged slowly along the
ground, having a trunk so large that man may see
it at a distance, and avoid its dangerous ambush.â€
The good father would seem to have met with
and killed a boa constrictor; and the expression
“two yards in diameter†is probably mistranslated
for “two yards in thickness.â€
Our course now brings us to the junction, below
the town of Laguna, of the Huallaga with the
Amazons; the former at this point being three
hundred and fifty yards wide, and the latter five
hundred yards. -The main branch of the Amazons,
on which we now enter, bears its Peruvian name
of Marafion as far as Tabatinga, on the Brazilian
frontier ; thence, to the confluence of the Rio Negro -
it is known as the Solimoens; after which it is
called by the world-famous designation that geo-
graphers generally apply to the entire river.
“Tts capacities for trade and commerce,†says
AN EARTHLY PARADISE, 59
Herndon, “are inconceivably great. Its industrial
future is the most dazzling; and to the touch of
steam, settlement, and cultivation, this rolling stream
and-its magnificent watershed would start up into
a display of industrial results that would indicate
the valley of the Amazons as one of the most en-
chanting regions on the face of the earth.
“From its mountains you may dig silver, iron,
coal, copper, quicksilver, zinc, and tin; from the
sands of its tributaries you may wash gold,
diamonds, and precious stones; from its forests you
may gather drugs of virtues the most rare, spices of
aroma the most exquisite, gums and resins of the
most varied and useful properties, dyes of hues the
most brilliant, with cabinet and building woods of
the finest polish and most enduring texture.
“Tts climate is an everlasting summer, and its
harvest perennial.â€
It should be added that this eternal summer is
broken in upon by tremendous rains. But there
can be no question that in few places on this wide
earth can life be more pleasantly spent than in
the wooded depths of the great Amazons valley.
We rise at dawn to find the sky glowing with a
cloudless blue; while the sun, on its rapid course
60 A DAY IN THE FOREST.
towards the zenith, absorbs the pearl-drops spark-
ling on branch and leaf and blade of grass, A
wonderful activity pervades all nature; new leaf-
buds and new flower-buds are opening everywhere
around us. Yonder tree last evening was a dome
of green foliage; now it glistens with a wealth of
blossoms. The birds are in full vigour ; and among
the neighbouring fruit-trees resounds the shrill cry
of the toucans. Above our heads, at such a height
as to appear dim specks, fly small flocks of parrots,
always in pairs, and the different pairs at regular
intervals, and their chattering distinctly audible, as
they wend on their busy way. While gradually
the song-birds fill the air with music, and the insect-
world awakens its various voices.
Towards two o’clock we feel the heat considerably
increased, and by that time bird and mammal have
once more relapsed into repose. The higher tem-
perature has affected the leaves and flowers ; the
latter shed their petals, the former hang droopingly
from their stalks. But there are signs of welcome
rain. In the east the white clouds which gathered
some time ago have given way to a sudden black-
ness, and this spreading rapidly upwards. obscures
the sun.
ESE
Se :
Se pve:
yy
ae ig ge
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EE EEE Ee
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Ea EG
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a ae
INTERIOR OF THE FOREST
AT EVEN-TIDE. 63
forest glades, rocking the tall trees as if they were
reeds ; a flash of lightning streams across the dark-
ened sky; then comes a crash of thunder, and a
tropical torrent of rain. The storm passes away
as swiftly as it arose, but leaves some bluish-black
clouds in the sky until night. Meantime, Nature
has drunk of the brimming cup, and been refreshed ;
though fallen leaves and flower-petals lie in heaps
under the wind-tossed trees.
Now comes still evening on, and life once more
revives; the insect renews its hum, the bird its
song. And this revival lasts until the presence of
night makes itself felt in the forest, and every ani-
mal retires to rest, except those which wait for the
cover of darkness to secure their prey.
The following morning brings with it another cloud-
less sky ; and the daily cycle of phenomena goes round
in the order already described. There is little change
in one day compared with another, except that which
marks the difference between the dry season and the
wet: and as to this it may be said, that the dry
season, from July to December, is refreshed with
showers; and the wet, from January to June, with
days of brilliant sunshine. The consequence is, says
a distinguished naturalist, that the periodical phe-
64 A YEAR OF-SUMMER.
nomena of plants and animals do not occur at about
the same time in all species, or in the individuals of
any given species, as is the case in temperate
regions. There is no hibernation, as in cold coun-
tries; no summer torpidity, as in some tropical
countries. Plants do not flower or shed their leaves,
remarks our authority, nor do birds moult, pair, or
breed simultaneously. Perhaps the dweller in the
Amazons valley loses something by losing the differ-
ent aspects of the different seasons. If he have no
winter, he has no spring. The equatorial forest
presents much the same aspect every day; for, in
one species or another, budding, and flowering, and
fruiting, and decaying is always going on. Nor is
there any pause in the activity of birds and insects.
Each species has its own time. For instance, the
colonies of wasps do not die off annually, leaving
only the queen, as in cold climates; but generation
follows generation, and colony succeeds to colony
without interruption. “It is never,†says Mr.
Bates, “either spring, summer, or autumn, but each
day is a combination of all three. With the day
and night always of equal length, the atmospheric
disturbances of each day neutralizing themselves
before each succeeding morn; with the sun in its
HERNDON’S VOYAGE. 65
course proceeding midway across the sky, and the
daily temperature the same within two or three
degrees throughout the year,—how grand in its
perfect equilibrium and simplicity is the march of
Nature under the equator !â€
But we must resume our narrative of Lieutenant
Herndon’s explorations. To name the different
towns and villages, or the mouths of rivers, which
he passed in his downward course, would be to per-
plex and weary the reader. At Nauta he purchased
a larger boat, which he fitted up with a deck and
cabin ; and with twelve rowers, and a fresh supply
of provisions, resumed his adventure. In the varie-
ties of bird-life which frequented the river-banks he
found a constant source of entertainment. Flesh-
coloured porpoises tumbled about his boat; monkeys
chattered among the boughs which impended over
the waves ; and fish of strange kinds were caught
by the industrious hook and line. There was
much to notice also in the dress and manners of the
different Indians who inhabit the valley; for each
tribe has its distinctive peculiarities. The Conibos,
Shipebos, Selebos, Pirros, Remos, and Amajuacas
are the nomads of the Ucayale region, roving from
(603) 5
66 GATHERING TURTLE-EGGS.
place to place, and distinguishing themselves by
their skill as boatmen and fishermen. Sometimes
they reside in settlements on the river-banks; but
many of them live in their canoes, and resort to the ©
land only in bad weather, where they run up huts
of reeds and palms.
At Tabatinga, which is inhabited chiefly by
Ticufia Indians, with a small garrison of Brazilian
soldiers, our adventurer quitted Peruvian territory,
and crossed the confines of the empire of Brazil.
At the same time the river lost its name of Mara-
fion, and took that of Solimoens. A short distance
below the town, it measured no less than a mile
and a half in width; while it was sixty-six feet
deep in the middle, and its current flowed at the
rate of two miles and three-quarters per hour.
Below Tunantins, Mr. Herndon had an oppor-
tunity of seeing the people gathering turtle-eggs, for
the purpose of making manteiga. A commandant,
with soldiers, is yearly appointed to take charge of
the beaches frequented by the turtle, prevent dis-
order, and administer justice. At the beginning of
August, when the turtle begin to lay their eggs,
sentinels are duly stationed; and they remain until
i ue Ai
ZEEE UNORI EO
4 J Ci A ti
INDIANS.
TICUNA
ARRIVAL AT EGA. 69
the beach has been cleared. The eggs, in however
offensive a condition, are collected, thrown into a
canoe, and subjected to a vigorous treading process
by the Indians. The shell and young turtle are
flung aside ; and water being poured on the residue,
it is left to stand in the sun for several days. Then
the oil on the top is skimmed off. and boiled in
large copper vessels; after which it is stored in
earthen pots of about forty-five pounds’ weight.
A turtle averages eighty eggs; and forty turtle will
give a pot.
In December Mr. Herndon reached the mouths,
one a few hundred yards from the other, of the
Japura, a very important Amazonian affluent. The
width of the Amazons at this point is between four
and five miles. Soon afterwards he arrived at the
comparatively busy little town of Ega. With respect
to trade it occupies a very favourable position, being
close to the mouths of three great rivers, the Jurua,
the Japura, and the Teffé, which here expands into
a noble sheet of water, five miles broad, partly en-
closed by green wooded hills. ga itself consists of
a hundred or so of palm-thatched cottages, and
white-washed red-tiled houses, each in the midst of
70 MIDNIGHT MASS.
its little prolific orchard of orange, lemon, guava,
and banana trees. Groups of stately palms, with
tall, elegant shafts and feathery crowns, rise high
above the buildings and the lower trees. From the
small patch of white sandy beach a broad grassy
street ascends to the open green in the centre of the
town, and the rude barn-like church beyond, con-
spicuous by the wooden crucifix in front of it.
Lieutenant Herndon attended midnight mass in
this church at Christmas-time. He found it well
filled with well-dressed people, and some very pretty
though dusky-skinned ladies. ©The congregation
was devout; but the lieutenant’s own feeling of
devotion was much disturbed by the wretched
grunting of a hand-organ used as an accompani-
ment to the singing !
The alligators that swarm in the river here are a
drawback to the amenities of Hga. In the dry season
they are apt to become very troublesome; and the
bather cannot enjoy his usual aquatic promenade
without danger. The European will do well, as a
traveller suggests, to imitate the natives in not
advancing far from the bank, and in fixing his eye
on that of the monster which stares with a disgust-
ing leer above the surface of the water; the body
MANUFACTURE OF TURTLE OIL.
ALLIGATORS AT EGA. 73
being submerged to the level of the eyes, and the
top of the head, with part of the ridge of the back,
alone being visible. As soon as any motion is
detected in the water behind the huge reptile’s
tail, a quick retreat is advisable. “I was never
threatened myself,†says our authority; “but I often
saw the crowds of women and children scared,
whilst bathing, by the beast making a movement
towards them: a general scamper to the shore, and
peals of laughter, were always the result in these
cases. The men can destroy these alligators when
they like to take the trouble to set out with mon-
tarias and harpoons for the purpose ; but they never
do it unless one of the monsters, bolder than usual,
puts some life in danger. This arouses them, and
they then track the enemy with the greatest per-
tinacity ; when half-killed they drag it ashore and
despatch it amid loud execrations. Another, how-
ever, is sure to appear some days or weeks after-
wards, and take the vacant place on the station.
Besides alligators, the only animals to be feared are
the poisonous serpents, which are common enough
in the forest.â€
ga, in 1850, was only a village, dependent on
Para, fourteen hundred miles distant, as the capital
74 A PROSPEROUS TOWN.
of the then undivided province. In 1852, when a
new province of the Amazons was created, it bloomed
out into “a city;†and though even now its popula-
tion is not fifteen hundred, it returns members to
the provincial parliament at Barra, and has its
assizes and resident judges, and other signs of re-
spectability. In 1853, steamers began to ply on
the Solimoens ; and since 1855, one has run regu-
larly every two months between the Rio Negro and
Nanta in Peru, touching at all the villages, and
accomplishing the whole distance of twelve hun-
dred miles, in ascending, in eighteen days. Trade
and population, however, have increased but slowly.
Yet a great future must be in store for it! It will
yet have a history of its own. For it is singularly
healthy and enjoyable: surrounded by perpetual
verdure, the soil is of marvellous fertility ; the
interminable streams and labyrinths of channels
abound with fish and turtle; and in the lake-like
expanse of the Teffé, which opens direct into the
mighty Amazons, a fleet of great steamers might
safely anchor at any season of the year.
ga is a famous place for holiday-making, as is
natural in so fine a climate, and in a country where
FEAST OF ST. THERESA. 75
the people have go little to do. We suppose not
a week passes without the excitement of a gala
Not only are innumerable saints’ days celebrated,
but also funerals, weddings, christenings, visits from
strangers, and the like. The Irish custom of
“waking†the dead is also an excuse for a subdued
kind of revelry—the women and children sitting on
stools round the laid-out body, with its crucifix and
tapers, and the men gathering at the open door to
smoke, drink coffee, and tell stories. The great
festival of the year is that of Santa Theresa, the
patron-saint; it lasts for ten days, beginning
quietly with litanies sung in the church at close
of day, the greater part of the population attend-
ing, all freshly and brightly dressed in calicoes and
muslins. The church is lighted up with wax
candles inside, and outside with tiny oil lamps,
made of cups of clay, or halves of the thick rind
of the bitter orange. It is not until towards the
end of the festival that devotion gives place to fun.
Then the managers of the festa keep open house,
and for two days and a night the dancing, and drum-
ming, and guitar-tinkling, and drinking by both
sexes, are uninterrupted. These people at their
inerry-makings, says Mr. Bates, resemble very closely
a
76 ST. JOHN’S EVE.
our farmers and peasants at the rural holidays in
sequestered parts of England. The old folk, who
do nothing more than look on, get very talkative
over their cups; the children gambol, and make a
noise, and sit up later than usual; the dull and
reserved suddenly grow loquacious ; and the morose
break out into effusive expressions of cordiality and
new-born friendship. The Indian is generally taci-
turn, but on these occasions he gains the use of. his
tongue, and bores his listener with long-winded
reminiscences of incidents which most people have
forgotten, and none would care to have remem-
bered.
In the amusements of the St. John’s Eve festival,
the principal part is played by the Indians, though
the half-breeds are ready enough to contribute their
share. With both a novel kind of masquerading
seems very popular. They discuise themselves as
animals, or ‘dress themselves up in the most grotesque
costumes imaginable. One of the cleverest will enact
the Caypér, a wood-demon, of which the Indians
are very much afraid. This is represented as a
bulky, deformed monster, with a red skin, and long
shaggy red hair hanging half-way down his back.
The favourite animals are bulls, deer, jaguars, and
INDIAN MASKERS. 77
magoury storks, got up-with the assistance of light
wooden frameworks, covered with old cloth properly
dyed, or painted, and shaped. “Some of the imita-
tions which I saw,†says Mr. Bates, “were capital.
