The Amazon and Madeira rivers, sketches and descriptions from the note-book of an explorer (1874)

The Amazon and Madeira rivers; sketches and descriptions from the note-book of an explorer, by Franz Keller, engineer; with sixty-eight illustrations on wood.
Table of contents

From Petropolis the normal carriage-road of the Company Uniao e Industria, constructed by my father from , leads to Juiz de Fora, in the province of Minas, a distance of kilometres. It was designed to be extended to Pluro Preto, the capital of the province, and to be connected with a line of steamers on the Rio das Velhas.

It crosses the richest coffee-growing districts of Rio de Janeiro and Minas, and has long ago repaid the vast outlay involved in large rock-blasting operations in the Serra do Mar, and in the construction of an iron bridge over the Parahyba of metres length, and the like works, by augmenting the value of the land and increasing the productiveness of the whole district. With the great extent of the coast of the Empire, the steam navigation is, of course, of the greater importance, as the land communications are by no means easy.

Considering that, before the time of steamers, a Government order took on an average about a month to get from the capital to Para, or to any seaport of Rio Grande do Sul; and again, that at least six weeks elapsed before the decree reached Manaos, and about the same time, or more, before it got from Rio Grande, by the River Plate and the Paraguay, to Cuyaba, the capital of Mato Grosso, one can form a slight idea of the difficulties to be surmounted by the Central Government.

Just as in China, the president of some distant province might have been driven away and the Government overthrown without the capital being aware of it for two months or more; and indeed, at the time of the Declaration of Independence, the Northern provinces, with Para at their head, were on the eve of siding with Portugal, while at Rio and in the whole South the Revolution had long got the upper hand.

Now all this is greatly changed. Eahia, and- Pernambuco, there is also a Brazzilian line of steamers, which links all the mi-nor ports, and corresponds with the Amzazoll line and with those on the River Plate and Paraguay. A voyage along the coast, revealing in quick succession the rocky cones of the Serra, proud cities like B3ahia and Pernambunco, idyllic fisher-villages. But while the blue Atlantic with ease bears the mightiest steamers on its broad bosom, and while this part of it generally deserves the appellation given to it by the Portuguese, um rnar de leite a sea of milk -as neither frequent squalls nor dangerous cliffs imperil the vessels-the rivers of the Empire, with the exception of the Amazon and the Paraguay, together with the La Plata, have their full share of currents, crags, and obstructions.

Unfortunately all these rivers have, at different points of their course, either real falls-as the Sao Francisco, not far above its mouth, has the grand fall of Paulo Affonco-or currents that scarcely allow a canoe or a flat boat to pass; and thus thousands of square miles of the richest soil have continued for ages to remain unexplored, uncultivated, and almost totally uninhabited.

Incredible as it may appear at first sight, it is nevertheless true that the fate of the Southern provinces of Brazil, the western parts of, Sao Paulo, Parana, and the south of Minas and Mato Grosso, would be a very different one if strong currents and the lofty falls of Sete Quedas, unvisited by any European for two hundred years since the missionary expeditions of the Jesuits, did not render the Parana unfit for navigation. If on that chief arm of the La Plata Brazilian men-of-war had been stationed, if men and war material could have come by its affluents, the Iguacu, Paranapanema, and Tiete, the war with Paraguay would have come to an end much sooner, or probably would not have been begun at all.

Every measure that might have tended in the least to strengthen the colony, was strictly suppressed however advantageous it might have proved. Of course nothing was done for schools, Portugal never having distinguished itself in that respect; and, in the most inconsiderate fashion, immense tracts of land, so called capitanias, were given away to courtiers who never intended doing anything in the way of colonising or cultivating them, or to young noblemen who had become objectionable to their families by the extravagance of their lives, and who, of all men, were least fit for the difficult duties of colonisation and administration, though it must be remarked that, among these first Donatarios, there were some excellent men, such as Duarte Coelho, founder of Pernalbuco, and Martin Affonco de Souza, renowned for his deeds in India, and founder of the city of Sao Paulo.

One of the privileges of these Donatarios was to enslave "Indios or Gentios," wherever they or their subordinates could get them, and to sell certain numbers of them " tax-free" at Lisbon. Of course, the settlers made large use of this right; and, also of course, the Indians sought to revenge themselves by sudden attacks and all sorts of cruelties; for which they were, in their turn, pursued only the more pitilessly.

By-and-bye the Order of the Jesuits, that soon after its establishment had got a sure footing in Brazil,-especially at Bahia,-became a mighty aid to the settlers, protected their run-away slaves, and generally lknew how to arrange things so well that a Carta Regia Order of the King , gave them the right to plan laws for their regulation.

In due time these appeared, and were not to the disadvantage of the Padres, as may be imagined.


