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the Government were to make their regulations as annoying and expensive as possible. At Villa Nova I was glad to get some butter and biscuits ; quite a treat, after the scanty luxuries of Barra. Here, too, I met the kind priest, Padre Torquato, who had entertained us so hospitably on our ascent of the river. He received me with great kindness, and regretted I could not stay longer with him ; he gave me a curious animal, which I had heard of but never seen before, a forest-dog, — an animal somewhat resembling a fox, in its bushy tail and great taste for poultry, and apparently very tame and docile.

The next day we passed Obydos, the strong current of the river, now at its height, carrying us down with great rapidity ; and the succeeding night we had a tremendous storm, which blew and tossed our little vessel about in a very alarming manner. The owner of the canoe, an Indian, was much frightened ; he called upon the Virgin, and promised her several pounds of candles, if she would but save the canoe ; and, open- ing the door of the little cabin where I was sleeping, cried out in a most piteous voice, " Oh ! meu amigo, estamos perdidos " (Oh ! my friend, we are all lost). In vain I tried to comfort him with assurances that, as the vessel was new and strong, and not too heavily laden, there was no danger, — although the night was pitch dark, and the wind blew in the most fierce and furious gusts imaginable. We did not know whether we were in the middle of the river or near the side, and the only danger we were exposed to, was of our drifting ashore or running aground. After about an hour, however, the canoe came to a stop, without any shock whatever, and remained perfectly still, although the wind still blew. It was so dark that nothing was to be seen, and it was only by stretching his arm down over the side, that the master ascertained that we had drifted into one of the large compact beds of floating grass which, in many places, line the banks of the Amazon for hundreds of yards from the shore. Here, therefore, we were safely moored, and waited for the morning, sleeping comfortably, with the know- ledge that we were out of all danger.

The next day, by noon, we reached the mouth of the Tapa- joz, and went in the montaria to Santarem, to make some purchases and visit my friends. I found old Captain Hislop ; but Mr. Bates, whom I most wished to see, had left a week before on an excursion up the Tapajoz. Having laid in a stock


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258 One of the results of Mendelssohn's popularity was a curious correspondence with Lavater. The latter perceived in Mendelssohn’s toleration signs of weakness, and believed that he could convert the famous Jew to Christianity. Mendelssohn’s reply, like his “Jerusalem” and his admirable preface to a German translation of Manasseh ben Israel’s Vindicia Judeorum, gave voice to that claim on personal liberty of thought and conscience for which the Jews, unconsciously, had been so long contending. Mendelssohn’s view was that all true religious aspirations are independent of religious forms. Mendelssohn did not ignore the value of forms, but he held that as there are often several means to the same end, so the various religious forms of the various creeds may all lead their respective adherents to salvation and to God.

Mendelssohn’s most epoch-making work was his translation of the Pentateuch into German. With this work the present his-

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text: One of a Thousand/Wade, Albert Richmond

title: One of a Thousand/Wade, Albert Richmond


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 1852.] SARSAPARILLA. 267

of sugar, vinegar, oil, biscuits, and fresh bread and meat, we proceeded on our journey, which we were anxious to complete as soon as possible.

On the 1 8th we passed Gurupa; and on the 19th entered the narrow channels which form the communication with the Para river, — bidding adieu to the turbid mighty flood of the never-to-be-forgotten Amazon.

We here met a vessel from Para, fifty days out, having made a much shorter distance than we, descending the river, had come in five.

On the 22nd we reached Breves, a neat little village with well-supplied shops, where I bought half a dozen of the pretty painted basins, for the manufacture of which the place is cele- brated ; we here also got some oranges, at six for a halfpenny.

The next day we stayed at a sitio built upon piles, for the whole country about here is covered at spring-tides. The master of the canoe had a lot of sarsaparilla to put up properly for the Para market, and stayed a day to do it. The sarsa- parilla is the root of a prickly, climbing plant, allied to our common black bryony ; the roots are dug by the Indians, and tied up in bundles of various lengths and sizes ; but, as it is a very light cargo, it is necessary to form it into packages of a convenient and uniform size and length, for closer stowage ; — these are cylindrical, generally of sixteen pounds each, and are about three and a half feet long and five or six inches in diameter, cut square and even at the ends, and wound round closely from end to end with the long flexible roots of a species of Pothos, which, growing on the tops of lofty trees, hang down often a hundred feet or more, and, when the outer bark is scraped off, are universally used for this purpose. It was to do this binding we stayed here, the sarsa having been already done up in proper packages; and while the crew were busy about it, I occupied myself making some sketches of palms, which were yet wanting to complete my collection.