One ingenious fellow arranged an old piece of canvas
in the form of a tapir, placed himself under it, and
crawled about on all fours. He constructed an
elastic nose to resemble that of the tapir ; and made,
before the doors of the principal residents, such a
good imitation of the beast grazing, that peals of
laughter greeted him wherever he went. Another
man walked about solitarily, masked as a jabiru crane
(a large animal standing about four feet high), and
mimicked the gait and habits of the bird uncom-
monly well...... The maskers kept generally together,
moving from house to house, and the performances
were directed by an old musician, who sang the
orders, and explained to the spectators what was
going forward in a kind of recitative, accompanying
himself on a wire guitar...... The performances take
place in the evening, and occupy five or six hours ;
bonfires are lighted along the grassy streets, and the
families of the better class are seated at their doors,
enjoying the wild but good-humoured fun.â€
The favourite trees cultivated in the gardens of
78 FISHING-EXCURSIONS.
Ega (or Teffé, as it is frequently called) are the cocoa-
nut palm, the assai, and the papunha, or peach-
palm. It should be added that to almost every
house is attached a well-stocked turtle-yard,—the
inhabitants depending largely upon turtle for their
food.
Fishing-excursions are easily made from Teffé, and
are not without a certain picturesque character. As
our canoe enters one of the romantic leaf-hidden
creeks so numerous in the forest, lazy alligators may
be seen in the still glassy water, with their heads
just raised above its surface; and a tall heron or
two, planted on the shore, and apparently watching
his reflection in the stream. On reaching a certain
point, our Indian boatmen spring up to their necks
in the water, and stretch the net ; which, after a few
minutes, they drag in to shore with a load of fish,
reminding us of St. Peter's miraculous draught.
The fish, as the net is landed, break from it in
hundreds, leaping through the meshes and over the
edges, and covering the beach with their scaly silver.
The Indians show considerable skill in their manage-
ment of the net, and lash the water with long rods
to startle the fish, and drive them into its interior.
Mr. Bates describes a mode of taking fish which
SHOOTING FISH. 79
is practised on the Tapajos. A poisonous liana
called timbo (Paullinia pinnata) is used, but will
act only in the tranquil waters of creeks and pools.
A few rods, each about three feet long, are mashed
and soaked in the water, until it becomes discoloured
with the deleterious milky juice. Then, in some
twenty to thirty minutes, all the smaller fishes over
a tolerably wide area rise to the surface, floating on
their sides, and with gills wide open. It is evident
that the poison acts by suffocation ; it spreads in the
“water slowly, but a very slight mixture seems suffi-
cient to stupify them.
Occasionally the fish are shot at, with bow and
arrow. The arrow is a reed, with a steel barbed
point, which is fixed in a hole at the end, and
secured by fine twine made from the fibres of pine-
apple leaves. Necessarily, this singular method is
successful only in the clearest water; and much
skill is required, in taking aim, to allow duly for
refraction.
Turtle-hunting is one of the principal occupations
of the inhabitants of Teffé, and a description of the
pastime will not fail to interest our readers.*
We start, therefore, for the turtle-pools, hidden
* Founded on the narrative of M. Agassiz.
80 DELTA OF THE JAPURA.
away among the forest foliage, in a couple of canoes
chiefly manned by Indians. A long reach of the
river, unbroken by islands, opens out before us; a
glorious breadth of rolling water, stretching away to
the south-east. The country on the left bank is a
portion of the alluvial land which forms the extensive
labyrinthine delta of one of the great Amazonian tri-
butaries, the Japura. Every year it is flooded at.
the time of high water; and it is intersected by a
maze of deep and narrow channels, which afford an
outlet for the waters of the Japura, or are connected
with it by the interior water-system of the Cupiyé.
This dreary tract of profitless land extends over
several hundred miles, and contains in its midst an
unnumbered complexity of pools and lakelets,
haunted by turtle, alligators, fishes, and water-
serpents. Our destination is a point about twenty
miles below the village of Shinouné, and close to the
mouth of the Anand, one of the river-like outflows
of the Japura.
After a three hours’ voyage we make for the
land, and bring-to under a steep bank of crumbling
earth, which the river-waters, in their gradual sub-
sidence, have shaped into a succession of terraces or
beaches. The coast-line runs nearly straight for
GOING A-FISHING, 8]
many miles, and the bank rises about thirty feet
above the present level of the river, with the forest-
growth advancing to its very edge.
On landing, our appetites remind us of the need
for breakfast. A couple of Indian lads set to work
to kindle a huge fire, roast some fish, and boil
coffee ; while the others mount the bank, and with
their long hunting-knives begin to clear a path into
the forest.
Breakfast over, we cut a great number of short
poles, and laid them crosswise on the path; then
three light canoes, or montarias, which we had
brought with us, were hauled up the bank with
lianas, and rolled away for embarkation on the pool.
Next, a large net, seventy yards long, was brought
ashore, and transported to the fishing-grounds,
These preparations were soon completed by the
Indians, and when we ourselves arrived we found
that they had already begun their sport. Perched
on little stages called montds, made of poles and
transverse joints bound together by lianas, they
were shooting the turtle, as they rose near the
surface, with bow and arrow. The Indians were
apparently of opinion that to net the savoury ani-
mals was not a legitimate process, and desired first
(603) 6
82 A FAIRY POOL.
to have an hour’s practice with their old familiar
weapons.
The pool covered an area of about four or five
acres, and was completely encircled by the picturesque
and luxuriant forest-crowth. The margins for some
distance were swampy, and covered with large tufts
of a fine grass called matupd. In many places these
tufts were mingled with beautiful ferns, while around
them bloomed a ring of arborescent arums, springing
to a height of fifteen or twenty feet. Then, as an
outer circle, stood the taller forest-trees : palmate-
leaved cecropias; shapely assai-palms thirty feet high,
with their smooth and gracefully-curving stems
topped by their crests of feathery foliage ; small fan-
leaved palms ;—and, behind all, the dense masses of
ordinary forest-trees, their branches hung with leafy
climbers in the most fantastic streamers, garlands,
and festoons. The whole scene was indescribably
beautiful.
But from its fairy-like features we turned to
wonder at the skill displayed by the Indians in
shooting turtle. They did not wait for their coming
to the surface to breathe, but watched for the ripples
on the water, which indicated their movements
underneath. These tracks are called the siriré; and
INDIANS SHOOTING TURTLE.
TURTLE-SHOOTING. 85
as soon as one was detected an arrow flew from the
nearest bow, and never failed to penetrate the
cuirass of the submerged chelonian. When the turtle
were at a considerable distance, the aim had neces-
sarily to be taken at a considerable elevation ; but
this long range was preferred by the marksmen,
because, as the arrow fell perpendicularly on the
shell, it pierced more deeply.
The arrow used in turtle-shooting has a strong
lancet-shaped steel point, fitted into a peg which
enters the tip of the shaft. This peg is secured to
the shaft by twine made of the fibre of pine-apple
leaves,—the twine being from thirty to forty yards
in length, and neatly wound about the body of the
arrow. When the missile enters the shell out drops
the peg, and the wounded animal descends with it
towards the bottom, leaving the shaft floating on
the surface. Thereupon the fisher paddles his
montaria to the spot, and gently draws the animal
by the twine,—manceuvring it as an angler does a
salmon, and gradually bringing it near the surface,
when he strikes it with a second arrow. The hold
afforded by the two lines is such as to make the
capture of his game quite easy.
Orders were now given to spread the net.
86 A STIRRING SCENE.
couple of Indians seized it, and extended it in a
curve at one extremity of the oval-shaped pool,
holding it when they had done so by the perpen-
dicular rods fixed at each end. Its breadth was
about equal to the depth of water—five feet; conse-
quently its shotted side rested on the bottom, while
floats buoyed it up on the surface,—so that the
whole, when the extremities were brought together,
would form a complete trap. The rest of the com-
pany then took up their position around the swamp
at the other end of the pool, and began to beat, with
stout poles, the thick tufts of matupa, so as to drive
the turtle towards the middle.
This activity lasted for an hour or more, the stir
and shouts giving an air of great liveliness to the
scene. Gradually the beaters drew together, driving
the frighted chelonians in a huddled heap before
them; and that the fishing went well was shown by
the number of little snouts constantly popping above
the surface of the water. When they neared the
net we moved more quickly, shouted more lustily,
beat the herbage more vigorously. The ends of the
net were then seized by several stout hands, and
hauled forward with a sudden motion which brought
them into simultaneous contact; in this way the
A PLENTIFUL HARVEST ! 87
victims were shut up in a circle. Straightway we
all of us leaped into the enclosure, regardless of the
leeches that infested the pool; the boats came up,
and the turtle, easily captured by the hand, were
thrown into them. Three boat-loads, or about eighty,
were secured in twenty minutes. Having been
taken ashore, each one was secured by the men
tying the flippers with thongs of bast. They were
nearly all young turtle, from three to ten years of
age, and six to eighteen inches in length; fat were
they, and succulent, and a gowrmet would have re-
garded them with delight. Roasted in the shell,
they formed a dish “for the gods.†These younger
turtle do not migrate with their elders when the
waters sink, but haunt the warm muddy pools,
growing fat upon fallen fruit. We caught also a
few full-grown mother turtle, easily recognized by
the horny skin of their breast-plates being worn,
“telling of their having crawled on the sands to lay
eggs the previous year.†Some male turtle, or
capitans, as the natives call them, were also found.
These are distinguished from the females by their
smaller size, more circular shape, and the greater
length and thickness of their tails. The natives
tegard their flesh as unwholesome.
88 LEGEND OF THE BOUTO.
A little before sunset we dined on the river-bank,
and the mosquitoes beginning to persecute us, we
crossed the river to a sandbank about three miles
distant, where we stretched ourselves round a large
fire and beguiled the time with conversation. The
Indians told some stirring stories of encounters with
jaguar, manatee, or alligator; and mysterious legends
concerning the bouto, as the large Amazonian dol-
phin is called. They told how of yore a certain
bouto was accustomed to assume the shape of a
beautiful woman, with long locks flowing loosely to
her heels; and how at night she paced the streets of
Ega, and sought by her blandishments to beguile
young men into following her. Then, if any unwary
youth accompanied her to the river-bank, she caught
him round the waist, and with a shout of exultation
plunged beneath the waves. It is curious to meet
on the bank of the Amazons with a fable so like
that of the Lorelei, or water-nymph, of the Rhine.
Fishing operations were resumed on the following
morning, and an exciting incident occurred. When
the net had been joined into a circle, and the men
had leaped in, an alligator was found to be enclosed.
The Indians showed no alarm, and simply expressed
CAPTURING AN ALLIGATOR. 89
their concern lest the creature should break the net.
First one exclaimed, “I have touched his head!â€
then a second, ‘‘He has scratched my leg!†and
when a third, a lanky Mirénha Indian, was thrown
off his balance, the laughter and shouting grew up-
roarious. At last a youth of about fourteen years
of age seized the reptile by the tail, and clung to it
firmly, until, its resistance being somewhat subdued,
he could drag it ashore. The net was opened, and
the boy slowly hauled the dangerous but cowardly
monster through the muddy water for about a hun-
dred yards. Meantime, one of the party cut a stout
pole from a neighbouring tree, and dealt the alliga-
tor a blow on the head which instantaneously killed
it. A good-sized individual it proved to be, with
jaws upwards of a foot in length, and fully capable
of snapping a man’s leg in twain. Its species was
the jacaré-uassti of the Amazons, the Jacaré nigra
of naturalists.
Alligators, or caymans, as we have already said,
swarm in. the waters of the Upper Amazons; and it
seems fitting that some reference should here be
made to their characteristics. The natives speak of
many species; but our best naturalists particularize
only three, one of which is considered to be exceed-
90 THE LARGE CAYMAN.
ingly rare. Those most frequently met with are the
jacaré-tinga, a small kind, five feet long in an adult,
with a long slender muzzle and a black-banded tail;
and the jacaré-uassu, of which we shall speak pre-
sently. The third is the jacaré-curua, found only in
the shallow creeks.
The jacaré-uassu, or large cayman, grows to a
length of eighteen or twenty feet, and attains a
colossal bulk. Like the turtle, it has its annual
migrations, retiring to the inland pools and flooded
forests in the wet season, and in the dry descending
to the main river. In the middle part of the Lower
Amazons, or between the towns of Obidos and Villa-
nova, it buries itself in the mud during the heats of
summer, and lies in a state of torpidity until the
rains return. But on the Upper Amazons, where
the heat is never extreme, it does not adopt this
habit; and a recent writer asserts that it is no
exaggeration to speak of the waters of the Solimoens
as being as thickly peopled with alligators as a ditch
in England is with tadpoles during the summer
season.
It would seem that the natives regard the cay-
man with mingled feelings of fear and contempt.
Mr. Bates tells us that he once spent a month at
BOAT SURROUNDED BY ALLIGATORS.
ALLIGATOR-FISHING, 93
Caigara, a small settlement of half-civilized Indians,
about twenty miles to the west of Ega. His host,
one Senhor Faria, proposed to him that he should
enjoy half a day’s net-fishing on “the lake,â€â€”that
is, the expanded bed of a small Amazonian stream,
on which the village was situated. With six Indians
and a couple of the senhor’s children, they set out
in an open boat. The waters had sunk so low that
the Indians had to carry the net out into mid-stream,
and at the first draught two medium-sized alligators
were brought to land. Being disengaged from the
net, the Indians, with the utmost unconcern, allowed
them to return to the water, though the two children
were dabbling in it not many yards distant. The
fishing was continued, both the Englishman and the
senhor lending a helping hand; and each time a
number of the reptiles, of different ages and sizes,
were drawn up,—the lake, in fact, swarmed with
alligators. After capturing a large quantity of fish,
the party prepared to return, first securing one of
the alligators with the view of letting it loose among
the swarms of dogs in the village. The individual
selected was about eight feet long ; one man holding
his head, and another his tail, while a third took a
few lengths of a flexible liana, and deliberately bound
94 A TIMID MONSTER.
up the jaws and legs. Thus secured, the creature
was laid across the benches of the boat, and during
the return voyage it behaved with the utmost
decorum. On reaching the village it was conveyed
to the middle of the green, in front of the church,
where the dogs were wont to congregate, and received
its liberty,—a couple of persons arming themselves
with long poles to intercept it if it made for the
water, and the rest exciting and encouraging the
dogs. The alligator’s terror was extreme, though
the dogs could not be induced to advance; and it
made off for the water, full speed, waddling like
a duck. An attempt was made to keep it back
with the poles, but it grew enraged, and seizing the
end of one in its jaws, wrested it from the hands of
the person who held it. At length, to prevent it
from escaping, it was summarily despatched.