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They went along the whole west, and discovered, in January, , tie magnificent bay of Rio de Janeiro, which they believed to be the mouth of a large river. This error generatedl the namne of the city and province. The difficulties of the young colony were soon increased by outward foes. The Governador Geral, Men de Sa, appointed in , and residing at the Cidade do Salvador the present Bahia , had immediately to make preparations against the French; who, under the leadership of the Htuguenot Villegaignon, and with the aid of some Indian tribes, their allies, had erected an intrenched camp on the bay of Rio de Janeiro then Cidade de Sao Sebastiao.

In January, , a great battle was fought there, which cost thle brave Men de Sa', nephew to the Governador, his life, and which ended in the defeat of the French; and 3laranhao, which they had taken in , was re-conquered by the Portuguese. In they took Bahia; in Pernambuco, which began to prosper well under the brief rule of the Prince Mallrice of Nassau; and in Maranhao; but, as they were not seconded sufficiently by the mother country, just when difficulties arose, the Portuguese succeeded, with some difficulty, in mastering them and finally drivingf them away in Unfortunately the period of peace which followed these victories, and during which the internally effervescing condition of things began to clear and settle, was used by the Portuguese Government only to get up a kind of old Japanese system of isolation, by which it was intended to keep the colony in perpetual tutelage.

In consequence of this even now, after the lapse of half a century since it violently separated itself, Brazilians generally entertain a bitter grudge against the mother country. All the trade to and from Brazil was engrossed by Portugal; every- funntiongary, down to the last clerk, was Portuguese. In there came a French fleet under Duclerc; and, in , a, stronger one under DuguayTrouin, who bombarled, ransacked, andl plundered Rio de Janeiro. Formerly in Brazil, as still in Bolivia, the costliest plate might be found in opulent houses, but not enough knives and glasses, since plate of true ortugueae mamufacture couly.

This question, which arose shortly after the discovery, and was -hushed up only during the short TUnion of both the Crowns from , brokie out with renewed vigour every now and then, mzaugre the Treaty of Tordesilhas in ; accordino. Both, these extraordinary documents dating from.

Peter ever to impose such an award.. Arms were talren up anew, but until now they failedl to bring about any durable results anLld the unsolved qiuestion descended as an evil heritage to their respective heirs, Brazil, and the South American Republics.

Description

But, unfortunately, he roused to a blazing flame the old hatred against the Portuguese, by filling all the offices with them, and by creating sinecures for the courtiers who had migrated with him. A Revolution, which broke out at Pernambuco in , was easily subdued, as the neighbouring provinces, headed by Bahia, positively refused to join it; but the so-called Constitutional Revolution of Portugal, in , found a loud echo in Brazil.

The Crown Prince himself took the lead, and, in February, , the King was forced to recognise the Constitution, yet to be drawn up by the Cortes at Lisbon. But, as this required before all things the return of the King, and, besides, was exactly calculated to reduce the colony to its former state of dependence, the enthusiasm of the disappointed Brazilians suffered a severe shock; new disorders followed; and, after a stormy session of the Chambers, the IKing was summoned to accept for Brazil the Spanish Constitution of He assented to everything; but, within an hour after the retirement of the King, the sitting of the Assembly was arrested by a volley fired through the windows by a company of Portuguese riflemen; and Don Joao VI.

The Portuguese Cortes, however, could not yet make up their mind either to abandon their old system of keeping down and tutoring the colony, or to concede to it any privileges. Continual chicanes and encroachments upon his rights drove the Prince Regent at last openly to head the revolutionary party. At Ipiranga, near Sao Paulo, having received another friendly missive from Lisbon, he raised, on the 7th of September, , the cry of " lizidepmencia oil 9orte! On his return to Rio, he was unanimously declared emperor on the 21st of September, and crowned as such on the 1st of December. In about a year's time all the provinces were vacated by the Portuguese troops; and in , chiefly through the mediation of Englandl, Brazil was acknowledged as an1 independent Empire.

But the inner commotions continued, and were not even soothed by a new Consfitution, drawn up in , and sworn to by the Emperor in New revolts in Pernambuco, and some of the other Northern provinces, and a war of three years with the Argentine Republic, which ended in by Brazil giving up Banda Oriental, annexed only eleven years before, disturbed and weakened the land. The foreign soldiers, enlisted for this war, and retained after its conclusion to keep down the Opposition, and the extravagant private life of the Emperor, who recklessly trampled.

In April, , Don Pedro I. The next period was the most clisturbedl one that the young Empire had yet witnessed. Slave revolts at Bahia, a civil war ill the South, which almost cost it the province of Rio Grande do Sul, and the bloody rebellion known as the Guerra dos Cabanos, in Para and Amazon, from to , followed each other quicklly.

In this last revolt, the Brazilians had stirred up the Indians and nmestizoes against the abhorred Portuguese, without considering that they should not be able to quench the fire they had themselves kindled. In a short time, the fury of the whole coloured population turned against all whites, Brazilians and Portuguese alike, without any distinction.

