same species; one produced on the north, the other on the south side of the Amazons. It is worthy of especial mention that here, as well as in the cases of P. Lysander and the Heliconii, described in the preceding chapter, the connecting links are found inhabiting distinct localities, and not mingled with the extreme forms which they connect.

We left Serpa on the z9th of December, in company of an old planter named Senhor Joao Trinidade; at whose sitio, situated opposite the mouth of the Madeira, Penna intended to spend a few days. Our course on the zgth and 3oth lay through narrow channels between islands. On the 31st we passed the last of these, and then beheld to. the south a sea-like expanse of water, where the Madeira, the greatest tributary of the Amazons, after 2000 miles of course, blends its waters. with those of the king of rivers. I was hardly prepared for a junction of waters on so vast a scale as this, now nearly 900 miles from the sea. Whilst travelling week after week along the somewhat monotonous stream, often hemmed in between islands, and becoming thoroughly familiar with it, my sense of the magnitude of this vast water system had become gradually deadened; but this noble sight renewed the first feelings of wonder. One is inclined, in such places as these, to think the Paraenses do not exaggerate much when they call the Amazons the Mediterranean of South America. Beyond the mouth of Madeira, the Amazons sweeps down in a majestic reach, to all appearance not a whit less in breadth before, than after, this enormous addition to its waters. The Madeira does not ebb and flow simultaneously with the Amazons; it rises and sinks about two months earlier, so that it was now fuller than the main river. Its current therefore poured forth freely from its mouth, carrying with it a long line of floating trees and patches of grass, which had been torn from its crumbly banks in the lower part of its course. The current, however, did not reach the middle of the main stream, but swept along nearer to the southern shore.

A few items of information which I gleaned relative to this river may find a place here. The Madeira is navigable for about 480 miles from its mouth; a series of cataracts and rapids then commences, which extends, with some intervals of quiet water, about 160 miles, beyond which is another long stretch of navigable stream. Canoes sometimes descend from Villa Bella, in the interior province of Matto Grosso, but not so frequently as formerly, and I could hear of very few persons who had attempted of late years to ascend the river to that point. It was explored by the Portuguese in the early part of the eighteenth century; the chief and now the only town on its banks, Borba, 150 miles from its mouth, being founded in 1756. Up to the year 1853, the lower part of the river, as far as about 100 miles beyond Borba, was regularly visited by traders from Villa Nova, Serpa, and Barra, to collect salsaparilla, copaiiba balsam, turtle-oil, and to trade with the Indians, with whom their relations were generally on a friendly footing. In that year many indiarubber collectors resorted to this region, stimulated by the high price (2s. 6d. a pound) which the article was at that time fetching at Para; and then the Ardras, a fierce and intractable tribe of Indians, began to be troublesome. ‘They attacked several canoes and massacred every one on board, the Indian crews as well as the white er

traders. Their plan was to lurk in ambush near the sandy beaches where canoes stop for the night, and then fall upon the people whilst asleep. Sometimes they came under pretence of wishing to trade, and then as soon as they could get the trader at a disadvantage shot him and his crew from behind trees. Their arms were clubs, bows, and Taquara arrows, the latter a formidable weapon tipped with a piece of flinty bamboo shaped like a spear-head; they could propel it with such force as to pierce a man completely through the body. The whites of Borba made reprisals, inducing the warlike Munduructs, who had an old feud with the Ardras, to assist them. This state of things lasted two or three years, and made a journey up the Madeira a risky undertaking, as the savages attacked all comers. Besides the Ardras and the Mundurucus, the latter a tribe friendly to the whites, attached to agriculture, and inhabiting the interior of the country from the Madeira to beyond the Tapajos, two other tribes of Indians now inhabit the lower Madeira, namely, the Parentintins and the Maras. Of the former I did not hear much; the Maras lead a lazy quiet life on the banks of the labyrinths of lakes and channels which intersect the low country on both sides of the river below Borba. The Ardras are one of those tribes which do not plant mandioca; and indeed have no settled habitations. They are very similar in stature and other physical features to the Munduructis, although differing from them so widely in habits and social condition. They paint their chins red with Uructi (Anatto), and have usually a black tattooed streak on each side of the face, running from the corner of the mouth to the temple. They have not yet learnt the use of firearms, have no canoes, and spend their lives roaming over the interior of the country, living on game and wild fruits. When they wish to cross a river, they make a temporary canoe with the thick bark of trees, which they secure in the required shape of a boat by means of lianas. I heard it stated by a trader of Santarem, who narrowly escaped being butchered by them in 1854, that the Ardras numbered two thousand fighting men. The number I think must be exaggerated, as it generally is with regard to Brazilian tribes. When the Indians show a hostile disposition to the whites, I believe it is most frequently owing to some provocation they have received at their hands; for the first impulse of the Brazilian red-man is to respect Europeans; they have a strong dislike to be forced into their service, but if strangers visit them with a friendly intention they are well treated. It is related, however, that the Indians of the Madeira were hostile to the Portuguese from the first; it was then the tribes of Muras and Torazes who attacked travellers. In 1855 I met with an American, an odd character, named Kemp, who had lived for many years amongst the Indians on the Madeira, near the abandoned settlement of Crato. He told me his neighbours were a kindly-disposed and cheerful people, and that the onslaught of the Ardras was provoked by a trader from Barra, who wantonly fired into a family of them, killing the parents, and carrying off their children to be employed as domestic servants.