This anecdote is a striking illustration of the cay-
man’s timidity. It never attacks man if its intended
victim prove to be on his guard; but it is not less
crafty than cowardly, and knows when 1t can ven-
ture on an assault with impunity.
the incident above recorded, the river-waters sank
to a very low level, so that the port and bathing-
place of the village lay at the foot of a long sloping
THE INDIAN AND THE ALLIGATOR, 95
bank; and in the muddy shallows, before long, a
large cayman made its appearance. Everybody was
obliged, therefore, to exercise great vigilance when
bathing ; and, indeed, most of the people prudently
contented themselves with using a calabash, and
pouring the water over their persons while standing
on the river’s brink. Just at this time a large trad-
ing-canoe came up from Para; and, as usual, the
Indian crew spent the first two or three days in wild
revelry ashore. One of the men, in the hot drowsy
noon, when almost all the inhabitants were enjoying
their siesta, took it into his head, which was dis-
ordered with the fumes of drink, to go down alone
to bathe. The only individual who saw him was
the Juiz de Paz, or magistrate, a feeble old man,
reclining in his hammock in the open verandah at
the rear of his house; and he shouted to the
intoxicated Indian to beware of the alligator. He
had not time to repeat the warning, before the man
stripped ; and a pair of gaping jaws, suddenly rising
above the surface, seized him round the waist and
drew him under water. With a shriek of agony he
disappeared. The village was aroused; the young
men grasped their harpoons and hastened to the
bank; but, of course, they could do nothing,—-a
96 EGG-DEPOSITORIES.
streak of blood on the surface of the water was all
that told of the Indian’s fate. Bent upon ven-
geance, they leaped on board their montarias ;
tracked the monster,—which, when it came up to
breathe, was still mangling its victim’s remains,—and
killed it, with loud shouts of exultation.
It is curious to notice the promptitude and cer-
tainty with which the Indians of Ega discover the
egg-deposits of the turtle. The reader must recollect
that the beach of the Amazons is the haunt and
breeding-place of many different kinds of animals ;
and that it is difficult to distinguish between the
tracks of alligator, capivari, and turtle—between the
nests not only of turtle and alligators, but of the
various kinds of birds and fishes that lay their eggs
in the mud or sand. However, with a quick but,
so to speak, inquiring tread, the Indians walk rapidly
over the sand, as if with “an instinctive perceptionâ€
in their step; and the moment they set their foot
upon a spot where eggs are deposited, though no
sign is visible to the unaccustomed eye, they detect
it immediately, and, stooping, dig straight down to
the eggs, which are generally eight or ten inches
under the surface. Besides these tracks and nests
VEGETATION ON THE BEACH.†97
may be noted the rounded shallow depressions in the
mud, which, according to the fishermen, are “the
sleeping-places of the skates.†They are certainly
about the size and form of the skate, and it is not
improbable that the Indian account of their origin is
correct.
Not less interesting than their animal-life is the
vegetation on these beaches. In the rainy season
more than half a mile of land, now exposed along
the river-margins, lies wholly under water; the river
rising not only to the edge of the forest, but flinging
its turbid flood far into its leafy depths. In the
glowing summer-days, however, the shore consists,
first, of the beach; next, of a broad belt of tall
grasses, beyond which are the lower shrubs and
trees; and, in the rear of all, the stately forest-
growth. It is then that vegetation makes an effort
to recover lost ground; and the little turbanba (a
cecropia) and a kind of willow (Saliw Humboldti- .
and) spring up on the sand, and creep down to the
brink of the waters—only to be destroyed when
these again rise in their might.
During his stay at Ega, Lieutenant Herndon paid
(603) 7
98 THE YAGUA INDIANS. =
a visit to a settlement of the Yagua Indians, accom-
panied by their padre or priest.
The Yaguas turned out in procession, with bells
ringing and drums beating, to welcome their priest.
Rude triumphal arches of palm branches had been
erected, and under these he was conducted to the
mission-house. The American stranger, however,
was by no means favourably impressed with the
appearance of the padre’s flock. Their countenances,
he says, wore a vacant and stupid expression. Their
dress consisted of a girdle of bark round the loins,
with a bunch of fibres of a different kind of bark,
about a foot in length, dependent from the girdle
before and behind. Similar but smaller bunches
were hung around the neck and arms by a collar
and bracelets of small beads. This, however, was
the ordinary dress. On festival days they stained
all their bodies a light brown, and then executed
fantastic devices upon it in red and blue. The long
tail-feathers of the macaw were stuck in the arm-
lets, so as to rise above the shoulders; and a chaplet
of white feathers from the wings of a smaller bird
adorned the head. The dress of the women was
sunplicity itself—a yard or two of cotton cloth
rolled around the hips.
CONSTRUCTION OF THEIR HUTS. 99
Let us take a glance at the huts of the Yaguas.
Long slender poles are fixed in the ground in opposite
rows, at a distance of about thirty feet apart; by
bringing the tops of these together, a rude kind of
arched framework is formed, about twenty feet in
height. In front of the openings of the said arch
similar poles, though not all of the same length, are
planted; and these are bent down and securely
fastened to the tops and sides of the openings.
Inside and outside they are held together by cross
poles; and the entire structure is thickly thatehed .
over, until it resembles “a gigantic bee-hive, †with
two or three small and narrow entrances. t the
interior, sleeping-rooms are partitioned off by light
walls of cane, each of which is often inhabited by a
whole family ; the central aqpate being reserved for
the general benefit.
On the whole, these Indians seem to lead an
indolent and easy life. They hunt a little, and fish
a little; but a large portion of their time is given
up to smoking, sleeping, and drinking. Their sole
trade or manufacture is hammock-making; the mate-
vial employed being the fibres of the young shoot
of a kind of palm. It must be owned that to
obtain these fibres is no easy work, the tree being
100 HAMMOCK-MAKING.
defended by long sharp thorns, and so hard, that it
takes a whole day to cut of a “cogollo,’ or crown.
The leaves are then split into strips of a suitable
width, and off these the fibres are dexterously
removed with the finger and thumb. The women
next set to work to twist the thread. Sitting on
the ground, they take up a couple of threads, or
yarns, of minute fibre, between the finger and
thumb of the left hand, and lay them, slightly sepa-
rated, on the right thigh. The twist is given by
rolling each thread down the thigh, under the right .
hand; afterwards, with a slight, swift motion of the
hand, two threads are brought together, and a roll
up the thigh finishes the cord. A woman will twist
fifty fathoms, about the size of common twine, in
a day.
But we must now take leave of Ega, and in com-
pany with Lieutenant Herndon resume our descent
of the great river.
One of the first points of interest is the lake of
Coary,—a land-locked basin of water, which makes
a splendid harbour, and is approached from the
Amazons by a broad channel, half a mile in length.
Next we come to the mouths of the Purus, which
MOUTH OF THE RIO NEGRO. 101
are navigable only at high water, and in small
canoes, with the exception of the principal mouth,
situated one hundred and forty-five miles below
Lake Coary. It is a fine-looking river, says Herndon,
with moderately bold shores, masked by a great
quantity of bushes growing in the water. These
have a great number of berries, which are purple
when ripe, and about the size of a fox-grape. The
pulp is sweet, and is eaten.
At a distance of ninety-five miles from Pesquera,
we reach the mouth of the Rio Negro. For some
time we have been aware of its vicinity, its black
waters being distinctly traceable in irregular channels
as they cut through, not mingle with, those of the
Amazons. The entrance is superb; probably two
miles in width. Travellers have not exaggerated
the deep colour of its waters, which look like black
marble, and fully justify its appellation. When
taken up in a tumbler, however, the water is of a
light red colour, as if it had been tinted by juniper
berries.
Ascending the Negro for a short distance, we
drop anchor at Barra, or Manaos, the capital of the
province of Amazonas.
It lies on high broken ground, on the left bank
102 i THE RIVER AT MANAOS.
of the river, and about seven miles from its mouth.
Its elevation above the level of the sea may be
computed at 1475 feet. Two or three glens, or
valleys, watered by small streams, and spanned by
stout wooden bridges, intersect it. Most of the
houses are of one story, but some boast of two
stories, and are built of wood and adobe, and roofed
with tiles,
Opposite Manaos the Negro is about a mile
and a half wide, and beautiful exceedingly, with
green, low islands skirting its wooded banks. It is
navigable, even for considerable vessels, to the Rio
Maraga (400 miles), where the rapids begin; and
the further ascent can be made only in boats. It
connects the Negro with the Orinoco, thus establish-
ing for the interior of South America a wonderfully
complete system of water-communication. Most of
the vessels, it is said, that ply on both rivers, are
built at or near San Carlos, the frontier port of
Venezuela, situated above the rapids of the Negro;
and are sent down these rapids, and also up the
Cassiquiare and down the Orinoco to Angostura,
passing the two great rapids of Atures and Maypures,
where the Orinoco takes a northerly direction. They
are unable again to pass up the rapids. From Barra
A SEAT OF FUTURE EMPIRE. 103
or Manaos, at the mouth of the Negro, to San
Fernando, on the Orinoco, is a voyage of fifty-one
(lays. When the banks of these mighty streams
and their tributaries, which afford a water-way of
about twenty thousand miles, shall be inhabited by
an energetic, industrial population, exchanging the
rich products of their fertile soil for the commodities
and luxuries of foreign countries; when the railroad
shall traverse the now almost inaccessible depths
of the virgin forest, and the steamboat plough the
great waters; when agricultural science shall have
developed the resources of regions as yet untilled
and scantily inhabited,—there can be no question
that the valleys of the Amazons and the Orinoco
will become the seat of a powerful empire, and their
ports the centres of an illimitable commerce.
From Manaos we may cross to the Hyanuary
lake, on the western bank of the Rio Negro, A
swift row of about an hour’s duration takes us out
of the broad expanse of the noble river; and, after
doubling a beautiful wooded promontory, we pass
into a shady creek or igarapé, which gradually
narrows into one of these leaf-canopied, winding,
picturesque streams that lend so peculiar a charm to
104 RIVER-LIGHTS,
the virgin forest. From the lower branches of the
?
trees depends a “ragged drapery,†as Agassiz calls
it, of long faded grass, marking the height of the
last rise of the river to some eighteen or twenty
feet above its present level. Here and there may
be seen a snow-white heron in his characteristic atti-
tude of meditation, on the low green bank, the sun-
shine falling on his bright, glossy plumage. The
bushes glitter with numbers of ciganas, the pheasants
of the Amazons; a pair of large king-vultures sweep
over our heads, like a passing cloud; and now and
then an alligator lifts its grisly jaws above the
waves.
As we float along the beautiful forest-stream, our
thoughts are naturally directed to the physical
phenomena of this great Amazonian valley.
region of wooded country covering a whole con-
tinent, and inundated for more than half the year,
cannot fail to possess a peculiar interest for the
observer. It can hardly be spoken of as “dry land.â€
True it is, as Agassiz remarks, that in this oceanic
river-system the tidal action has an annual instead
of a diurnal ebb and flow; that its rise and fall
obey the influence of the sun and not of the moon;
yet the country is not the less subject to all the
AN IGARAPE.
RIVERINE PHENOMENA. 107
conditions of a submerged district, and as such we
must think of it. And we must remember that no
marine tides could so affect the manner of life of
the inhabitants as these semi-annual changes of the
water-level. For half the year the people sail
through countries where, in the other half, they
walk, though barely dry-shod, over the steaming
ground; and, necessarily, in accordance with the
alternations of the wet and dry seasons, they modify
their costume, their habits, and their occupations.
But not only the life of the people,—the whole
aspect of the country, the entire colouring and form
and character of the landscape, undergo an absolute
change.
When the mighty river rises fully forty feet,
cascades and rapids disappear in the swollen flood ;
all the peculiar beauties of river-scenery, its minia-
ture coves and its winding creeks, are blotted out ;
over each bold group of rocks pours the torrent in
irresistible flow ; while the forest glades for many a
league resound with the hoarse thunder of the
rolling waters.
All that we hear or read of the extent of the
Amazons and its tributaries gives, as Agassiz re-
marks, no idea of its immensity as a whole. The
108 A FOREST WATERFALL,
voyager must traverse its surface for month after
month before he can comprehend how entirely it has
gained the mastery over the land that lies along
its borders. Its labyrinth of streams, lakes, and
channels may not inaptly be described as a fresh-
water ocean, intersected here and there by narrow
isthmuses and swelling promontories. Its whole
valley is an aquatic and not a terrestrial basin; and
from this point of view it is not strange that its
rivers, comparatively speaking, should be fuller of
life than its forests.
While at Manaos, the traveller will find ample
occupation in entering into the shadowy depths of
the great forest, or tracing the course of one or other
of the innumerable brooks which, as we have said,
add so much to its attractiveness. M. Biard speaks
of a journey of this description, Under the shade
of lofty boughs he proceeded, one day, until he heard
the distant sound of a waterfall, Pressing forward,
he reached a great open space, surrounded by colossal
trees, and shining with the waters of a pool, formed
by the overflow of a noble cascade. Its waters were
as black as those of the N egro. He followed the
course of the stream through a maze of tall trees
INDIAN LIFE. 109
and sharp thorny bushes, until he came upon a
small Indian hut. There he was surprised by the
number of animals: dogs and cats, a parroquet,
some black hoccos with red beaks, and a host of
other domestic birds, all living on terms of good
fellowship. Every forest excursion reveals to the
traveller some such quaint picture as this.
While at Manaos, too, we may see something
more of Indian life. Between noon and four
o'clock, very little is or can be done in this ener-
vating climate, and everybody who can slings his
hammock in some cool and shady spot, and abandons
himself to day-dreams or to sleep. Then comes
dinner; and after dinner we take our coffee out-
side, while our places round the table are filled by
some Indian guests, who have been invited to a
repast after their own fashion.
This over, the room is cleared of the tables, and
swept; music arrives,—a flute, a viola, and a violin,
-—and dancing becomes the order of the evening.