More than 10, persons are said to have perished in this Guerra dos Cabanos; and, to the present day, those terrible times and the barbarous cruelties committed by the Indians, half-castes, and mulattoes, continue to be talked of with awe in the two provinces. A revolution in Minas, got up by the personal ambitions of a few political leaders, rather than emanating from the spirit of the people, and the war against Rosas, the Dictator of the Argentine Republic, passed over B3razil without leaving deep traces, at least when compared with the last war against Paraguay; which, besides the stimulus of the old differences about boundaries, was occasioned by the endless vexations and restrictions, with which the Dictator Lopez strove to ruin the Brazilian trade on the Paraguay, and to prejudice the province of Mato Grosso.

This despot, cracked up by many European journals as a gallant hero and devoted patriot, at first imitated and, at last, surpassed the good examples of his predecessors, Dr. Even before the war, the younger Lopez indulged himself in the strangest encroachments upon the personal rights, not of Brazilians only, but of Germans, Englishmen, North Americans, and Frenchmen; and even his own countrymen, especially those belonging to the better classes, whose opposition he had to fear, were either made away with in one way and another, or expelled.

The importance of such a way of communication was proved but too clearly by the fate of a detachment of 3, men inadvertently sent by land, even in the absence of roads, to the ill-fated province, which had been devastated already by the Paraguayan hordes. Two-thirds of them perished miserably on the way; the rest arrived there, after eight months of terrible sufferings, in such a condition that they hacd all of them, to be sent to the hospitals.

Besides cholera and small-pox, hunger and privations of every kind made sad havoc among the Brazilians, certainly more than the Paraguayan bullets. Notwithstanding several decided victories over the latter, the Brazilians never knew how to profit by them; and the restless enemy, in whose ranks the Dictator had maintained the strictest discipline and unyielding courage in the face of all privations, always contrived to rally, to take up new positions of great strength, and to receive fresh auxiliary troops and provisions. The heaviest blame in this respect falls to the Marquez de Caixas, who was entrusted with the conduct of the Brazilian army.

His total want of energy and of military talent, and his perpetual hesitations, caused the disastrous war to last five long years. Only -when he was superseded in the command by the Comlte d'Eu, son-in-law of the Emperor, were the operations carried on more actively; and they succeeded at last in surrounding the fugitive despot and rendering him inoffensive for the future. Well-nigh incredible to Europeans will appear the cruelties of this petty tyrant; who, under a gold-embroidered uniform, bore the wild heart of the Pampas Indian relishing the tortures of his fellow-men.

Especially when he saw that there was no help for it but to surrender or to die, his fury becamle boundless. No one better than a half-wild Guarani could hope to escape his suspicions; and whoever was suspected was doomed. A German engineer Mr. And this ferocious barbarian, who moreover had shown throughout the contest a cowardice and a petty care for his own Ego, surpassing all bounds; who was grand only in respect.

If the Brazilians, in apology for the backwardness of their country, call it a new one, compared with even the United States, they certainly are right in some respects; as, only since its freedom from Portuguese mismanagement, could anything be done for its progress and improvement, or any steps be taken for the systematic development of its natural riches. Let us hope that this interest will be durable, and that both parties will derive advantage front it. Parahyboa l do Norte. None of the other ports of Brazil can contest; the palm of beauty with the Capital, emphatically called the " Cidade Ieroica," although the charms so easily imparted by a rich tropical vegetation are the same, more or less, with all of them.

BAmA, is the first of them touched by the steamer on her way frooll Rio to Para. On the remarkrable coral reef that protects the port are a fine new lighthouse and a: The female portion of the inhabitants, mostly coloured people, keep up an industry of lace-manufacture after somewhat old fashioned but not the less interesting Portuguese patterns. They are small rafts made of five planks of light timber, upon which daring fishermen, mostly half-bred Indians and mulattoes, venture far out to sea. The upper parts of the Amazon, the Solimo'es, and their mighty aIffluents, were almost a terrae iizeoynilae before steamers divided the yellow floods of the former.

Some eight or tenl years aoo, all tlhis began to improve. The " Stars and Stripes" only could effect a thorough change there; but, as yet, they are floating on none of those mighty streams. The streets are large and regular, but they have an abominable pavement of a soft ferruginous sandstone pedra canga , whic h is ground down by the wheels to a fine red dust, apt to be extremely annoying.: Amid the rich vegetation of the gardens there is one species of palm-tree that Norh Aerian ompny arringoutourraiwayproecton he aderato endan mercanschooner up to Santo Antonio under her national flag.

It is the Assai, whose fruit a small nut with a dark blue pulp makes a very popular and, indeed, very refreshing beverage. Similar beverages are obtained from the fruits of the Bacaba and Bataua palms, by passing the rich pulps through a sieve, and mixing them with water and sugar. As soon as we had completed our official visits to the President and others, and had made a few private calls, we took our passage on board the Belem, a first-rate steamer of the Amazon Steam Company; whose commander, Senhor Leal, formerly in the Brazilian Navy, reeeived us with great kindness.