In two days more we reached the mouth of the Tocantins, where there is a great bay, — so wide, that the further shore is not visible. As there are some dangerous sandbanks here, there is a pilot who takes canoes over, and we waited all day in order to start with the morning's tide, which is considered the most favourable for the passage. While here I got a few shells, and amused myself by talking with the pilot, his wife,


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and two very lively daughters. Our conversation turned upon the shortness and uncertainty of life ; which the old woman illustrated by a tale, which seemed to be another version of the "three warnings."

O

" A man and his wife were conversing together, and remark- ing on the unpleasantness of being subject to death. • I should like to make friends with Death, some way,' said the man ; ' then perhaps he will not trouble me.' ' That you can easily do,' said his wife ; ' invite him to be padrinho (godfather) to our little boy, who is to be baptized next week ; you will then be able to talk to him on the subject, and he will surely not be able to refuse a slight favour to his " compadre." So he was invited accordingly, and came ; and after the ceremony and the feast were over, as he was going away, the man said to him, ' Compadre Death, as there are plenty of people in the world for you to take, I hope you will never come for me.' ' Really, Compadre,' replied Death, ' I cannot promise you that, for when God sends me for anybody I must go. How- ever, I will do all I can, and I will at all events promise you a week's notice, that you may have time to prepare yourself.' Several years passed on, and Death at last came to pay them a visit. ' Good-evening, Compadre,' says he, ' I'm come on a disagreeable business : I have received orders to fetch you this day week, so I'm come to give you the notice I promised you.' ' Oh ! Compadre,' said the man, ' you're come very soon ; it's exceedingly inconvenient for me to go just now, I'm getting on very nicely, and shall be a rich man in a few years, if you will but let me alone : it's very unkind of you, Com- padre ; I'm sure you can arrange it if you like, and take some one else instead of me.' ' Very sorry,' said Death, ' but it can't be done, nohow : I've got my orders, and I must obey them. Nobody ever gets off when the order's once given, and very few get so long a notice as I've been able to give you. However, I'll try all I can, and if I succeed, you won't see me this day week; but I don't think there's any hope, — so good- bye.'

" When the day came, the man was in a great fright, for he did not expect to escape ; his wife, however, hit upon a plan, which they resolved to try. They had an old Negro man in the house, who used to be generally employed in the kitchen. They made him exchange clothes with his master, and sent


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 1852.] ST. JOHN'S DAY. 269

him away out of the house ; the master then blacked his face, and made himself as much like the old nigger as he could. On the evening appointed Death came. ' Good-evening, Comadre,' said he ; ' where is my compadre ? — I'm obliged to take him with me. ' Oh ! Compadre,' said she, ' he didn't at all expect you, and is gone on some business into the village, and won't be back till late.' ' Now I'm in a pretty mess,' said Death; 'I did not expect my compadre would have treated me so ; it's very ungentlemanly of him to get me into this scrape after all I've done for him. However, I must take somebody ; — who is there in the house ? ' The woman was rather alarmed at this question, for she expected he would immediately have started off to the village in search of her husband : however, she considered it best to be civil, so replied, 'There's only our old nigger, that's in the kitchen, getting supper ready. Sit down, Compadre, and take a bit, and then perhaps my husband will be in ; I'm very sorry he should give you so much trouble.' 'No, I can't stay,' said Death ; ' I've got a long way to go, and must take somebody, so let's see if the old nigger will do ? ' and he walked into the kitchen, where the man was pretending to be busily engaged over the fire. 'Well, if Compadre won't come, I suppose I must take the old nigger,' said Death ; and before the wife could speak a word, he stretched out his hand, and down fell her husband a corpse.

"So you see," said the old woman to me, "when a man's time is come he must go : neither doctors nor anything else can stop him, and you can't cheat Death nohow." To which sentiment I did not think it worth while to make any objection.