At first the forest-belles show some timidity at the
presence of strangers, but by degrees the lively
musi¢e kindles in them a corresponding animation.
They are picturesquely clad in skirts of calico or
110 INDIAN DANCING.
muslin, with loose cotton bodices, trimmed round
the neck with a kind of lace, which they make
by drawing the threads from cotton or muslin so
as to form an open pattern, and by sewing those
which remain over and over in order to secure them.
Some of this lace is very fine and elaborate. Many
of the women have their hair dressed with jessa-
mine or roses stuck into their round combs, and
several wear gold beads and ear-rings. The dances
are peculiar, and one noteworthy feature is the
quietly indifferent air of the women. In all the
Indian dances the man is bold and forward, but the
woman coy and languid, moving with an almost
sleepy slowness. Her partner throws himself at
her feet, but does not win a smile or a gesture of
recognition, He stoops and pretends to be fishing,
making motions as if he were drawing her in with
a line, but the bait evidently does not take nor the .
hook hold; then he whirls around her, imitating
the sound of castanets, and half encircling her with
his arms,—still without response. Occasionally,
indeed, they join together in a waltzing movement,
but it is of the briefest duration.
A visit which Madame Agassiz, when she ascended
the Amazons with her distinguished husband, paid
A BOAT-VOYAGE. melee
to an Indian sitio, or summer station, is interesting
enough to deserve a record here.
We rowed up the lake, she says, through a
strange, half-aquatic, half-terrestrial region, where
land and water seemed combined in about equal
proportions. Groups of trees rose directly from the
waters, their roots hidden below the surface; while
numerous decayed and blackened trunks, with all
kinds of picturesque and fantastic forms, were
clustered on every side. Here and there, the trees
had thrown off from their branches those remark-
able aerial roots and epiphytous plants which are
so characteristic of the virgin forest. At times, as
the voyagers slowly passed along the green borders,
they obtained glimpses of the remote wilderness,
with its twining boughs and implicated leaves
where,
‘* Like restless serpents clothed
In rainbow and in fire, the parasites,
Starred with ten thousand blossoms, flow around
The gray trunks,â€
and lianas and creeping vines weave an almost
impervious network of foliage. Usually, however,
the margin of the lake presented a gentle lawny
slope,
‘¢ Fragrant with perfumed herbs,â€
112 A SUMMER STATION.
and rich in a verdure so soft and yet so vivid that
it seemed as if the earth had been born anew after
its six months’ immersion in the overflowing waters.
Occasionally a tall palm lifted its crest above the
green forest-line,—especially the light and graceful
assai, its crest of plumes waving statelily in the
breeze.
Half an hour’s sail brought the voyagers to the
landing-place of the sitio for which they were
bound. Having disembarked, they followed a
neatly-kept path winding through the forest. The
sitio stood on the brow of a hill which, on the other
side, dipped down into a deep broad ravine: this
ravine was watered by a stream, and beyond it the
land rose again with a succession of gentle undula-
tions, very refreshing in their contrast to the gene-
rally flat character of the Amazonian scenery. The
fact that this sitio, standing during the dry season
on a hill overlooking the valley and its winding
rivulet, is almost level with the waters when the
stream is swollen by the flooded river, gives a
striking idea of the difference of aspect between the
dry season and the rainy.
The sitio, or establishment, consisted of a number
of buildings,—the most conspicuous being a large
IN THE INTERIOR. 113
open room, used for the reception of guests, or as
a dancing-hall, when visitors from Manaos and its
neighbourhood come out for an evening dance, and
remain all night. A low wall, about four feet from
the ground, enclosed the sides, against which were
placed rows of wooden benches. The two ends
were closed from top to bottom with a screen of
palm-thatch, very pretty, fine, and smooth, and of
a delicate straw-colour. At the upper extremity
stood a colossal embroidery-frame, large enough to
have held that wondrous web at which Penelope
wrought during the ten years’ Trojan war, but con-
taining an unfinished hammock of palm-thread, the
production of the Indian senhora’s needle. Sitting
down on a low stool in front of it, she worked a
little for the amusement of her visitors, showing
how the two layers of transverse threads were kept
apart by a thick, polished piece of wood not unlike
a long broad ruler. Through the interval, the
shuttle is passed with the cross thread; which is
then, by the same piece of wood, pressed down and
straightened in its place.
The room we have described stood on one side of
a cleared and neatly-kept open space, about which,
at various distances, were raised several little
(603) 8
114 ‘UP THE RIO NEGRO.
thatched “cusinhas,†as they are called, consisting
mostly of a single apartment. Besides these, there
was a large house, with walls and floors of dried
mud, partitioned off into two or three rooms, and
having a wooden verandah in front. This was the
senhora’s private residence. At some short distance
down the hill was the mandioca kitchen, with the
necessary apparatus. All around bloomed a thriv-
ing plantation of mandioc and cacao trees, with a
few coffee shrubs planted at intervals.
We must now take our departure from Manaos.
But before we resume our sketch of Lieutenant
Herndon’s adventures, we may turn to the lively
narrative of M. Biard,——who descended the river in
1859,—and borrow the account of some of his
experiences.
He too had visited Manaos, and made an excur-
sion up the Rio Negro. On regaining the Amazons,
he and his men were overtaken by a storm, which
compelled them to take shelter among a mass of
shattered trees. The men attempted to reset a sail
which had been blown from the yard by the fury of
the wind and torn in tatters. The rain wet them
to the skin, while the thunder crashing over their
BIARD’S ADVENTURES. 115
heads rendered rest impossible. Towards night the
wind subsided, but M. Biard did not venture to
resume his journey until morning, when the sun
shone forth again from a cloudless sky; and the sail
being re-hoisted, with the wind favourable, he
dropped downwards at a rapid rate, assisted by the
current,
M. Biard tells us that he attempted to sleep,
stretched on a mat, beneath the roof of his thatched
cabin, but the heat made him restless, Several
days passed by uneventfully. He was anxious to
gain one of those white sandy beaches where a
landing becomes possible; and was delighted when
he caught sight of a distant line of white traced on
the background of the sombre forests. Previously
disembarkation had been impossible; the shores,
laid bare by the recession of the waters, formed
immense stages or terraces, composed of the different
deposits left by the river on retiring. Whoever
had planted his feet on these steps of liquid mud
would have instantly disappeared, sinking to a
great depth, without the possibility of receiving
human assistance.
The Indian canoe-men plied their paddles vigor-
ously, and M. Biard soon landed, followed by the
. 116 BIARD ON THE RIVER.
crew, who, without ceremony, roamed where they
chose, in search of anything that might fall in their
way. M. Biard, gun in hand, struck into the
woods, but found the swampy soil a serious obstacle
to his researches. On returning to the canoe, he
learned that Polycarp, one of his Indians, had found
a large number of the eggs of a kind of turtle
which in the native language is called tracaja.
These, unlike the eggs of the larger species, have a
hard shell.
At some distance off M. Biard caught sight of a
flight of large birds known as ciganas; but finding
that he was separated from them by a creek, he
re-embarked on board his canoe, and soon succeeded
in securing a trophy. While engaged in reloading
his gun, he saw a cayman gliding stealthily among
the reeds. The prospect was not reassuring, and
M. Biard hastily withdrew some steps, examin-
ing carefully if the creature had no companion
ashore. When at a safe distance, M. Biard was
preparing to take aim, but an Indian, who was
busily killing turtle with long, iron-headed arrows,
beckoned to him to look in the river. It was a
long time before he could make out the object
indicated; but after a while he saw a_ black
JAGUAR AND CAYMAN. 117
point, like a head, moving in the direction of the
canoe, and apparently coming from an island about
three miles off. At first M. Biard thought it was
some native of the neighbouring island, bent on
paying a visit to his compatriots. When he
reflected on the distance he would have to swim,
however, and on the impossibility that he could
have seen the canoe, our Frenchman rejected this
supposition. Yet, if he was not a man, what was
he or at? The mystery was soon solved: the
stranger proved to be a jaguar, and its fine head
soon became distinctly visible. It speedily caught
sight of the voyagers in its turn, but not until it
had advanced so far as to render impossible its
return to the opposite shore.
Unable to rely on Polycarp, who was a long way
‘off, and busy with his turtle eggs, still less on any
other of his men, M. Biard reserved the bullet he
had intended for the cayman, and waited. His
heart, he says, beat loudly; for he knew that it
was a matter of life and death that he should hit
the animal. Just as he took steady aim, the
jaguar turned abruptly in the other direction. M.
Biard began to run, so as to get right opposite his
foe, and wait the moment of his landing. He
118 THE JAGUAR ESCAPES
wished to get a point-blank shot, for greater cer-
tainty ; but in executing this manceuvre he was
“brought up†by the thorny bushes and prickly
lianas. His feet were bare, and it was impossible
for him to climb a hillock that was between him
and the spot where he expected the jaguar would
land. But suppose he disappeared! M. Biard
resolved on hazarding a shot, and fired with all
possible alacrity. That he was wounded, seemed
evident from the way in which he lifted one of his
feet to his head, rubbing his left ear, as a cat does.
For a moment he was lost sight of; then he re-
appeared on the other side of the hillock, and
plunged into the thickest shades of the wood.
Re-embarking in his canoe, M. Biard, while his
men paddled along the muddy shore of a large
island, set to work to prepare the birds he had
killed. The cigana is about the size of a small hen;
with plumage of a beautiful mauve-violet colour, its
head ornamented with a tuft, its beak of a bright
blue, and its eyes red.
On reaching the extreme point of the island, the
voyagers, to their great delight, found there a fine
sandy beach, and jumping into the water, proceeded
AN INDIAN REPAST. 119
to moor the canoe. Then each indulged himself
again, according to his taste, in hunting or fishing,
until all were weary. The beach proved to be of
great extent, and no wood could be discovered with
which to kindle a fire and cook their turtle, except
beyond a wide expanse of water. The men re-
solved to embark and drop down with the current,
keeping close to the shore, and following M. Biard,
who preferred to walk. Reaching in this way
the extremity of the sand-bank, they were fortu-
nate enough to come upon a portion of the shore
raised high above the river, and covered with
baobabs. The soil was stony; and the voyagers
reached the summit of the ascent without losing
their footing.
The Indians quickly lighted a huge fire. Then
they proceeded to beat up their eggs, each man
filling with them his calabash, that served alter-
nately as plate and goblet. To the eggs they added
a certain quantity of water, and thus formed a paste
which they seemed to enjoy immensely. They had
already treated after the same process the eggs of
the tracaja; but, according to true Indian fashion,
never dreamed of offering any to their employer.
However, he had taken care of himself, and had
120 DOWN THE RIVER.
secured a dozen, which, roasted in the hot ashes,
furnished a satisfactory meal.
The internal portions of the turtle made a capital
pot-au-feu ; and the plastron, with the flesh adhering
to it, was roasted on a spit. Thus provided with
food-supplies for several days, the voyagers con-
tinued their course down the Amazons.
Such is a leaf from M. Biard’s “log-book ;†and
it serves to show the manner of life that is led
by the adventurer who quits. the dull routine of
civilization for the romance, the freshness, and the
novelty of Amazonian travel.
CHAPTER III.
FROM MANAOS, EASTWARD.
HE Madeira, another of the great tributaries
of the Amazons, has two principal mouths,
geese} which are divided by an island, low and
grassy at one extremity, and high and wooded at
the other. It is the largest of the affluents. About
four hundred and fifty miles inland occur a series
of magnificent cascades or rapids, spreading over
an extent of not less than three hundred and fifty
miles. Above these falls large vessels can penetrate,
by its tributaries the Beni and Mamoré, into the
heart of Bolivia; and by the Guaporé or Itenes,
into the rich Brazilian province of Matto Grosso,
For a considerable part of its course, its banks are
covered by the virgin forest.
Thirty miles below the Madeira we come to
Serpa ; a cluster of huts on a grassy promontory,
round which the Amazons rolls with a sudden sweep.
122 VILLA NOVA DA RAINHA.
The lake of Saracia lies behind it, and communicates
with the river by two channels.
Passing over a hundred and fifty miles, Lieutenant
Herndon brings us to Villa Nova da Rainha, which
he describes as a long straggling village of one-story
huts, situated in a little bend on the right bank of
the Amazons, at an elevation above the sea of nine
hundred and fifty-nine feet. It contains about two
hundred inhabitants, and is the chief town of a dis-
trict producing cocoa, coffee, and a few cattle. Con-
siderable quantities of fish are caught and salted here
for exportation. Just below it opens the mouth of
the river Ramos, affording communication with the
large village of Manés; round about which spreads
a rich grazing plain, intersected by streams and
channels of great depth. The fertile soil is well
adapted to the cultivation of coffee, cocoa, cotton.
Herds of cattle may find food in the luxuriant pas-
tures; the rivers yield shoals of fish; the neigh-
Bowne woods produce almost erm ecnie supplies
of cloves, cocoa, castanhas, caoutchoue, guaran, sar-
saparilla, and copaiba.
Passing the village of Parentins, situated on some
high lands that mark the boundary between the
provinces of Para and Amazonas, we enter a country
GATHERING FRUIT OF THE CACAO.
AT OBIDOS. 125
devoted to the cultivation of the cocoa-tree; and,
at one hundred and five miles below Villa Nova,
reach the town of Obidos.
During his sojourn here Herndon took a canoe to
visit the cacoaes, or cocoa-plantations, in the neigh-
bourhood. He stopped, he says, at the mouth of
the Trombetas, which empties its waters into the
Amazons by two mouths, only four or five miles
above Obidos. The lower and smaller mouth is
called Santa Teresa ; the other, Boca de Trombetas.
The river is said to be two miles wide, and pro-
ductive of fish, castanhas, and sarsaparilla ; but its
navigation is obstructed by rocks and rapids. The
country it traverses is so cut up with creeks, streams,
and natural canals, as to be, literally, a world of
waters.
Crossing the Amazons at this point, our Ameri-
can voyager found the bank lined for miles with
cocoa-plantations, presenting a very charming spec-
tacle. No prettier sight can be imagined than one
of these plantations. The interlocked branches
of the trees, with their large yellowish leaves, make
an impenetrable shade. The level earth is covered
with a soft carpeting of the fallen foliage ; while
brightness is secured by the quantities of golden-
126 A COCOA-TREE PLANTATION.
coloured fruit hanging from bough and stem, and
the birds of beautiful plumage which flit like spirits
through the alleys.