The steamers of this company are from to tons burden, and of horsepower. They are well fitted out; the quarter-deck especially is sheltered against sun and rain by a solid roof, thus forming an agreeable lounge. IHere the meals are taken; and in the evening the slender iron columns of the roof support the hammocks, which every one prefers to the hot beds in the cabins below.

Our company was a very motley one. There was the Brazilian civil official, deeming it rather hard to be sent to such a place of exile as Serpa or AManaos; there was the Portuguese Vendeiro, unable to trake interest in anything save his percentages; and there was the American colonist fiom one of the Southern States, who emigrated in disgust at the defeat of his party, tried life at Santarem at the mouth of the Tapajoz, but found it so dreadfully " dull" tlat he is going to move heaven and earth at Para to get repaid for the cost of his passage home again.

These were our fellow-passengers who peacefully extended: Tabatinga, the Brazilian frontier fort, against Peru, is in a most dilapidated state. A Brazilian officer of rank once told me, with that openness which characterises the educated Brazilian, "O nosso celebre Tabatinga, o baluarte contra e Perfi, que elles chamlo ale fortaleza, e antes ula fraqheza! Tabatinga, the bulwasrk against Perli, that they cazll at fortress, is rather a weakness. The steamer now passed through the large Bahia de Marajo, whose flat banks are scarcely discernible, leaving us to guess only the wide mouth of the Tocantinls to be where sky and water are melting into one blue horizon, into the Estreito do Breves, one of those narrow, intricate channels, through which the powerful Amazon has to send its waters to the Para.

Magnificent groups of Muriti palms line its sides, their broad waving fans silvered by the brightest of moonshine. There is a certain charm about that sloping hill, covered with whitewashedl houses and cottages, and green gardens, and overlooking a white beach full of boats and barques of every size. Tempted by the lovely aspect, we went on shore to stretch our limbs a little, and to gather some statistical notes, if possible; but we had no idea of the difficulties of the latter undertaking. We began by asking the proprietor of a little shop, who was sitting quietly on his doorstep and inhaling the exquisite.

How many souls do you count here? Uneducated Brazilians never being sure of their L's and R's. Oh, about as many I think as there are women," he said smiling, the while archly giving a customer the required brandy, and pocketing the dirty large coins. I ow many inhabitants? Just then the bell of the steamer began to ring. In despair we hastily purchased some melons, and hurried on board.

How much water will have rolled down the broad Amazon before one can get informed at Santarem of the number of its inhabitants? The next station is OBIDOS, where the breadth of the river is considerably reduced, while the declivity increases, so as to form a sort of current. A little fort on the right is scarcely of any consequence, especially as men-of-war can easily evade it, at least at high water, by passing through a lake on the right bank, which connects itself to the main stream by deep channels below and above Obidos.

The effects of high and low tide are felt here, though miles from the sea; and it is only the increase of elevation thlat prevents it being felt higher up. Before passing the mouth of the Madeira, which is not visible on account of the isles, we reached SEnr, a village of a dozen or so of huts and cottages on a high shore, but which may expect a prosperous future from its favourable position near the Madeira. Here, as well as at the other stations, we toolk in some fuel, kept ready on shore in long, well-arranlged piles.

Formerly the Amazon Company kept at Serpa a steam saw-mill, which they worked with a colony of Portuguese. Unfortunately this establishment, of which the best hopes were reasonably entertained, was badly managed, and abandoned after a short time; not without the peaceful inhabitants of Serpa having been kept in a constant agitation by the dissolute workmen, mostly Portuguese, 13nglishmen, and Germans.

The steamer now shaped its course more and more to the north-west, and left, the Amazon to run into the Rio Negro. The shallow bay on the left shore of the Rio Negro was full of fishinzg-boats, from beneath whose roofs of palm-leaves half a score of borown faces popped out to have a look at the stran ers, and of large batelo'es barqyues , come from Venezuela, laden brimful 3sThere are three mark ed kzinds of alluvion in the valley that di-iffer materially fromu each other in their. There were also the two little steamers of the Government, besides one of the Amazon Company, whicl was to set out on the morrow, instead of the Bele 7 , for the frontiers of Perui,-another seven or eight clays' voyage.

As the shallow shore did not admit a direct approach even for small boats, and as, a landing-bridge seemed to be an unheard of luxury, there was no resource but to disembark in two-wheeled carts, standing up to t. But they awake much less interest than an old Indian cemetery, recently discovered on levelling the ground in the neighbourhlood of the ramparts. Hundreds of those large urns.: In many of them the remains-. A sure vestige of the Terra Firma, besides its greater elevation above the level of the river, is the yellowish red clay, and the rich vegetation of its virgin forests.

There the Bertholletia excelsa CastanAleira spreads its. It was situated at the mouth of the little affluent Tarumr, and was founded by Pedro da Costa Favella.

