Our object here was to purchase a supply of fresh farinha and anything else we could find in the way of provisions, as our farinha had become rotten and unfit to eat, and we had been on short rations for several days. We got all we wanted except sugar; not a pound of this article‘of luxury was to be had, and we were obliged henceforward to sweeten our coffee with treacle, as is the general custom in this part of Brazil. We left Quary before sunrise on the 2oth. On the 22nd we threaded the Parand-mirim of Araudna-i, one of the numerous narrow by-waters which lie conveniently for canoes away from the main river, and often save a considerable circuit round a promontory or island. We rowed for half a mile through a magnificent bed of Victoria water-lilies, the flower-buds of which were just beginning to expand. Beyond the mouth of the Catua, a channel leading to another great lake which we passed on the 25th, the river appeared greatly increased in breadth. We travelled for three days along a broad reach which both up and down river presented a blank horizon of water and sky; this clear view was owing to the absence of islands, but it renewed one’s impressions of the magnitude of the stream, which here, 1200 miles from its mouth, showed so little diminution of width. Further westward a series of large islands commences, which divides the river into two and sometimes three channels, each about a mile in breadth. We kept to the southernmost of these, travelling all day on the 30th April along a high and rather sloping bank. In the evening we arrived at a narrow opening, which would be taken, by a stranger navigating the main channei, for the outlet of some insignificant stream: it was the mouth of the Teffé, on whose banks Ega is situated, the termination of our voyage. After having struggled for thirty-five days with the muddy currents and insect pests of the Solimoens, it was unspeakably refreshing to find one’s-self again in a dark-water river, smooth as a lake, and free from Pium and Motica. The rounded

outline, small foliage, and sombre-green of the woods, which seemed to rest on the glassy waters, made a pleasant contrast to the tumultuous piles of rank, glaring, light-green vegetation, and torn, timber-strewn banks, to which we had been so long accustomed on the main river. The men rowed lazily until nightfall, when, having done a laborious day’s work, they discontinued and went to sleep, intending to make for Ega in the morning. It was not thought worth while to secure the vessel to the trees or cast anchor, as there was no current. I sat up for two or three hours after my companions had gone to rest, enjoying the solemn calm of the night. Not a breath of air stirred; the sky was of a deep blue, and the stars seemed to stand forth in sharp relief; there was no sound of life in the woods, except the occasional melancholy note of some nocturnal bird. I reflected on my own wandering life: I had reached the end of the third stage of my journey, and was now more than half-way across the continent. It was necessary for me, on many accounts, to find a rich locality for Natural History explorations, and settle myself in it for some months or years. Would the neighbourhood of Ega turn out to be suitable? and should I, a solitary stranger on a strange errand, find a welcome amongst its people?:

Our Indians resumed their oars at sunrise the next morning (May 1st), and after an hour’s rowing along the narrow channel, which varies in breadth from too to 500 yards, we doubled a low wooded point, and emerged suddenly on the so-called Lake of Ega: a magnificent sheet of water, five miles broad—the expanded portion of the Teffé. Itis quite clear of islands, and curves away to the west and south, so that its full extent is not visible from this side. To the left, on a gentle grassy slope at the point of junction of a broad tributary with the Teffé, lay the little settlement: a cluster of a hundred or so of palm-thatched cottages and whitewashed red-tiled houses, each with its neatly-enclosed orchard of orange, lemon, banana, and guava trees. Groups of palms, with their tall slender shafts and feathery crowns, overtopped the buildings and lower trees. A broad grass-carpeted street led from the narrow strip of white sandy beach to the rudely-built barn-like church, with its wooden crucifix on the green before it, in the centre of the town. Cattle were grazing before the houses, and a number of dark-skinned natives were taking their morning bath amongst the canoes of various sizes which were anchored or moored to stakes in the port. We let off rockets and fired salutes, according to custom, in token of our safe arrival, and shortly afterwards went ashore.

A few days’ experience of the people and the forests of the vicinity showed me that I might lay myself out for a long, pleasant, and busy residence at this place. An idea of the kind of people I had fallen amongst may be conveyed by an account of my earliest acquaintances in the place. On landing, the owner of the canoe killed an ox in honour of our arrival, and the next day took me round the town to introduce me to the principal residents. We first went to the Delegado _ of police, Senhor Antonio Cardozo, of whom I shall have to make frequent mention by-and-by. He was a stout, broad-featured man, ranking as a white, but having a tinge of negro blood; his complexion.