On the occasion of Lieutenant Herndon’s visit —.
it was harvest-time, and the labourers were every-
where busy in breaking open the shells of the fruit,
and exposing the seeds to the genial influence of the
sun. An agreeable drink, called cacao wine, is
procured by pressing out the gelatinous pulp in
which these seeds are embedded. It has an acid
taste, and is refreshing in hot weather.
The following particulars are condensed from
Herndon’s description of the cultivation of the
cocoa-tree :— .
The seed is planted in garden-beds in August.
When the young shoots come up they are carefully
watered, and protected from the sun’s rays by
boughs of palm. They are guarded also against
the attacks of insects. In January they are re-
moved to their permanent place, and “set outâ€
in squares; plantains, Indian corn, or any quick-
growing vegetable, being planted between the rows
to defend them from the hot gun while in their
youth. These are grubbed up when they begin to
press upon the young trees, which, in good soil, will
ORYING THE CACAO.
RIVER-PICTURES. 129
bear fruit in three years, continuing productive for
a man’s lifetime.
They bud and fructify in October or November
for the first crop; in February or March for the
second. The summer harvest begins in January
and February; the winter, which is the larger, in
June and July. One crop is not off the trees before
the blossoms of the second appear. The labour of
a single slave is sufficient for two thousand fruit-
bearing trees; but when they are young they re-
quire the attention of two. The trees are kept
clean about the roots, and insects are carefully de-
stroyed. But the ground is never cleared of its
thick coating of dead leaves, which are suffered to
decay, and serve as manure.
Obidos was visited by M. Agassiz and his wife,
in the course of their exploration of the Amazons,
They deseribe the scenes along the river-banks in
its vicinity as recalling dreams of the old pastoral
life of Arcady. Groups of Indians may be seen
standing under the shade of the overarching trees,
which are usually trained or purposely chosen to
form a kind of arbour or green bower over the
picturesquely rude landing-place and its canoes.
(608) 9
130 A FOREST-CLEARING.
One or two hammocks are slung among the cool
and leafy trees; the branches of which form a
quaint framework to the thatched roof and walls
of the little straw-built cottage behind. We may
well believe, however, that pretty as the picture is,
a closer examination would reveal many blurs and
blotches; but this was unquestionably true of
Arcady itself, and must not prevent us from admir-
ing what is really admirable. Around each hut a
little clearing has been made in the virgin forest, so
that each has a background of dense and apparently
impenetrable verdure. Each, too, stands in the
midst of a little plantation of cocoa-trees, mingled
with the mandioca shrub, the roots of which supply
the Indians with their flour; and occasionally with
the India-rubber tree—though the latter, as it grows
plentifully in the forest, is but seldom cultivated.
It may be interesting to the reader to pay a visit
to one of the better specimens of the Indian houses.
On one side is an open porch, in which is sus-
pended a number of brightly-coloured hammocks.
In the hot dry season it is pleasant and healthful
to sleep in the open air. From this porch we enter
by a wide straw, or rather palm-leaf, door, which is
AN INDIAN HUT. 131
put up and taken down like a mat, into a chamber
of convenient size. An unglazed window, closed at
will by a puku-leaf mat, admits the light. On
the other side of the porch a second verandah-like
room, also open to air and light, is apparently the
theatre, so to speak, of the “domestic economy †of
the family. There may be seen the great round
oven, built of mud, where the farinha is dried, and
the baskets of mandioca root stand ready to be
picked and grated. There, too, is the long rough
table at which the family take their meals. The
whole interior has a pleasing aspect of cleanliness
and decency: the mud-floors are swept as tidily .
as if Puck and his fairies had plicd the cleansing
brooms ; and even outside a similar orderliness pre-
vails. . Below the house, under some pleasant trees,
lies moored the Indian’s canoe.
Such being an Indian’s habitation, we may next
consider what kind of life he lives in it, and how he
occupies his time. Here, again, we may avail our-
selves of the assistance of Madame Agassiz, who,,
with her husband, spent some months among the
Indians of the Amazons.
She describes it as more attractive than the so-
called civilization of the white settlements, Any-
132 PREPARING MANDIOCA.
thing more bald, dreary, and uninviting than life
in the Amazonian towns, with some of the con-
ventionalities and none of the graces of civilization,
it is impossible to conceive. This morning, says our
authority, my Indian friends have been showing me
the various processes to which the mandioca is sub-
jected. This plant is invaluable to the Indians. It
furnishes them with their farinha, a coarse kind of
flour, their only substitute for bread; their tapioca,
and also a kind of fermented juice called tucupa.
After being peeled, the mandioca roots are scraped
on a very coarse grater; in this condition they are
worked up into a moist paste, which is then packed
in elastic straw tubes, made of the fibres of the
jacitaré palm. The tube has a loop at each end,
and when full is suspended to the branch of a tree;
through the lower loop a pole is passed, which is
inserted into a hole in the trunk. The housewife
then sits down on the other end of the pole, thus
converting it into a kind of lever, and extending
the tube to its utmost length by the pressure of her
own weight. The juice pressed out in this primitive
fashion flows into a bowl placed below the tube,
It is poisonous at first, but fermentation renders it
innocuous, and it is then used for making the
AN INDUSTRIOUS HOUSEWIFE. 133
stimulating tucupé. The tapioca is obtained by
mixing the grated mandioca with water; after
which it is pressed in a sieve, and the fluid that
percolates allowed to stand. A starch-like deposit
is the result, which, when hardened, is cooked like
porridge, and may justly be described as both plea-
sant and nutritious.
The name of the Indian host of M. Agassiz was
Landigéri; that of his wife, Esperanza. Like all the
Amazonian Indians, he was a fisherman; and, with
the exception of the little work his plantation re-
quired, fishing was his only occupation. An Indian
never assists in the labour of the house,—never fells
wood or fetches water; and as the fishing is con-
ducted only at certain seasons, it follows that, as a
rule, he is an indolent fellow. On the other hand,
the Indian women are said to be very industrious ;
perhaps, however, from necessity rather than choice.
Esperanza, of whom we have here to speak, was, at
all events, a model housewife. She was always
engaged in some kind of domestic work; now
grating mandioca, now drying farinha, now picking
tobacco; and when those duties were discharged,
cooking or sweeping. “Her children,†writes
Madame Agassiz, “were active and obedient; the
134 ESPERANZA DESCRIBED.
older ones making themselves useful in bringing
water from the lake, in washing mandioca, or in
taking care of the younger ones, Esperanza could
hardly be called pretty, but she had a pleasant
simile and a remarkably sweet voice, with a kind of
childlike intonation, which was very Winning ; and
when, sometimes, after her work was over, she put
on her white chemise, falling loose from her brown ’
shoulders, her dark skirt, and a rose or a sprig of
white jessamine in her jetty hair, her personal
appearance was by no means unattractive—though
it must be confessed that the pipe which she was
apt to smoke in the evening injured the general
effect. Her husband looked somewhat sombre ; but
his occasional hearty laugh, and his enjoyment of
a glass of cachaca, showed that he had his bright
side.â€
A little distance above the mouth of the Tapajos,
which is a mile and a half in width, lies Santarem,
four hundred and sixty miles from the Rio Negro,
and six hundred and fifty miles from the sea. It is
pleasantly situated, and the country around it is
both fertile and beautiful. The waters of the Tapa-
jos, blue and tranquil, afford’ a striking contrast to
CATARACTS OF THE TAPAJOS. 135
those of the main river. Birds of all kinds pro-
menade its flowery banks, or perch among the
branches of the trees that grow here and there in
leafy clusters.
We have spoken of the tranquil waters of the
Tapajos. This character of tranquillity, however,
disappears as the traveller follows the river inland
towards the diamond region of Matto Grosso; and
he comes upon cataracts and rapids which convey a
vivid idea of impetuous power.
Thus, M. de Lincourt says :—-
“ At the principal falls the river is no longer the
calm Tapajos which slowly moves towards the Ama-
zons, but the foaming Maranhao, the advance cata-
ract of the deep and narrow Caaociras das Fumas;
it is the roaring and terrible Coata, with currents
crossing and recrossing, and dashing furiously against
its black rocks.
“We surmounted all in the same day. Seated
motionless in the middle of the canoe, I often closed
my eyes to avoid seeing the dangers I escaped, or
the perils that remained to be encountered.
“The Indians-——-sometimes rowing with their
little oars, sometimes using their long iron-bound
stafls, or towing the boat while swimming, or carry-
136 A SINGULAR SPECTACLE.
ing it on their shoulders—landed me at last on the
other side of the Caxociras.
“On arriving at the foot of the fifth cataract, the
Indians hesitated a moment, and then rowed for the
shore. While some were employed in making a fire,
and others in fastening the hammocks to the forest-
trees, the hunter took his bow and two arrows, and
such is the abundance which reigns in these coun-
tries that he returned a moment afterwards with
fish and turtle.
“Exhausted with the day’s labours, the Indians
were unable to watch that night. I acted as sen-
tinel, for these shores are infested by tigers and
panthers. Walking along the beach to prevent
sleep, I witnessed a singular spectacle, but one, as I
was informed by the inhabitants, of frequent occur-
rence. An enormous tiger (jaguar) was stretched
full length upon a rock level with the water, about
forty paces distant. From time to time he struck
the water with his tail, and at the same moment
raised one of his fore paws and seized fish, often of
an enormous size. These, deceived by the noise,
and taking it for the fall of forest fruit, of which
they are exceedingly fond, unsuspectingly approach,
and soon fall into the traitor’s claws. J had with
LH
fy
WOR
JAGUAR FISHING
A PLAGUE OF INSECTS. 139
me a double-barrelled gun, and longed to fire; but I
was alone, and if I missed my aim at night I risked
my life, for the American tiger, whether lightly or
mortally wounded, collects his remaining strength, and
leaps with one bound upon his adversary. I did not
interrupt him ; and when he was satisfied he retired.
“The next day we passed the difficult and dan-
gerous cataract of Apuy. The canoe was carried
from rock to rock, and I followed on foot through
the forest. The farther we advanced into these
solitudes, the more fruitful and prodigal did nature
become; but where life is superabundant, evil is
always plentiful. From the rising to the setting of
the sun, clouds of stinging insects blind the traveller,
and render him frantic by the torments they cause.
Take a handful of the finest sand and throw it above
your head, and you will then have but a faint idea
of the number of these demons, which tear the skin
to pieces.â€
Below Santarem the voyager comes to the little
town of Monte Allegre, on the left bank of the river,
and at the mouth of the river Gurupaluba. The
scenery here is very charming. There are shady
dells, and wooded hollows, and crystal springs
140 AT MONTE ALLEGRE.
in the folds of the mountains; yet the general im-
pression which the place produces belies its name.
The soil consists of sand; the forest is low; and
here and there wide swampy flats are covered with
coarse grass. The pleasantest prospect in the imme-
diate neighbourhood of the town is from the village
churchyard, which lies enclosed within a fence, a
large wooden cross in the centre, and smaller crosses
marking several graves. Ata little distance the hill-
side slopes abruptly, and from its brow the stranger
looks across to the mountains which give the town
its name. To the southward, the foreground is
filled with lakes, divided from each other by low
alluvial lands.
Crossing the river, here about four miles wide,
we come to Prainha, a collection of huts on a grassy
ascent, about ninety miles from Santarem.
Still continuing our course, we pass, at fifty-five
miles from Prainha, the mouth of the Paru, the
river broadening as we descend; at Gurupa, fifty-
six miles from Prainha, it becomes a lagoon, not less
than ten miles in width. The chief trade of Gurupa
is in india-rubber.
The season for collecting seringa, or rubber, is from
July to January. The tree always yields freely; but
SCENE ON THE AMAZON BELOW SANTAREM.
COLLECTING INDIA-RUBBER. 143
the work cannot be carried on when the river is full,
as the whole country is then under water. The pro-
cess is as follows:—A longitudinal gash is made in
the bark of the tree with a very narrow hatchet or
tomahawk; to keep the cut open a wedge of wood
is inserted, and a small clay cup is attached to the
trunk just beneath the fissure. A ring of cups may
be placed all round the tree. In four or five hours
the milk has ceased to run, each gash or orifice
yielding. from three to five table-spoonfuls. The
gatherer then collects it from the cups, pours it into
an earthen vessel, and begins the operation of
shaping and smoking it. This must be done at
once,.as the mill soon coagulates.
A five is soon kindled of the seeds of palm-nuts,
of which there are two kinds—one called wrucara
the size of a pigeon’s egg, but longer; the other,
and smaller, called inajd. An earthen pot, with
the bottom knocked out, is placed, mouth down,
over the fire; and up through this miniature kiln
ascends from the seeds a strong and pungent smoke..
The operative now takes his last, if he is making
shoes, or his mould, which is fastened to the end of
a stick; pours the milk over it with a cup, and
passes it slowly several times through the smoke
144 INDIA-RUBBER MOULDS.
until it is dry. He then pours on another, and yet
another coat, until the required thickness is obtained,
smoking each layer until it is quite dry.
The moulds may be made either of wood or clay;
those of wood being smeared with clay, to prevent
the milk from adhering. When the requisite thick-
ness has been secured, the moulds are either cut or
washed out of the india-rubber. In commerce, as
many of our readers will know, the usual form
assumed by india-rubber is that of a thick bottle.
But it is also frequently made in thick sheets, by
pouring the milk over a wooden mould, shaped like
a spade; and, when thick enough, slipping a knife
round three sides of it, and removing the mould.
The name seringa, locally given to india-rubber,
is from the Portuguese, and means a syringe; it was
in this form only that the first Portuguese settlers
found the rubber employed by the natives—who, it
is said, were taught to make syringes of it by seeing
the natural tubes which the spontaneously-flowing
sap shaped round projecting twigs.
The Siphonia elastica, or india-rubber tree, grows
only on the lowlands, in wild and swampy districts
of the Amazons region, and along the banks of the
Tapajos, the Madeira, the Jurua, and Javari. In
INDIA-RUBBER.