Book/Printed Material, Brazil, Amazon River | Library of Congress

The fort of Sao J[ose was. Irancisco da li[otta Flalcao. We were lucky enough to find immediately a little house, in which we installed ourselves as quickly as possible, but in which, unfortunately, we were detained much longer than we had anticipated; for, notwithstanding the efforts of the President, we were unable to get, either there or in the vicinity, the required number of rowers for our expedition, though we offered high wages. The Indians and Mestizoes of these countries are extremely indolent, and will wTork just enough to keep themselves from starvation.

The Rio Negro being full of excellent fish, which sell well and are caught with very little trouble, and the soil being as fertile as it can possibly be, they spend the greater part of their time, lolling comfortably in their hammnoclks, in a state of pleasant drowsiness, which they would not exchange for regular activity for any money. More or less they are all lilke the mestizo, who replied to a surveyor, offering him a high rate for his services as guide, paddler, hunter, and fisher: Through the Bolivian consul, Don Ignacio de Arauz, we had made the acquaintance. These broad-shoulderedl sons of the plains of the.

The shape of these vessels, especially of thee smaller ones, often recalls the Chisaese juolfs with their peceliarly ofheecl proowso. They were about the only persons we saw working in the streets, carrying turtles and fuel fromt the shore to the houses, or lending a, hand at new buildings. The' here gain about ten times as much as they could in their own counltry, where they live in great misery; and so there is an endless current of emigration from Bolivia to Brazil, in spite of all the reclamations of the fFormer.

After having secured the boats and crew, we had to set about the difflicult task of buying provisions for the long voyage before us,-r1ather a severe trial of our patience, on account of the astonishing indolence of the sparse population, which barely allows it to provide for its own subosistence. In respect of meat it is even worse. Instead of the charque, or carne seca. We took provisionzs for about four months, the rest of the baggage consisting of tools for canoe-makling and repairing, ropes, tents, arms, druges, and presents for the savage -and half-savage tribes in the valleys of the Madeira, and Mamore'.

Besides the eighty Indian paddlers the expediition consisted of my father and myself; a young Birazilian engineer TJoaquim MaIanoel. Especially the mighty Mundnuruc-L' tribe seems to take the, task to heart of annihiltating them to the last man. As thence to Exaltacion on the Mlamore', and to Fort Principe dia Beira on the Guazapore, tlhere is not one settlement to be found of more than two or three cabins even at Crato there is but one better house, and a few low straw huts ; and as larger settlements also never existedl before on the Madleira, one canllot but wonder that, on both old and modlern maps, tlhere is a great number of towns and hamlets inscriboed inthese wildlernesses.

Even on the lower Diadceira, so m ucli more accessible than the regions of the. Still it is to be wondered at that the population has not increased on the Lower Madeira, seeing its almost perfect navigability up to Santo Antonio, and the exuberance of precious timber, fruits, and resins in its forests.

Keller, Franz 1835-1890

The Portuguese in the past century had better hopes. They used the river as a way of communication to the province of Mato Grosso, and built the fort of Principe da Beira on the Guapore' to protect their navigation. As I mentioned above, the river is almost perfectly navigable below the broad zone of cataracts and currents, which, beginning at Santo Antonio, extend as far as Guajara.

The few obstructions to free navigation can be easily removed. At Uroa a few rocks blasted would serve to straighten and deepen the curved channel of 15 metres breadth, which at low water is less than a yard in depth. At Marmelo and Abelhas, near Crato, even simpler operations would suffice. Their interior as yet is quite unexplored, but they are probably connected with the plains or prairies of Bolivia. The cattle of the Estancia, whose first stock had come from Bolivia descending the Madeira in barques , are thriving wonderfully, and will one day become of importance to the population of the UTpper Amazon and Lower Madeira, who, until now, have subsisted chiefly on fish and turtle.

A few years ago, when the first Bolivian caoutchouc-gatherers settled near the Madeira, some raw ox-hides they had brought with them were quite a marvellous sight for their Brazilian neighbours, who used to touch them and to wonder what great powerful animals oxen must be. Above Crato there are some ten or twelve Bolivian Seringueiros, each of them working with twenty or thirty Mojos Indians, who will make them rich men in a few years. It is true their lives are not very secure, the wild Indians not being the best of neighbours.

Only eight years ago the house of one of them was attacked by the savage Parentintin Indians, and the poor victims were roasted and eaten by the cannibals; but as they were surprised on a sandbank at their horrid meal, and severely punished by their pursuers, they have never again ventured out of the depths of their forests. Yet no Seringueiro will dare to penetrate into one of the lateral valleys, be they never so full of the richest seringaes caoutchouc forests. Sooner or later they would have to dread an attack at dawn of day, and their few fire-arms would be of little avail against the long arrows and heavy lances of the Indians, who, moreover, would not be the only enemies to be abreanded there; for the fevers, sesdes or fe1res trcianas, as the Brazilians call them , are just as bad, or worse, than the fierce red solls of the forest.