About two days before had been St. John's day, when it is the custom to make bonfires and jump over and through them, which act is considered by the common people as an important religious ceremony. As we were talking about it, the old lady gravely asked if we knew that animals also passed through the fire ? We replied that we were not aware of the fact ; upon which she informed us that we might hereafter believe it, for that she had had ocular demonstration of it. " It was last year," said she, " on the day after St. John's, my son went out to hunt, and brought home a cotia and a paca, and both of them were completely scorched all along the belly : they had evidently passed through the fire the night before." "But


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where do they get the fire from ? " I asked. " Oh ! God prepares it for them," said she ; and on my hinting that fires were not often found in the forest unless lit by human hands, she at once silenced my objections by triumphantly asking me, " if anything was impossible with God ? " at the same time observing that perhaps I was a Protestant, and did not believe in God or the Virgin. So I was obliged to give up the point ; and though I assured her that Protestants did generally believe in God and went to church, she replied that she did not know, but had always heard to the contrary.

At length, on the 2nd of July, we reached Para, where I was kindly received by my friend Mr. C., and was glad to learn that there was a vessel in port that would probably sail for London in about a, week. Several times on the voyage down I had had fits of ague, and was still very weak and quite unable to make any exertion. The yellow fever, which the year before had cut off thousands of the inhabitants, still attacked new-comers, and scarcely a ship was in port but had a considerable portion of her crew in the hospital. The weather was beautiful ; the summer or dry season was just commencing, vegetation was luxuriantly verdant, and the bright sky and clear fresh atmosphere seemed as if they could not harbour the fatal miasma which had crowded the cemetery with funeral crosses, and made every dwelling in the city a house of mourning. Once or twice I attempted to walk out into the forest, but the exertion generally brought on shiverings and sickness, so I thought it best to remain as quiet as possible till the time of my departure.

Since I had left the city it had been much improved. Avenues of almond and other trees had been formed along the road to Nazar£ and round the Largo de Palacio; new roads and drives had been made, and some new buildings erected : in other respects the city was the same. The dirty, straggling, uncovered market, the carts of hacked beef, the loud chanting of the Negro porters, and the good-humoured smiling faces of the Indian and Negro girls selling their fruits and " doces," greeted me as of old. Fowls had risen in price from about 2s. to 35-. 6d., and fruits and vegetables in about the same proportion ; while in changing English money for Brazilian I now got about ten per cent, less than I used, and yet everybody complained of trade being very bad, and prices


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 1852.] SAIL FOR ENGLAND. 271

quite unremunerative. I heard many stories of miraculous cures of the yellow fever, when at its worst stage, and after the parties had been given up by the doctors. One had been cured by eating ices, another by drinking a bottle of wine ; ices, in fact, had got into great favour as a fine tonic, and were taken daily by many persons as a most useful medicine.

I agreed for my passage in the brig Helen, two hundred and thirty-five tons, Captain John Turner, whose property she was ; and on the morning of Monday, the 12th of July, we got aboard, and bade adieu to the white houses and waving palm-trees of Para. Our cargo consisted of about a hundred and twenty tons of india-rubber, and a quantity of cocoa, arnotto, piassaba, and balsam of capivi. About two days after we left I had a slight attack of fever, and almost thought that I was still doomed to be cut off by the dread disease which had sent my brother and so many of my countrymen to graves upon a foreign shore. A little calomel and opening medicines, how- ever, soon set me right again ; but as I was very weak, and suffered much from sea-sickness, I spent most of my time in the cabin. For three weeks we had very light winds and fine weather, and on the 6th of August had reached about latitude 30 30' north, longitude 52 west.

On that morning, after breakfast, I was reading in the cabin, when the Captain came down and said to me, " I'm afraid the ship's on fire; come and see what you think of it," and proceeded to examine the lazaretto, or small hole under the floor where the provisions are kept, but no signs of fire were visible there. We then went on deck to the forepart of the ship, where we found a dense vapoury smoke issuing from the forecastle. The fore hatchway was immediately opened, and, the smoke issuing there also, the men were set to work clearing out part of the cargo. After throwing out some quantity without any symptom of approaching the seat of the fire, we opened the after hatchway ; and here the smoke was much more dense, and in a very short time became so suffo- cating, that the men could not stay in the hold to throw out more cargo, so they were set to work pouring in water, while others proceeded to the cabin, and now found abundance of smoke issuing from the lazaretto, whence it entered through the joints of the bulkhead which separated it from the hold. Attempts were now made to break this bulkhead down but