COLLEOTING
TL
Mi
‘SAI-PALM. 147
cS some resemblance to an
ink, like all the trees of the
an immense height before
‘eases to be a river. Ag
's a sea of fresh water, in
dly perceptible to the sight,
he equable, measured, and
in than that of an inland
nds himself sailing between
they are the shores, not of
she almost countless islands
xpanse. Very beautiful are
looming with fresh verdure,
fantastic forms of tropical
is above all their greenery
. shapely Corinthian column,
sai-palm, with its crown of
and its clusters of berry-like
ranch that shoots out, almost
ith the wavy foliage. The
vey, as forest-scenery always
epee tude; and yet yonder fairy
shores are not entirely solitary. Houses are studded
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THE ASSAI-PALM. 147
bark and foliage it bears some resemblance to an
fnglish ash; but the trunk, like all the trees of the
virgin forest, rises to an immense height before
throwing off branches.
The Amazons now ceases to be a river. As
Agassiz says, it becomes a sea of fresh water, in
which the current is hardly perceptible to the sight,
and resembles rather the equable, measured, and
regular flow of an ocean than that of an inland
stream. The voyager finds himself sailing between
shores, it is true; but they are the shores, not of
the river itself, but of the almost countless islands
scattered over its vast expanse. Very beautiful are
these “island Edens,†blooming with fresh verdure,
and luxuriant in the fantastic forms of tropical
vegetation. Conspicuous above all their greenery
rises, with the grace of a shapely Corinthian column,
the lofty but slender assai-palm, with its crown of
light plume-like leaves, and its clusters of berry-like
fruit, drooping from a branch that shoots out, almost
horizontally, just beneath the wavy foliage. The
dense leafy masses convey, as forest-scenery always
does, the idea of solitude; and yet yonder fairy
shores are not entirely solitary. Houses are studded
148 - A VARIETY OF PALMS.
here and there,—houses picturesque enough, with
their high, thatched, overhanging roofs, to obtain a
place in an artist’s sketch-book.
In passing through the island-labyrinth, we enter
a channel known as the river Atuiva. It gives a
vivid idea of the might and majesty of the Amazons,
that even the channels dividing the islands which
break the monotony of its immense estuary are in
themselves so many copious rivers, and generally
known by distinct names. Here the number and
variety of the palms attract our attention. As, for
instance, the mauritia, with drooping bunches of
reddish fruit, and wide-spreading fan-like leaves
severed into ribbon-like sections, each of which is a
burden for a man; the rhaphia, with feathery leaves,
sometimes forty to fifty feet long, a comparatively .
short trunk, and graceful vase-like outline; the
manicaria, with stiff unbroken leaves, thirty feet
long, their edges indented like the edge of a saw.
Moreover, the river-banks are fenced in with long
lines of hedges, composed of the aninga (an arum),
with large heart-shaped leaves, flourishing on the
top of tall stems; and the miarici, a lower growth,
rising from the very edge of the water.
The character of the scenery on the river bank
IN THE LOWER AMAZON,
AN ARCHIPELAGO
A FOREST-CREEK. 151
may be. gathered from the following description by
Madame Agassiz :—
An Indian invited her and her companions to
visit his house, which was situated, he said, in the
forest, at no great distance. They readily com-
plied, for the path he pointed out looked very
attractive, as it wound afar into the verdurous
gloom. Under his guidance they proceeded, every
now and then crossing a forest-creek on the logs
laid down to serve as a causeway. Seeing that
Madame Agassiz was rather timid, the Indian cut
for her a long pole, which proved of great assistance.
But at last they came to a place where the water
was so deep that Madame Agassiz could not reach
the bottom with her pole, and as the round log that
served as bridge rolled very unsteadily, she feared
to cross. In her imperfect Portuguese she owned
her timidity. “Nai, mia branca†(No, my white),
the Indian said, reassuringly; “nad tun modo†(do
not be afraid). Then, as if a thought struck him,
he motioned her to wait; and running a few steps
up the creek, unloosed his boat, brought it down to
the spot where the little company stood, and paddled
them across to the opposite shore. Just beyond lay
his charmingly picturesque hut or house, where he
152 UNDER GREEN BOUGHS.
showed his dusky children with true paternal pride,
and introduced Madame Agassiz to his dusky wife.
These people display a natural courteousness of
manner which is very agreeable, and is said to be a
general characteristic of the Amazonian Indians.
When Madame Agassiz took leave of them, and
returned to the canoe, she supposed her guide would
simply put her across to the opposite bank, a distance
of a few feet only, as he had done in coming. But,
on the contrary, he headed the canoe up the creek,
and into the heart of the wood. Never was excur-
sion more enchanting! The canoe glided along the
harrow water-way, which was overarched by a solid
dome of verdure, and black with shadows. Yet it
was not gloomy, for outside the sun was setting in
crimson and gold, and its last beams, slanting under
the boughs, lighted up the interior of the forest with
an almost supernatural glow.
Returning to Lieutenant Herndon’s voyage, we
find that he made his way through the island-
studded estuary, and its labyrinthine channels, to
the bay of Limoeiro, a deep indentation on the right
bank, into which the river Tocantins pours its waters,
Thirty-nine miles above the river-mouth stands the
SCENE NEAR PARA. +
AT PARA. 155
town of Cameta, in a district famous for its cultiva-
tion of mandioc, cocoa, cotton, rice, tobacco, uruci,
and sugar-cane. Crossing the bay, the American
voyager proceeded to navigate the Moju, a fine
stream, which brought him into the Guajara; and
thence he descended to Para, or Santa Maria de
Belem do Grao Para, which is situated about eighty
miles from the sea. The river Para forms the
southern arm of the Amazons estuary, and is sepa-
rated from the northern arm by the considerable
island of Marajo.
According to Herndon, Para is an agreeable place
of residence, with a delightful climate. The sun is
hot till about noon, when the sea-breeze comes in
with rain, thunder, and lightning, after which the
latter part of the day is delicious. It has a fine
harbour, accessible to ships of almost any burden ;
and some good buildings, including the palace, the
cathedral, two convents, and several churches.
Mr. Bates speaks of the appearance of the city as
pleasing in the highest degree. It is built on a low
tract of land, which rises into a rocky elevation at
its southern extremity. From the river, therefore,
it’ affords no amphitheatral view; but the white
buildings, roofed with red tiles, the numerous towers
156 BEAUTY OF THE FOREST.
and cupolas of the churches and convents, the crowns
of palm-trees rising above the buildings, all sharply
defined against the clear blue sky, give a character
of lightness and cheerfulness which is peculiarly
attractive. The perpetual forest surrounds the city
on all sides landwards; and towards the suburbs,
picturesque country-houses nestle among the luxu-
tiant foliage.
But the great charm of Para is “the overpowering
beauty of the vegetation.†The massive dark crowns
of shady mangoes are visible everywhere amongst the
dwellings, amidst fragrant blossoming orange, lemon,
and many other tropical fruit-trees ; some in flower,
others in fruit, at varying stages of ripeness. Here
and there, the smooth pillar-like stems of feathery
palms tower above the more “ dome-like and sombre
trees.†The shapely slender assai, in groups of four
or five, is specially noticeable ; its smooth, gently
curving stem, twenty to thirty feet high, crowned .
by a head of feathery foliage, remarkably graceful
and light in outline. Tufts of strange-leaved para-
sites enrich the boughs of the taller and more ordi-
nary-looking trees; which are knitted together by
festoons of woody lianas, while their trunks are
almost hidden in profuse parasitical growth. The
THE BANANA TREE
VEGETABLE WONDERS. 159
magnificent banana (Musa paradisiaca) thrives most
vigorously ; its shining velvety green leaves, twelve
feet long, suggesting ideas of grace and beauty.
The shape of the leaves, says Bates, the varying
shades of green which they present when lightly
moved by the wind, and especially the contrast they
afford in colour and form to the more sombre hues
and more rounded outlines of the other trees, are
quite sufficient to account for the charms of the
banana. But at every step strange or beautiful
forms of vegetation are met with. Amongst them,
the bread-fruit tree, with its large, glossy, dark-
ereen, strongly-digitated foliage; and the different
kinds of bromelia, or pine-apple plants, with their
long, rigid, sword-shaped leaves, sometimes jagged
or toothed along the edges.
Electric eels abound in the creeks, pools, and
channels about Para. The largest seen by Mr.
Herndon was about five feet in length, and four
inches in diameter. Their shock, though unpleasant,
is not absolutely painful; but some persons are more
affected by it than others. The mode of capturing
these eels by horses is described by Humboldt in a
well-known passage. To catch them with nets is,
he says, very difficult, for their agility is remarkable,
160 CATCHING ELECTRIC EELS.
and they bury themselves in the sand like serpents.
The barbasco is sometimes used; but the favourite
Indian mode of capture is “embarbascur con cavallos,â€
or to fish with horses.
A drove of horses is forced into a pool frequented
by the gymnoti, which are roused to combat by the
noise of the horses’ hoofs. Swimming on the sur-
face of the water, like large aquatic serpents, livid
and yellow, they swarm under the bellies of the
horses and mules. Meantime the Indians, equipped
with harpoons and long slender reeds, surround
the pool closely, or climb upon the trees which
project their branches over it. By their wild
shouts, and by freely using their pointed reeds,
they prevent the horses from escaping to the bank
of the pool.
Stunned by the clamour, the eels defend them-
selves by repeated discharges of their electric force.
Several horses sink beneath their violence, and dis-
appear under the water. Others, panting, with
mane erect and haggard eyes, make frantic efforts
to escape from the attacks of their enemies; and
though driven back by the Indians, some succeed in
regaining the shore, when, stumbling at eveny step,
exhausted with fatigue, and benumbed with pain,
EELS AND HORSES. 161
they stretch themselves upon the sand. In less
than five minutes a couple of horses are drowned.
The eel, pressing its whole length against the belly
of the horse, pours forth the full violence of its
electric organ, attacking simultaneously all the most
essential and vital organs, It is natural, therefore,
that the effect should be more powerful than that
produced upon a man, by the touch of the same fish
at only one of his extremities. Probably the horses
are not killed, but only stunned. They are drowned,
from the impossibility of rising amid the furious and
protracted struggle between the other horses and the
eels.
Humboldt says that he had little doubt that the
fishing would terminate by killing, successively, all
the animals engaged; but by degrees the impetuosity
of the unequal combat diminished, and the wearied
eels retired, to repair, by a long rest, and by abundant
refreshment, their loss of galvanic force. The mules
and horses showed less apprehension. The eels
timidly approached the edge of the pool, where they
were taken by means of small harpoons attached to
long cords. When these cords are very dry, the
Indians experience no shock in raising the fish into
the air.
(603) ll
162 ABOUT ANNATTO.
With respect to Para itself, it may be added that
its shops are well supplied with English, French,
and American goods, The groceries are mostly
imported from Portugal. The warehouses are piled
with heaps of india-rubber, nuts, hides, and baskets
of annatto. The last-named pigment is made from
the seed of a burr, which grows on the uruct bush,
as it is called in Brazil, or the achote, as it is named
in Peru. In the latter country it grows wild and
in great abundance; in the former, it is cultivated.
The tree, or bush, grows to ten or fifteen feet in
height, and yields its first crop in eighteen months.
Having thus completed the exploration of the
Amazons from its source to its mouth, we proceed,
in our concluding chapter, to describe some of the
more interesting animals and plants which are found
in its virgin forests.
CHAPTER IV.
IN THE VIRGIN FOREST,
7A TURE has been very bountiful to the
7 Amazonian valley. On either side of
24) the great river spread immense forests,
noone in trees and fruits, and in animal-life, the
depths of which have never been penetrated by
human foot. It is only the tracts lying near the
river-banks, or along the creeks and streams form-
ing so extraordinary a world of waters, that the
traveller or the native has explored. But limited as.
is their extent, compared with the total area of the
wilderness, they supply an apparently inexhaustible
material for the researches of the naturalist and the
botanist; while the artist need never be at a loss for
_beautiful landscapes to transfer to his sketch-book.
The trees of the virgin forest are lofty and of
great variety, including some gigantic specimens of
the Brazil-nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa), and the
164 SOME REMARKABLE TREES.
pikid. The latter bears a large edible fruit, remark-
able for the hollow chamber between the pulp and
the kernel, which is studded with hard spines capable
of inflicting serious wounds. The eatable part has
much the flavour of a raw potato; but the Mestizos
are so partial to it that they will walk miles to
gather it for breakfast, as English children do to
pick nuts or blackberries. Another tree of frequent
occurrence is the tonka-bean (Dipteria odorata),
which is largely used in Europe for scenting snuff.
The odour is not unlike that of new-mown hay.
This treé grows to a height of eighty feet; the
fruit is shaped like an almond, but is much longer.
The diversity of trees and shrubs, either dis-
tinguished by the curiousness of their fruit, or by
the splendour of their foliage and bloom, is almost
endless. The observer is for ever meeting with
something to interest or surprise him. Mr. Bates
was much struck by the numerous trees with large
and differently-shaped fruits growing out of trunk
and branches, some within a few feet of the ground,
like the cacao. They are mostly of inconsiderable
stature, and the Indians call them cupt. One of
them, cupt-ai, bears an elliptically-shaped fruit, of a
dull earthy colour, and six or seven inches long, the
THE VIRGIN FOREST.
ANIMAL-LIFE IN THE FOREST. 167
shell of which is thin and woody, and contains a
small number of seeds loosely enveloped in an agree-
able juicy pulp. The fruits hang like “clayey ants’
nests†from the branches. Then there is a kind
not unlike the cacao; with a green ribbed husk, and
resembling a cucumber in shape. The Indians have
named it cacao de macau, or “ monkey’s chocolate ;â€
but the beverage obtained from its seeds is of indif:
ferent flavour, and a dingy yellowish colour. How-
ever, they beat up into an excellent paste, and
furnish an oil like that of the ordinary cacao-nut in
smell.