On the Lower Madeira there are only three places really dangerous, Sanzto Antonio, Jammary, and Aripuana, though in November, on arrival of the first; high floods from the. Benli, a fever-blatst sweeps through the whole valley. That place of exrile was situated about thirty-six leaanes higher up, at the mouth of the Jalmmary, and it maintains its unhealthy rep-ute to the present, day.

The plague gets more and more mallignante and freqyuent as one approaches the region of the ra2pids, wthere a greater elevation and a rocky soil would lead one to suppose it less dangerous anzd less regular in its appearance. It has happened that Boliviann merchantst descending thLe rivier have been in danger of losino, everything by the sudlden illness of all their crew, and the death of some of them.

On the whole, it seems that the fevers are decreasing on the Madeira. Among the poorer caoutchouc collectors Peruvian barlki is rarely founds though it has already come in large hide-covered bags from the Cordillera through the 1iamore and Madeira to the Amazon and Para, while formerly it had to be transported over the icy heights of the Andes to the Pacific.

Besides a great many most extravagant household drugs, they use commonly the caferana, a herb of bitter taste found in the woods, which is said to be as efficacious as Peruvian bark. On account of the singularity of the fact, I cannot omit to mention that there is a German among the Seringueiros of the Madeira. He had come over from Holstein twenty years ago, had enrolled himself as a soldier, and fought against Rosas in The La Plata States; and he is now leading a sort of Robinson Crusoe life near the Madeira.

He is reported to be a very fast gatherer, and to prepare, with his Indian wife, during the three or four dry months, more than a hundred arrobas one arroba is equivalent to 32 lbs. It was pleasant to see the joyous surprise and the brightened face of the man, when he unexpectedly heard our loud salutation, in German, of "Good morning, countryman! We had easily recognised him by his fair hair and beard, the more so, as we had heard of him before, and had been looking out for him for two days.

He stood near the water's edge, watching our canoes coming slowvly up. A thousand such families, living along the river, soon would completely change the aspect of the country. Especially if an energetic company, fully alive to the position, and sure of adequate support from home, would lead the settlers and protect them against the inevitable jealousies of land and trade monopolists, such a colony might anticipate full success, particularly as facilities of intercommunication will soon give a heavy blow to the old system of robbery.

The appearance of the low-thatched roof of a Seringueiro's wretched home, or the sight of some small Pac6va plantation, whose vivid soft green contrasts sharply with the gloom of the forest behind, is then regarded as quite a happy event; and we often wished heartily to change the easy navigation on this smooth surface for the variety of troubles and dangers that we knew to await us at the Rapids, and of which we were soon to have our full share.

There, and on similar banks, turtles comme in the month of September to lay their eggs, in such incredible numbers that he who sees these cuirassed armies for the first time cannot but feel a sensation of horror and disgust. With wonderful rapidity they dig large holes, one foot and a half deep, into the soft sand, and are often in such a huLrry that the eggs of some nest, which had been already covered with sand, are disturbed and scattered about.

These shy animals, that generally dive at the slightest noise, are deaf and blind to aly danger at this season, and are easily laid on their backs by the fishermen and Seringueiros; hundreds of whom assemble on these occasions, like birds of prey round dead game, to prepare the Aanteiga de Tartaruga turtle-butter. The eggs are dug out and put into the canoes.

The thin shells are broken and crushed by treading on them, and the fat yolks, with which they are almost filled, become a thick yellow substance. Under the glowing rays of the tropical sun, the oily parts soon settle on the surface, and are easily skimmed into large earthen jars. The fat thus gained is not remarkable for delicacy of taste, and is by no means a substitute for butter and olive oil, as one might suppose from the fresh eggs being very agreeable to the palate.

The decomposition of manifold impurities, and the circumstance that often some of the eggs have been already half-hatched by- the sun, give it an abominable flavour, recalling to mind Russia-leather and tanneries, which renders it thoroughly disgusting to a civilised Christian's palate, at least. Even in the basin of the Amazon the turtle-butter is used only for lamp-oil, and seldom for cooking purposes. This fruit is cuite indispensable to the population of the whole Amazon basin.

It grows there to the enormous height of forty centimetres, and is eaten both ripe and unripe, raw and cooked. When ripe and dried in the sun it surpasses the fig in delicacy of taste, while it is much like our potato when dried unripe and boiled. It is clear that, with the present procedure, they must rapidly decrease, and that, at no distant date, they will be counted amongst the things of the past, as will be seen by the following figures.

On the Madeira, about 2, jars potes are annually filled with turtle-butter. For each jar about 2, eggs are required. Besides which, three or four thousand female turtles are caught in the laying-season at the Praia de Tamandua alone, as every Seringueiro takes a few hundred away to keep them as live stock; and, finally, as if such a destruction were not enough, none of the canoes passing there at the right season will omit the opportunity of searching the shoal for newly hatched turtles of five or six centimetres length, which are reckoned great delicacies; so that comparatively fewr will come to full growth.