We remained nine days at the sitio of Senhor Joao Trinidade. It is situated on a tract of high Ygapé land, which is raised, however, only a

few inches above high-water mark. This skirts the northern shore for a long distance; the soil consisting of alluvium and rich vegetable mould, and exhibiting the most exuberant fertility. Such districts are the first to be settled on in this country, and the whole coast for many miles was dotted with pleasant-looking sitios like that of our friend. The establishment was a large one, the house and out-buildings covering a large space of ground. The industrious proprietor seemed to be Jack-of-all-trades; he was planter, trader, fisherman, and canoe-builder, and a large igarité was now on the stocks under a large shed. There was greater pleasure in contemplating this prosperous farm, from its being worked almost entirely by free labour; in fact, by one family and its dependants. Joao Trinidade had only one female slave; his other workpeople were a brother and sister-in-law, two godsons, a free negro, one or two Indians, and a family of Mtras. Both he and his wife were mamelucos; the negro children called them always father and mother. The order, abundance, and comfort about the place showed what industry and good management could effect in this country without slave-labour. But the surplus produce of such small plantations is very trifling. All we saw had been done since the disorders of 1835-6, during which Joao Trinidade was a great sufferer; he was obliged to fly, and the Mara Indians destroyed his house and plantations. There was a large, well-weeded grove of cacao along the banks of the river, comprising about 8,000 trees, and farther inland considerable plantations of tobacco, mandioca, Indian corn, fields of rice, melons and water-melons. Near the house was a kitchen garden, in which grew cabbages and onions, introduced from Europe, besides a wonderful variety of tropical vegetables. It must not be supposed that these plantations and gardens were enclosed or neatly kept: such is never the case in this country, where labour is so scarce; but it was an unusual thing to see vegetables grown at all, and the ground tolerably well weeded. The space around the house was plentifully planted with fruit-trees, some, belonging to the Anonaceous order, yielding delicious fruits large as a child’s head, and full of custardy pulp which it is necessary to eat with a spoon; besides oranges, lemons, guavas, alligator pears, Abius (Achras cainito), Geni-papas and bananas. In the shade of these, coffee trees grew in great luxuriance. The table was always well supplied with fish, which the . Mara, who was attached to the household as fisherman, caught every morning a few hundred yards from the port. The chief kinds were the Surubim, Pira-peéua, and Piramutdba, three species of Siluridse, belonging to the genus Pimelodus. To these we used a sauce in the form of a yellow paste, quite new to me, called Arubé, which is made of the poisonous juice of the mandioca root, boiled down before the starch or tapioca is precipitated, and seasoned with capsicum peppers. It is kept in stone bottles several weeks before using, and is a most appetising relish to fish. Tucupi, another sauce made also from mandioca juice, is much more common in the interior of the country than Arubé. This is made by boiling or heating the pure liquid, after the tapioca has been separated daily for several days in succession, and seasoning it with peppers and small fishes; when old it has the taste of essence of anchovies. It is generally made as a liquid, but the Juri and Miranha

tribes on the Japurd make it up in the form of a black paste, by a mode of preparation I could not learn; it is then called Tucupi-pixima, or black Tucupi. I have seen the Indians on the Tapajos, where fish is scarce, season Tucupi with Saiiba ants. It is there used chiefly as a sauce to Tacaca, another preparation from mandioca, consisting of the starch beaten up in boiling water.

I thoroughly enjoyed the nine days we spent at this place. Our host and hostess took an interest in my pursuit; one of the best chambers in the house was given up to me, and the young men took me long rambles in the neighbouring forests. I saw very little hard work going forward. Every one rose with the dawn, and went down to the river to bathe; then came the never-failing cup of rich and strong coffee, after which all proceeded to their avocations. At this time nothing was being done at the plantations; the cacao and tobacco crops were not ripe; weeding time was over, and the only work on foot was the preparation of a little farinha by the women. The men dawdled about; went shooting and fishing, or did trifling jobs about the house. The only laborious work done guring the year in these establishments is the felling of timber for new clearings; this happens at the beginning of the dry season—namely, from July toSeptember. Whatever employment the people were engaged in, they did not intermit it during the hot hours of the day. Those who went into the woods took their dinners with them—a small bag of farinha and a slice of salt fish. About sunset all returned to the house; they then had their frugal suppers, and towards eight o’clock, after coming to ask a blessing of the patriarchal head of the household, went off to their hammocks to sleep. There was another visitor besides ourselves, a negro, whom Joao Trinidade introduced to me as his oldest and dearest friend, who had saved his life during the revolt of 1835. I have, unfortunately, forgotten his name; he was a freeman, and had a sitio of his own, situated about a day’s journey from this. There was the same manly bearing about him that I had noticed with pleasure in many other free negroes; but his quiet, earnest manner, and the thoughtful and benevolent expression of his countenance showed him to be a superior man of his class. He told me he had been intimate with our host for thirty years, and that a wry word had never passed between them. At the commencement of the disorders of 1835 he got into the secret of a plot for assassinating his friend, hatched by some villains whose only cause of enmity was their owing him money and envying his prosperity. It was such as these who arouséd the stupid and brutal animosity of the Muras against the whites. The negro, on obtaining this news, set off alone in a montaria on a six hours’ journey in the dead of night, to warn his “ compadre” of the fate in store for him, and thus gave him time to fly. It was a pleasing sight to notice the cordiality of feeling and respect for each other shown by these two old men. They used to spend hours together enjoying the cool breeze, seated under a shed which overlooked the broad river, and talking of old times. Joao Trinidade was famous for his tobacco and Tauari cigarettes. He took particular pains in preparing the Tauari, the envelope of the cigar-

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