Animal -life is neither less plentiful nor less
interesting than vegetable -life in this wonderful
region. Sometimes, says Mr. Bates, a troop of
glossy, black-plumaged ants (Crotophaga), which
live in small societies in the grassy campos, may be
seen entering the forest one by one, and, as they
move to and fro, calling each other with monotonous
cry. Or a beautiful toucan, one of the most re-
splendent members of the bird-world, hops or runs
along the branches, seeking its insect-food in every
chink and crevice. Or a trogon, with shining
emerald back and breast of rosy bloom, will perch
168 AMAZONIAN LIZARDS.
on a low bough, and abandon itself to meditation,
When the dead leaves lie in heaps, the jacuart
lizards (Tevus teguexim), two feet long, may be
heard scampering in apparent pursuit of one another,
like kittens at play. The natives set a high value
on the feet of this large lizard, and employ them in
a poultice to draw thorns or even grains of shot
from the flesh. Other lizards there are, laidly of
aspect, and fully three feet in length, swimming
and splashing in every woodland pool, or, at the
stranger’s approach, crouching into hollow trees for
shelter. The air of this forest solitude—for a soli-
tude it mostly is, so far as man is concerned—
echoes with various sounds: with the “lazy,
flapping flight†of large blue and black mapho
butterflies; the hum of smaller insects on their
restless wing; the love-calls of birds, and the clatter
or plash of heavy fruits as they drop upon the
ground or into pool or stream. We do not feel
the breeze below, for a dense canopy of verdure
stretches over us; but it stirs in the topmost
branches, and sets in motion the wreaths, festoons,
and garlands of the lianas and aerial plants.
Mr. Edwards furnishes a glowing picture of the
TREES AND PARASITES. 169
primeval forest. He speaks of the immense girth
of the trees, with their trunks of every variety of
form—round, angular, and sometimes resembling
an open network, through which the light passes in
any direction. Round them cling large snake-like
vines, twisting round and round the trunks, and
sending their long arms up even to the loftier
branches. Sometimes they throw down long feelers,
which swing in mid-air until they reach the ground,
where, taking root, they in their turn fling out
arms that grapple to the nearest support. In this
way the whole forest is interlaced, so that a tree
seldom falls without involving others in its ruin.
“Around the tree trunks,†says Mr. Edwards,
“clasp those curious anomalies, parasitic plants,
sometimes throwing down long slender roots to the
ground, but generally deriving sustenance only from
the tree itself and from the air—called hence, appro-
priately enough, air-plants. These are in vast
numbers and of every form, now resembling lilies,
now grasses or other familiar plants. Often a dozen
varieties cluster upon a single tree. Towards the
close of the rainy season they are in blossom, and
their exquisite appearance, as they encircle the mossy
and leafed trunk with flowers of every hue, can
170 THE PEOPLE OF THE FOREST.
scarcely be imagined. At this period, too, vast
numbers of trees add their tribute of beauty, and
the flower-domed forest from its many-coloured
altars ever sends heavenward worshipful incense.
Nor is this wild luxuriance unseen or unenlivened.
Monkeys are frolicking through festooned bowers,
or chasing in revelry over the wood arches.
Squirrels scamper in ecstacy from limb to limb,
unable to contain themselves for joyousness. Coatis
are gambolling among the fallen leaves, or vying
with monkeys in nimble climbing. Pacas and
agoutis chase wildly about, ready to scud away at
the least noise. The sloth, enlivened by the
general inspiration, climbs more rapidly over the
branches, and seeks a spot where, in quiet and
repose, he may rest himself. The exquisite tiny
deer, scarcely larger than a lamb, snuffs exultingly
the air, and bounds fearlessly, knowing that he
has no enemy here.â€
But it is its birds that lend the greatest charm
and variety to the forest. Clothed in gorgeous
plumage, they are above and around you,—here,
there, and everywhere. The fruitful trees afford a
rich harvest to the toucan, who expresses his satis-
faction by his reiterated cry of tucdno, tucdno.
PLANTS.
AIR
A FLIGHT OF BIRDS. 173
With quiet repetition the motmot utters his name.
Fairy creatures with dazzling wings flit through the
maze of lianas and parasites. In a moment’s interval
of silence the tapping of the woodpecker is heard
far away. Tiny creepers, as gaily attired as elfin
pages, run up the smooth green trunks, and peer
and pry in every cranny for their insect-food. In
alternate songs, pairs of warbling thrushes are
making love or telling of the day’s adventures. To
the chatter of noisy parrots replies thé scream of
noisier parroquets. Bright pheasants go whirring
by ; and wood-pigeons, delicate and beautiful, rise
high above the woodland tops. And, loveliest of
all, those winged jewels—those “ kiss-flowers,†as
the Brazilians term them—the humming-birds,
with wings of light and flame, now flash past in
pursuit of some humble-bee, or pause an instant
to sip the nectared sweets of some expanded blos-
som. :
Night in the forest presents a very different
scene. The song-birds have gone to rest; the day-
flowers have closed their petals, and ceased to pour
abroad their liberal fragrance. But a fresh per-
fume fills the air, rising freely from blossoms which
refuse to open their bosoms to the ardent sun. The
174 THE FOREST AT NIGHT.
echoes repeat in gentlest tones a gentle murmur.
Through the high canopy of foliage the moonbeams
find an occasional passage; but the fitful light
serves only to make darker the surrounding dark-
ness. The butterflies are no longer visible, but in
their place huge moths flutter to and fro; and
myriads of fire-flies weave in and out of their
fantastic dance. Now up the glades comes, like a
streaming meteor, a steady, increasing light, which
whizzes past, reflecting its rays in the dewy prisms
that lie on every leaf. This is the lantern-fly,
carrying its love-signal upon its head. From its
burrow sleepily crawls the armadillo, to-roam abroad
in search of food; the ant-eater has set forth on its
marauding expedition; and up the tall tree the
opossum warily climbs.
We have referred to those dainty elves, the
humming-birds. They have often been described,
but never perhaps with keener appreciation than by
Mr. Edwards. His glowing words seem to bring
before us the forest shade, lighted up by the richly-
coloured plumage of their fairy forms. Wherever,
he says, a creeping vine opens its fragrant clusters,
or wherever a tree-flower blooms, they may be
found, They are darting about everywhere; of all
HUMMING-BIRDS,
HUMMING-BIRDS. 177
sizes—from one that might easily be mistaken for a
different variety of bird, to the tiny hermit, whose
body is not half as big as that of the bee which
plunders the same flower. “Sometimes they are
seen chasing each other in sport with a rapidity of
flight and intricacy of path the eye is puzzled to
follow. Again, circling round and round, they rise
high in mid-air, then dart off like light to some
distant attraction. Perched upon a little limb, they
smooth their plumes, and seem to delight in their
dazzling hues; then starting off leisurely, they skim
along, stopping capriciously to kiss the coquetting
flowerets. Often two meet in mid-air and furiously
fight, their crests and the feathers upon their throats
all erected and blazing, and altogether pictures of
the most violent rage. Several times we saw them
battling with large black bees who frequent the
same flowers, and may be supposed often to inter-
fere provokingly. Like lightning our little heroes
would come down, but the coat of shining mail
would ward off their furious strokes. Again and
again would they renew the attack, until their
anger had expended itself by its own fury, or
until the apathetic bee, once roused, had put forth
powers that drove the invader from the field.â€
(603) 12
178 ABOUT THE SLOTH.
Among the interesting forms of animal-life in the
Amazonian forest, not the least interesting is the
sloth. Mr. Bates had an opportunity of watching
the movements of the species known as Bradypus
tridactylus, the three-toed; the Ai ybyrett of the
Indians—that is, “sloth of the mainland.†Sone
travellers in South America have represented it as
anything but the type of laziness which it is pro-
verbially considered; the Indians, however, hold to
the vulgar opinion. It is not uncommon for one
native to reproach another as being a “biche de
Embaiiba,†or beast of the cecropia-tree—that is, .a
sloth, for it is on the leaves of the cecropia that
the sloth feeds. Strange is it to see the uncouth
creature moving slowly from branch to branch of
the interwoven forest. His motions indicate caution,
perhaps, rather than indolence. He never looses
his hold from a branch until he has first obtained a
good grasp upon another; and when he does not
immediately find a bough to clutch with the rigid
hooks into which his paws are so providently
transformed, he raises his body, supporting it on his
hind limbs, and searches for a fresh foothold.
A remarkable feature of the Amazonian forest is
MONKEY’S DRINKING-CUPS. 179
its colossal trees, to the description of which we
must devote a few words. Among the more
remarkable are the lofty Lecythis ollaria, or sapu-
caya, easily recognizable by the numerous large
empty wooden shells always lying on the ground at
its base. These are the so-called cuyas de macaco,
or “ monkey’s drinking-cups;†and form the capsules
or outer husks of the nuts sold under this name
at Covent Garden. The top of the vessel has a
circular aperture, to which a natural lid is neatly
fitted. When the nut ripens this lid becomes loose,
and eventually the heavy cup falls to the ground
with a crash and a clang, scattering its fruit far and
wide. Other trees there are, the trunks of which
measure from twenty to twenty-five feet in circum-
ference ; others, from fifty to sixty feet, while they
are fully one hundred feet high from the ground to
the lowest branch. The total height of such trees
as the Crateva tapia and Symphonia coccinea may
be estimated at from one hundred and eighty to
two hundred feet. .
A peculiarity of these forest-giants is the growth
of buttress-shaped projections round the lower part
of their trunks, The spaces between these but-
tresses, which may be likened to walls of wood, can
180 THE COW-TREE.
accommodate half a dozen persons. It is, of course,
not difficult to understand their value, for they are
as essential to the support of the huge forest-trees
as stone buttresses to the support of an embankment
of masonry. And hence they are found attached
to most of the Brobdingnagian wonders of. the
virgin forest, and not confined to a single species.
Their nature, as well as their mode of growth,
is readily understood upon examining a series of
young trees of different ages. It is then seen that
they are the roots which, ridge-like, have lifted
themselves out of the earth; gradually growing
upwards as the increasing height of the tree
rendered necessary additional support.
A remarkable tree, apart from its colossal stature,
is the massaranduba, or cow-tree, which produces
from its bark a copious supply of lacteal fluid, as
good and pleasant to drink as the milk of the cow.
In Para the fruit of this tree is sold by the negro
market-woman ; and it is much relished by the
natives. The timber is also esteemed for its durable
qualities. The tree is one of the largest of the
forest-monarchs, and has a peculiar appearance on
account of its deeply-scored and rugged bark; a de-
coction of which, by the way, is used as a red dye
vs
y
o he
C y)
WE I
iif vl
EA |
THE COW-TREE.
A LACK OF FLOWERS. 183
for cloth. To obtain the “milk,†it is not necessary
to go to the growing tree; it can be drawn even
from dry logs which have been lying for days in the
heat of the sun at the saw-mills. With coffee it is
agreeable enough; but when drunk pure, has a slight
rankness of flavour. It soon thickens into a glue,
which is excessively tenacious, and of great utility
as a cement for broken crockery. It is said to be
dangerous to drink the milk in any large quantity.
The reader accustomed to the blooming beauty
of our English woodlands, where violets and “ wind-
flowers tall†and daisies deck the sward, and where
the hawthorn in early summer takes on its masses
of delicate bloom, will be surprised to learn that in
the virgin forest of the Amazons flowers are com-
paratively rare. The majority of the trees have
only small and inconspicuous flowers. In the open
campos, however, flowering trees and bushes are of
frequent occurrence. The forest bees feed upon the -
sweet sap which exudes from the bark of trees, or
on the excrements which the birds deposit on the
leaves, rather than upon the “honied sweets†of
blossoms.
The traveller, penetrating into the wooded depths,
184 SILENCE AND STRANGE SOUNDS.
cannot fail to be impressed by their silence, their
profound gloom. The impression deepens as he
carries his researches further and further. .The few
sounds of birds are never cheery and vivacious, like
those of our own “ sylvan choristers,†tut par-
take of a pensive or mysterious character, which
adds to the traveller’s feeling of melancholy rather
than relieves it. Sometimes the silence is broken
by a sudden scream or yell, proceeding from some
defenceless fruit-eating animal when pounced upon
by a tiger-cat or stealthy boa-constrictor. Morning
and evening the echoes are rent by the fearful and
harrowing noise of the howling monkeys, under
which not even a Mark Tapley could maintain his
buoyancy of spirit. So fearful an uproar necessarily
increases tenfold that sentiment of the inhospitality
of Nature which the apparently interminable forest
is so well fitted to awaken. Often, even in the
tranquillity of noon, some huge tree or mighty limb
falls to the ground with a crash which resounds
throughout the wilderness. Other sounds there are,
for which the traveller finds himself unable to ac-
count, which even the natives are unable to explain—
sounds as eéry as those described by Keats, “swoon-
ing over dreary moors.†Now it is like the clang
FIGHT BETWEEN A JAGUAR AND AN ANT-EATER.
AN INDIAN SUPERSTITION. 187
of an iron bar against a hard, hollow tree—now
like the ery of a child in agony; but to these the
deep, sullen silence invariably succeeds, and the
traveller feels a gloomier mood than ever. These
inexplicable noises are attributed by the native, like
all else that he cannot understand, to the Curwpéra,
or “wild man of the forest,â€â€”a singular spirit truly,
with powers which vary according to locality. Some-
times he is described as a kind of orang-outang,
living an arboreal life, and clothed in long shagg
hair; at others he is furnished with a bright red
face and cloven feet. He has, it is said, a wife and
children, and occasionally makes a raid into the culti-
vated districts to steal the mandioca.
Among the plumaged denizens of the forest we
may specially direct attention to the toucans. Five
species of this extraordinary family—famous for the
great size and light structure of their beaks— are
found in the vicinity of Ega. The commonest is
the co-called Cuvier’s toucan—a large bird, with
caudal feathers of a saffron hue. It deposits its eggs
in the holes of trees, at a considerable height above
the ground ; and during the greater part of the year
it is found alone, or in small flocks of four or five,
188 ABOUT THE TOUCANS.
: wy)
a mA a
a \
Te
‘f sit perched among the top-
ef most branches of the high trees.
There the feathered company
indulge in a loud, shrill, yelp-
like choral strain; one bird,
perched higher than the rest,
acting apparently as leader or
A COLOSSAL BILL. 189
precentor—though two are sometimes heard in
antiphonal exercise, and insisting upon different
notes, The Indian name for this genus is derived
from the vague resemblance of these cries to the
syllables Yo-cd-no! to-cd-no! When they are
thus engaged, the sportsman finds it difficult to
secure a shot at them: they are so acute and wary
that they catch sight of the intruder before he
reaches their place of assembly, though he may be
half-hidden among the dense undergrowth, and one
hundred and fifty feet below their aerial perch.