A few years ago a good-sized tartaruga of about one metre's length, one metre broad, and thirty-six to forty centimetres thick, equal to the provision of a good dinner for fifteen persons, could easily be purchased at Manatos for two milreis,t whereas nowadays it is very often not to be had at five. The tartaruga is hunted, like the other species, even out of the laying-season, with bow and arrow, called sararaca, especially adapted for the purpose.

The arrow's iron point is loosely stuck into the shaft, and fastened to it by a long, thin string of pineapple fibre caraua , which unrolls when the wounded animal suddenly dives, bearing away the inserted weapon. The shaft swimming on the surface indicates the exact spot, and is taklen up by the fisherman, who thus hauls his prey easily up by means of the caraua-string.

As soon as it appears above water, it is finished by a blow with a heavy harpoon, andcl put into the boat, which not seldom is upset in the efforts of the inmate of the tiny craft to secure his prize. Above the Praia de Tamandlua are seen the first precursors of the cliffs, which cause the rapids-small islets of rock, and boulders of granite near their margins,'such as we had not seen for all the long months since we left the sea-coast.

Soon chains of hills came in sight on both sides; and, after having doubled the next wooded projection of the bank, the Rapid of Santo Antonio, the first of a long series, lay before us. The Tartaruga, the largest of all; the male is callecl Capitary. The Cabequda the big-headed.

The Pitia Emys Pitia. The Tracaja Emys Tracaj': Spix , considerably smaller than the formler. The Alata-mat' Chelys fimbriata: Spix , with two deep furrows on the back. By far the most important of them for the population is the Tartaruga. Here the canoes must be lunladen, and their contents carried to a point on the left bank above the rapid, while the empty vessels are towed there through a labyrinth of intricate channels, amidst large granite blocks, close to the edge of the right bank.

Between low hills running down to the water's edge on both sides, the river has hollowed a course of metres in breadth, through which it dashes at furious speed, terminating in a majestic fall 11 metres high.

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Not only the cargo, but the canoes themselves, had to be transported hence on land for more than metres to the quiet water above the fall, a heavy task which took us three complete days of hard labour, our Mojos working with right good will, although the passage of the boats was facilitated by cylinders being placed under them. No wonder, by the way, that one or the other of the canoes, after encountering so rough a transport, was so damaged as to require immediate repair, caulking, and even the addition of new ribs. On the ridge of a rocky hill on the right bank, we saw the remains of some walls, covered almost completely by shrubs, low palms, and thorny torch-thistles.

They date from , when Theotonio Gusmao, by the direction of the Portuguese Government, here founded, in a very good position for defence, a military post, which was, however, soon abandoned. At that time the commerce with the province of Mato Grosso having acquired a fresh impulse from the erection of the Forto do Principe da Beira on the Guaport, an impulse strengthened by the explorations in and , such Destacamentos or military posts were of the first necessity on that water road, as well for securing the supply of provisions, and for the protection thus gained against the wild Indians, as for the assistance rendered by the soldiers in the hard work near the rapids.

The material of the hills we found to be the same, more or less, over the whole region of the rapids; gneiss, with mostly a very pronounced stratification, and always the same run. We examined it more closely, expecting to find, according to the theory of Agassiz, numerous erratic boulders of different composition lying on the regularly formed rock. Agassiz attributes their absence to the rapid crumbling of the rocks under the combined influence of the tropical stu and rain; but he seems to overlook the fact.

To me these shell-shaped crusts appeared to be rather the effect of the cooling process, the more so as the ferruginous clay always was of a more intense hue, like that of burnt ochre, nearest the cliorite ball. In the middle of it emerges a rocky cone, whose dark colour contrasts sharply with the dazzling white foam and spray. Close to the right bank, where the bulk of the water is discharged, the waves rise to a height of 10 metres, and we there saw the gigantic trunk of a drifting forest-tree tossed and whirled about, as if it were a light reed.

From Santo Antonio to above Theotonio there is no great interval between the banks, there being an almost uninterrupted succession of hills from 8 to 12 metres high, densely woocled, as the country generally is, though the vegetation is not so rich and luxuriant as we had found it below Santo Antonio. Above it the river is between 1, and 1: A horde of Caripuna Indians have settled in the neighboulrhood. Me paid them a visit in their carefully roofed palm-leaf sheds, though we knew they did not enjoy the fairest reputation for peaceableness, having been engaged in several bloody conflicts with the white-faces.

The Amazon and Madeira Rivers: Sketches and Descriptions from the Note-Book of an Explorer

Whether it was that our numbers imposed on them, or whether in consequence of the little presents we offered them, certain it is that they received us very well, and " Inw Rio cle Jalleiro aund other Bl'cZilic21 towns there are a great: The difficulties of Burnzountingr the water-sheds were consiclerab3le. We obtained from them some bows made of the heavy wood of the pachiuba palm, long arrows of reed, and several pretty feather ornaments, in exchange for knives, scissors, and white glass beads.