however, was ruddy, and scarcely betrayed the mixture. He received us in a very cordial, winning manner: I had afterwards occasion to be astonished at the boundless good nature of this excellent fellow, whose greatest pleasure seemed to be to make sacrifices for his friends. He was a Paraense, and came to Ega originally as a trader; but not succeeding in this, he turned planter on a small scale, and collector of the natural commodities of the country, employing half a dozen Indians in the business. We then visited the military commandant, an officer in the Brazilian army, named Praia. He was breakfasting with the vicar, and we found the two in dishabille (morning-gown loose round the neck, and slippers), seated at a rude wooden table in an open mud-floored verandah, at the back of the house. Commander Praia was a little curly-headed man (also somewhat of a muiatto), always merry and fond of practical jokes. His wife, Donna Anna, a dressy dame from Santarem, was the leader of fashion in the settlement. The vicar, Father Luiz Gonsalvo Gomez, was a nearly pure-blood Indian, a native of one of the neighbouring villages, but educated in Maranham, a city on the Atlantic seaboard. I afterwards saw a good deal of him, as he was an agreeable, sociable fellow, fond of reading and hearing about foreign countries, and quite free from the prejudices which might be expected in a man of his profession. I found him, moreover, a thoroughly upright, sincere and virtuous man. He supported his aged mother and unmarried sisters in a very creditable way out of his small salary and emoluments. It is a pleasure to be able to speak in these terms of a Brazilian priest, for the opportunity occurs rarely enough.

Leaving these agreeable new acquaintances to finish their breakfast, we next called on the Director of the Indians of the Japtra, Senhor José Chrysostomo Monteiro, a thin, wiry Mameluco, the most enterprising person in the settlement. Each of the neighbouring rivers with its numerous wild tribes is under the control of a Director, who is nominated by the Imperial Government. There are now no missions in the region of the Upper Amazons: the “‘gentios” (heathens, or unbaptised Indians) being considered under the management and protection of these despots, who, like the captains of Trabalhadores, before mentioned, use the natives for their own private ends; Senhor Chrysostomo had, at this time, 200 of the Japtira Indians in his employ. He was half Indian himself, but was a far worse master to the red-skins than the whites usually are. We finished our rounds by paying our respects to a venerable native merchant, Senor Romao de Oliveira, a tall, corpulent, fine-looking old man, who received us with a naive courtesy quite original in its way. He had been an industrious, enterprising man in his younger days, and had built a substantial range of houses and warehouses. The shrewd and able old gentleman knew nothing of the world beyond the wilderness of the Solimoens and its few thousands of isolated inhabitants; yet he could converse well and sensibly, making observations on men and things as sagaciously as though he had drawn them from long experience of life in a European capital. The semi-civilised Indians respected old Roma6, and he had, consequently, a great number in his employ in different parts of the river: his vessels were always filled quicker with produce than those of

his neighbours. On our leaving, he placed his house and store at my disposal. This was not a piece of empty politeness, for some time afterwards, when F wished to settle for the goods I had had of him, he refused to take any payment.

I made Ega my headquarters during the whole of the time I remained on the Upper Amazons (four years and a half). My excursions into the neighbouring region extended sometimes as far as three and four hundred miles from the place. An account of these excursions will be given in subsequent chapters; in the intervals between them I led a quiet, uneventful life in the settlement; following my pursuit in the same peaceful, regular way as a Naturalist might do in a European village. For many weeks in succession my journal records little more than the notes made on my daily captures. I had a dry and spacious cottage, the principal room of which was made a workshop and study; here a large table was placed, and my little library of reference arranged on shelves in rough wooden boxes. Cages for drying specimens were suspended from the rafters by cords well anointed with a bitter vegetable oil to prevent ants from descending: rats and mice were kept from them by inverted cuyas, placed half-way down the cords. I always kept on hand a large portion of my private collection, which contained a pair of each species and variety, for the sake of comparing the old with the new acquisitions. My cottage was whitewashed inside and out about once a year by the proprietor, a native trader; the floor was of earth; the ventilation was perfect, for the outside air, and sometimes the rain as well, entered freely through gaps at the top of the walls under the eaves, and through wide crevices in the doorways. Rude as the dwelling was, I look back with pleasure on the many happy months I spent init. I rose generally with the sun, when the grassy streets were wet with dew, and walked down to the river to bathe: five or six hours of every morning were spent in collecting in the forest, whose borders lay only five minutes’ walk from my house: the hot hours of the afternoon, between three and six o’clock, and the rainy days, were occupied in preparing and ticketing the specimens, making notes, dissecting, and drawing. I frequently had short rambles by water in a small montaria, with an Indian lad to paddle. The neighbourhood yielded me, up to the Jast day of my residence, an uninterrupted succession of new and curious forms in the different classes of the animal kingdom, but especially insects. I lived, as may already have been seen, on the best of terms with the inhabitants of Ega. Refined society, of course, there was none; but the score or so of decent, quiet families which constituted the upper class of the place were very sociable; their manners offered a curious mixture of naive rusticity and formal politeness; the great desire to be thought civilised leads the most ignorant of these people (and they are all very ignorant, although of quick intelligence) to be civil and kind to strangers from Europe. I was never troubled with that impertinent curiosity on the part of the people in these interior places which some travellers complain of in other countries. The Indians and lower half-castes—at least, such of them who gave any thought to the subject—

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