They crane their necks to look beneath; and the
lightest agitation of the foliage suffices to frighten
them away to less accessible parts of the forest.
The reader may ask, What is the use of the tou-
can’s colossal bill, which in some species is seven
inches long and two inches wide, and might be
thought an intolerable burden for it?
The earlier naturalists, having seen only a toucan’s
bill, which in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
was regarded as a natural curiosity, came to the
conclusion that its owner belonged to the web-footed
birds, distinguished by so many curious develop-
ments of the bill adapted for taking fish ; and fabu-
lous stories were told by travellers in confirmation
190 MEANS TO AN END.
of this hypothesis, —stories of toucans resorting to
the river-banks to obtain their finny food. Toucans,
however, lead a strictly arboreal life, and belong to
the Capitonine group, all the members of which
are fruit-eaters. They are very common in the
Amazonian region; but no one has ever seen them
walking on the ground, much less diving, wading,
or swimming. Fruit is undoubtedly their chief
food; and inquiry has shown that their large beak
is ingeniously adapted for securing it. Its size, says
Mr. Bates, enables the bird to reach and devour fruit
while remaining seated, and thus counterbalances
the disadvantage which its heavy body would form
in the competition with allied groups of birds. The
relation between its abnormally long bill and its
mode of obtaining food, is exactly similar to that
between the long neck and lips of the giraffe and its
mode of browsing.
The most curious species is the curl-crested tou-
can. The feathers on the head of this remarkable —
bird are transformed into thin horny plates, of a
lustrous black colour, curled up at the ends like
shavings of ebony wood, and arranged over the head
in the shape of a wig. This bird makes its appear-
ance in the forest in the months of May and June,
CURL-CRESTED TOUCANS. 191
after its moulting is completed, and it is always
found in large flocks. These do not seem to assemble
among the fruit-trees, but to wander freely through
the forest, half-hidden by the density of the foliage.
Mr. Bates describes an amusing adventure which
befell him with these curl-crested toucans. He had
brought down one from a tree of some height in a
dark forest-glen, and had entered the thicket into
which it had fallen in order to secure it. The bird
proved to be only wounded, and, when Mr. Bates
attempted to seize it, uttered a loud scream. In-
mediately, as if by magic, the shady nook seemed
alive with birds, though Mr. Bates had seen none on
first penetrating into the jungle. They descended
towards him, flapping their wings and hopping from
bough to bough; some of them swinging on the
loops and festoons of the woody lianas, and all giving
abundant evidence of ungovernable fury. After seiz-
ing his victim, our naturalist made preparations for
obtaining new specimens and punishing the feathered
viragoes for their audacity; but, the screaming of
their comrade having terminated, they reascended
among the leafy branches, and suddenly disappeared.
Mr. Edwards, in describing the woods round about
192 BIRDS IN THE FOREST.
Barra or Manaos, enumerates a variety of birds which
all belong to the virgin forest of the Amazons.
Thus he speaks of cuckoos of several species, with
plumage glancing red in the sunshine, which flitted
noiselessly through the branches in search of grubs,
their favourite food; of purple jays, assembling in
large flocks, and chattering and gesticulating on some
favourite fruit-tree; of motmots, and lively little chat-
terers ; and of goatsuckers, clothed in beautifully-
coloured plumage; of mannikins, in great variety
and in every bush; of tanagers whistling aloud, and
warblers faintly lisping their notes in the leafy trees,
He speaks, too, of flycatchers, in endless variety,
moving nimbly over the branches, or sallying out
from their sentry stations upon their passing prey.
Pigeons might be heard cooing in the thicket ; tinami
of all sizes fed along the path, or sported in parties
of half a dozen among the dry leaves. Curassows
moved on with stately step, picking up here and
there some dainty morsel, and uttering a loud peeping
cry, or ran with outstretched neck and rapid strides
at the slightest sign of danger. Guans in twos and
threes stripped the fruits from the low trees, be-
traying their locality by their constant repetition of
a, loud harsh note.
ABOUT THE TROGONS.
Of all these
birds, the trogons
ranked next to
the chatterers in
beauty. There
were half a dozen
varieties, differing
in size, from the
trogon viridis, not
larger than our
common sparrow,
to the curuqua
grande (Callurus
auriceps), which is
twice as big as a
jay. All had long,
spreading tails,
bright with many
colours, and thick
close plumage,
which made them
appear of greater
size than they were
in reality. The
trogons are solitary
(603)
13
A PAIR OF TROGONS
193
194 A WORD FOR THE CURASSOWS.
birds, and early in the morning or late in the after-
noon may be observed sitting,—singly or in pairs, some
species upon the tallest trees and others but a few
feet above the ground,—with tails outspread and
drooping, on the watch for passing insects. Their
appetites satisfied, says Mr. Edwards, they spend the
rest of the day in the shade, uttering at intervals a
melancholy note, which has been syllabled as cu-ru-
qua. This would betray them to the hunter, but for
their ventriloqual skill, which they exercise in such a
manner as utterly to delude and confound him. The
“species vary in colouring as in size; but all.of them
shine on the upper parts with a lustrous green or blue,
and on the under with bright red or pink or yellow.
The same naturalist tells us that the curassows
are all familiar birds, which will readily allow them-
selves to be caressed. At night they frequently
come into the house to roost; and apparently they
are partial to the company of the parrots and other
birds. When thus domesticated, they might easily
be bred; but they abound in such numbers, and
their nests are so easily found, that it is not worth
while. They feed upon seeds and fruit, and are
esteemed superior, for the table, to any game of the
country.
A DANGEROUS SERPENT. 195
But the virgin forest has also its plagues and
scourges : its legions of flies, mosquitoes, and ants,
which are a constant source of annoyance, and even
pain, to the traveller. It has also its fierce and
cunning jaguar, the tiger of South America; and,
as we have seen, its lakes and rivers are infested
by the formidable cayman. It has its snakes and
serpents ; and among the latter, the jararaca (Cras-
pido aphalus) is far move dreaded by the Indians
than cayman or alligator. The colours of its
body so exactly resemble those of the fallen leaves
among which it lurks, that it is difficult to distin-
guish it until your feet are right upon its body.
Then it rears aloft its hideous, flat, triangular
head, connected with the body by a thin neck,
and prepares to attack its victim. Its bite is gen-
erally fatal. It makes no attempt to spring, but
lies coiled up, waiting for an opportunity to sting
some heedless animal that approaches its hiding-
place.
No other reptile is equally formidable, except the
sunnuji, or water-boa, which sometimes does not
hesitate to attack even man.
Something should be said about the wasps, which
196 - WASPS AND THEIR WAYS.
inhabit almost every part of the forest. As, for
instance, the sand-wasps, the habits of which are
well worth the attention of the naturalist. Their
place of work is easily known by the numerous
tiny jets of sand projected over the surface of the
sloping bank. The little miners excavate with their
fore feet, which are stoutly made, and supplied with
a fringe of stiff bristles. The rate at which they
execute their task is wonderful; and the sand thrown
out beneath their bodies forms a continuous flow.
They are solitary wasps,—each, like Harry of the
Wynd, in Scott’s novel, working for her own hand.
After digging out a slanting gallery two or three
inches in length, the owner backs out, and goes
round the entrance, as if to inspect her work ; but,
more probably, to take note of the locality, so that
she may always find her way home. This done she
proceeds in quest of prey; and after awhile returns
with a fly in her clutches, which she deposits in her
nest, carefully closing up the entrance before she
wings her way on a second expedition. In the
interval she deposits an egg on the body of the
paralyzed fly, which is to serve as food for the larva
when hatched from the egg. Apparently the bom-
bex makes a fresh nest for every egg; at least, we
-
INSTINCT OR INTELLIGENCE ? 197
nowhere read of any instance of two eggs, or larvae,
having been found in a single gallery,
With respect to the unerring certainty displayed
by the bombex in returning to her own nest, she
seems to perform a mental act something like our
own when recognizing a locality. But her senses,
as Mr. Bates remarks, must be much keener, and
her mental operations more exact, than is the case
with us; for Mr. Bates could not distinguish any
landmark on the sandy surface capable of serving as
a guide, and the forest-border was fully half a mile
distant. The wasp’s action, he adds, would be
described as instinctive; yet it seems clear that the
instinct is no mysterious, unintelligible agent, but in
each individual a definite mental process, differing
from the same in man only by its infallibility. The
“mind†of the insect appears to be so constituted that
the impression of external objects, or the want felt,
causes it to act with a precision which seems to us
like that of a machine constructed so as to act ina
given way.
The mason-wasp is not less interesting than the
bombex. A common species, the Pelopwus fistularis,
collects the clay with which it builds its habitation
198 . THE MASON-WASP.
in little round pellets, which, after rolling into a
convenient shape, it carries off in its mouth. The
nest of this wasp is pouch-shaped, about two inches
long, and attached to a branch, or some other pro-
jecting object. “One of these restless artificers,â€
says our authority, “once began to build on the
handle of a chest in the cabin of my canoe, when
we were stationary at a place for several days. It
was so intent on its work that it allowed me to
inspect the movements of its mouth with a lens
whilst it was laying on the mortar. Every fresh
pellet was brought in with a triumphant song, which
changed to a cheerful, busy hum when it alighted
and began to work. The little ball of moist clay
was laid on the edge of the cell, and then spread out
around the circular rim by means of the lower lip,
guided by the mandibles. The insect placed itself
astride over the rim to work, and on finishing each
' addition to the structure took a turn round, patting
the sides with its feet inside and out before flying
off to gather a fresh pellet. .1t worked only in
sunny weather; and the previous layer was some-
times not quite dry when the new coating was
added. The whole structure takes about a week to
complete.â€
A BATTLE OF ANTS. 199
Legions of ants swarm in the forest ; and nowhere
else can the naturalist find a fitter field for the study
of their characteristics, Scores of ant-hills are found
in every glade; often between three and four feet
high, conically shaped, and furnished with two or
more entrances wide enough to admit of the passage
of a man’s arm. ‘The interior of these hills is in-
geniously divided into cells and corridors ; the ex-
terior is as hard as masonry. They are usually
composed of a stony kind of earth, which is fre-
quently brought from a distance, grain by grain.
The traveller often finds himself a spectator of a
desperate ant-battle; the combatants on one side
being red, and on the other black. They advance
in long columns from different directions, as if they
had decided on their battle-field beforehand, and
accepted from each other a challenge to deadly
strife. The front ranks meet and grapple: a severe
conflict takes place—many a diminutive hero bites
the dust; but over the bodies of the fallen the con-
test is prolonged; fresh warriors press forward to
the onset; and still incessantly over the increasing
pile of dead pours on the apparently inexhaustible
flood of survivors, the fight continuing, perhaps, for
several days. The victors may be afterwards seen
200 RAVAGES OF THE SAUBA.
carrying off in triumph the mangled remains of the
defeated, with the larvee and pup, plundered per-
haps from some neighbouring ant-hills. These —
insect-soldiers belong to the ecitons, or foraging-
ants.
Another genus of ants, the saiiba, confines its
depredations to vegetables, never making war on its
own kind. The ravages committed by these saiibas
almost equal those of the locusts, An army will
march to a fruit-tree; part will ascend, the others
remaining below. The former immediately begin
the work of devastation, clipping off the leaves in
large pieces, which, as they fall, the ants below
proceed to carry away to their rendezvous. It is.
surprising, as Mr. Edwards observes, how consider-
able a burden one of these tiny insects will bear ;
a burden as disproportionate to its size as an oak
would be fora man. Before morning not a leaf is
left upon the tree; and, what is worse, the owner
of the garden or orchard may rest assured that,
unless he discovers the retreat of the satibas, and
exterminates them, every tree will be reduced to the
nakedness of desolation.
There is no such water-system anywhere else in
=
=
ANTS AFTER BATTLE.
A SEMI-AQUATIC POPULATION. 203
the world as that of the Amazons. Its main tribu-
taries are vast rivers; and their affluents are rivers
of the second class, These are curiously connected
with one another by a labyrinth of branches. Then,
again, the forests and the campos are furrowed by
numerous smaller rivers whicli resemble creeks, and,
owing to the level character of the land, have no
regular sources or downward currents. They assist
in the drainage of the country, ebbing and flowing
recularly with the tide. We are here speaking of
the country round about Para and up to Obidos.
The forest streams are called by the natives igarapés,
or canoe-paths, and in their infinite number form
the most characteristic feature of the country. As
the land is densely covered with impenetrable forest-
growth, the houses or villages are built by the
water-side, and nearly all communication is by
water. The traveller examines with curiosity the
semi-aquatic life of the people. For short excur-
sions, and for fishing in pools and still waters, they
use a small boat called montaria. It is made of
five planks: a broad one for the bottom, curved
into the requisite shape by the action of heat; two
narrow planks for the sides; and two small trian-
gular pieces for the stem and stern. A rudder is
204 A RACE OF BOATMEN.
not needed, as the boatman steers and propels with
his paddle. The montaria takes here the place
of the horse, mule, or camel of other regions; but
almost every family has also its igarité—a longer
canoe, with two masts, rudder, and keel, and an
arched awning, or stern-cabin, made of a framework
of tough lianas, thatched with palm-leaves. In this
craft, which they manage with much dexterity,
they will cross rivers fifteen or twenty miles broad.
The Amazonian Indians are as truly a maritime, or
at least an aquatic, population, as the fisher-folk of
the English coast, and are almost as daring.
And here our narrative must end; not for want
of material,—inasmuch as a dozen volumes of this
size would hardly suffice to describe all the physical
characteristics and natural wonders of the Amazons
valley,—but because we have exhausted our limits,
Our object has been to sketch the course of the great
river, from its source to its mouth; and to supply
such notes of the scenery through which it passes,
and of the animal and vegetable life that swarms in
its basin, as may induce the reader to seek hereafter
for fuller knowledge in the works of our naturalists
and travellers. The preceding pages have been
BOAT IN USE ON THE UPPER AMAZON.
CONCLUSION. 207
based upon the particulars recorded by Herndon,
Smyth, Wallace, Agassiz, Edwards, Bates; and to
these and similar authorities the reader may turn,
in the assurance of gaining a vast amount of
valuable and entertaining information.
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