Our Mojos displayed a curious mixture of fear and contemptuous disgust at sight of these naked savage relations of theirs. They reminded me involuntarily of the shepherd's dog and the wolf. If it were possible, in the next score of years, to make these Caripuna Indians tolerably peaceable neighbours of the white man, the first beginning of colonisation on the Upper Madeira would be made.

Unfortunately, no steps have been taken as yet to this end. Such things usually remain vain wishes in Brazil, notwvithstancling the good-will of some clear-sighted statesmen; and even in this event, the poor autochthons will have to succumb in the conflict with the white race. The particulars of our encounter with the Caripunas will be foulmd in an ensuing chapter. By seven considerable islands the river is here E. Here again the weary task of unloading had to be done, trying even to our patient, broad-shouldered Mojos Indians. B3ags and chests are heaved and dragged over the sharp edges of stones and rocks, and the vessels are towed up through narrow, tortuous channels, sometimes at the imminent risk of those concerned.


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Happy indeed is he who leaves that " liettle" safely behind him. On one of these islands, with the aid of a lantern, I discovered, when preparing to take astronomical observations, some flattly incised designs, some of them spiral lines and others semicircular, on the dark-brown polished surface of several nearly vertically posed slabs of rock, the largest of which was more than 2 metres in height, with a breadth and thickness of 1D metres.

The figures, two or three centimetres high, were incised only three or four millimetres deep. Our curiosity being awakened by this discovery, we found afterwards the even more remarkable inscription near the great fall of RIBEI. And here a reflection I had before made at the dangerous passage of the Caldeirao Falls again proved true, viz. At all events, it is necessary that the canoes should stop upon approaching a rapid, and a clear view of the channels and of the cliffs to be avoided should be obtained from the shore as near as possible to the obstruction itself.

This often is difficult enough; and in the last deciding moment, especially in the descent, the fate of both boat and crew depends chiefly on the quick eye and the strong arm of her pilot. The Caldeirao do Inferno has, as I mentioned before, the worst reputation among the falls of the Madeira; indeed, more than one richly laden canoe has been dashed to pieces against its black rocks, ancl many lives have been lost there. The chance;solution of a geographical problem found its tragic eonclusion, at this ill-famed fall, in the death of the discoverer.

Eight or ten years ago, a Peruvian of the name of Maldonado embarked on the Madre de Dios to escape the persecutions of his political: Maldonado took his hazardous flight on one of those singular little crafts called Balsas, composecl of bundles of a sort of reed, as they are used on Lake Titicaca. Iaving passed without accident totally unknown regions, inhabitecl only by savages and wild beasts, he had reached the comparatively safer regions of the Madeira, when his fragile vessel was hurled against the rocks of the Caldeirao do Inferno, and tlhe hardy navigator was submerged in the roaring cataract.

His two companions contrived to save their lives, and to escape starvation on one of the islands, until a descending Bolivian boat took them up and brought them to ManaoS. But as they were uneducated mestizoes, who could give but an imperfect account of this remarkable voyage, and as MIaldonado's diary was lost with him, the only scientific result was the certainty that the Madre de Dios is an affluent not of the Purfis, but of the Beni, and consequently of the Madeira's.

Above the Caldeirao, on the right bank, is a row of hills of about metres in height, extending to the South-east in an unbroken line as far as the eye can reach. It is doLubtless a branch of the Serra da Paca Nova, whose principal chain we were to see farther up, and whose eastern division forms, under sundry local names, the chief watershed between the tributaries of the Amazon and of the Paraguay.

Below the next fall, the SALTO Do GmIpo, the canoes were again unladen on a favourably situated spot, and, together with the cargo, were conveyed for metres on land, through a dense vTirgin-forest whose undergrowth consists partly of cacao-bushes. The total slope of 8 metres is concentrated on four points, while the width of the river, though very unequal on account of the jagged rocky banks, may be generally estimated at metres. At the upper end of the fall, an old mulatto, who accompanied the expedition as hunter, showed us the spot where eight years ago he and his comrades had been attacked by the Caripunas.

He professed to be dissatisfied wvith the stipulated remuneration-knives and glass beads that had been handed over to him —and asked for more. When the C ripunas saw that more than one of them would be killed if they tried to take our strong position by assault, —and Inclialls rarely attack unless sure of success, with only small loss, —they gave in, and slowly retreated into the forest, carefully. But our poor comrade was dead, despite all our efforts to recall him to life,; and we hCad to bury him here in the wilderness. His tale bore the impress of truth so strongly that, though reluctantly, I was forced to modify the good opinion I had conceived of the Caripunas on the occasion of our visit to their shed.

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Again our whole crew had to work hard for two days to get the heavy barques to the smooth water above the Girao. Even with the cylinders placed underneath, the rolling is not easily effectecl over such an uneven rocky soil; but, as the wood is freshly cut and the sappy bark crushed by the weight of the boats, thle rollers soon get smooth and slippery, and the canoes glide over them with tolerable rapidity.

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