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the planks were so thick and the smoke so unbearable that it could not be effected, as no man could remain in the lazaretto to make more than a couple of blows. The cabin table was therefore removed, and a hole attempted to be cut in the cabin floor, so as to be able to pour water immediately on the seat of the fire, which appeared to be where the balsam was stowed. This took some time, owing to the suffocating smoke, which also continued to pour in dense volumes out of the hatchway. Seeing that there was now little chance of our being able to extinguish the fire, the Captain thought it prudent to secure our own safety, and called all hands to get out the boats, and such necessaries as we should want, in case of being obliged to take to them. The long-boat was stowed on deck, and of course required some time to get it afloat. The gig was hung on davits on the quarter, and was easily let down. All now were in great activity. Many little necessaries had to be hunted up from their hiding-places. The cook was sent for corks to plug the holes in the bottoms of the boats. Now no one knew where a rudder had been put away ; now the thowl-pins were missing. The oars had to be searched for, and spars to serve as masts, with propor- tionate sails, spare canvas, twine, cordage, tow-ropes, sail- needles, nails and tacks, carpenters' tools, etc. The Captain was looking after his chronometer, sextant, barometer, charts, compasses, and books of navigation ; the seamen were getting their clothes into huge canvas bags ; all were lugging about pilot-coats, blankets, south-westers, and oilskin coats and trousers ; and I went down into the cabin, now suffocatingly hot and full of smoke, to see what was worth saving. I got my watch and a small tin box containing some shirts and a couple of old note-books, with some drawings of plants and animals, and scrambled up with them on deck. Many clothes and a large portfolio of drawings and sketches remained in my berth ; but I did not care to venture down again, and in fact felt a kind of apathy about saving anything, that I can now hardly account for. On deck the crew were still busy at the boats ; two barrels of bread were got in, a lot of raw pork, some ham and cases of preserved meats, some wine and a large cask of water. The cask had to be lowered into the boat empty, for fear of any accident, and after being securely fixed in its place, filled with buckets from those on board.


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 1852.] SHIP TAKES FIRE. 273

The boats, having been so long drying in a tropical sun, were very leaky, and were now half full of water, and books, coats, blankets, shoes, pork, and cheese, in a confused mass, were soaking in them. It was necessary to put two men in each, to bale ; and everything necessary being now ready, the rest of the crew were called off again to pour water into the hatchways and cabin, from which rose volumes of thick yellow smoke. Now, too, we could hear in the hold the balsam bubbling, like some great boiling caldron, which told of such intense "heat, that we knew the flames must soon break out. And so it was, for in less than half an hour the fire burst through the cabin-floor into the berths, and consuming rapidly the dry pine-wood, soon flamed up through the skylight. There was now a scorching heat on the quarter-deck, and we saw that all hope was over, and that we must in a few minutes be driven by the terrible element to take refuge on the scarcely less dangerous one, which heaved and swelled its mighty billows a thousand miles on every side of us. The Captain at length ordered all into the boats, and was himself the last to leave the vessel. I had to get down over the stern by a rope into the boat, rising and falling and swaying about with the swell of the ocean ; and, being rather weak, rubbed the skin considerably off my fingers, and tumbled in among the miscellaneous articles already soaking there in the greatest confusion. One sailor was baling with a bucket, and another with a mug ; but the water not seeming at all to diminish, but rather the contrary, I set to work helping them, and soon found the salt-water producing a most intense smarting and burning on my scarified fingers.

We now lay astern of the ship, to which we were moored, watching the progress of the fire. The flames very soon caught the shrouds and sails, making a most magnificent conflagration up to the very peak, for the royals were set at the time. Soon after, the fore rigging and sails also burnt, and flames were seen issuing from the fore hatchway, showing how rapidly the fire was spreading through the combustible cargo. The vessel, having now no sails to steady her, rolled heavily, and the masts, no longer supported by the shrouds, bent and creaked, threatening to go overboard every minute. The main-mast went first, breaking off about twenty feet above the deck j but the foremast stood for a long time, exciting our

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admiration and wonder, at the time it resisted the heavy rolls and lurches of the vessel ; at last, being partly burned at the bottom, it went over, more than an hour after its companion. The decks were now a mass of fire, and the bulwarks partly burnt away. Many of the parrots, monkeys, and other animals we had on board, were already burnt or suffocated ; but several had retreated to the bowsprit out of reach of the flames, appearing to wonder what was going on, and quite unconscious of the fate that awaited them. We tried to get some of them into the boats, by going as near as we could venture ; but they did not seem at all aware of the danger they were in, and would not make any attempt to reach us. As the flames caught the base of the bowsprit, some of them ran back and jumped into the midst of the fire. Only one parrot escaped : he was sitting on a rope hanging from the bowsprit, and this burning above him let him fall into the water, where, after floating a little way, we picked him up.

Night was now coming on. The whole deck was a mass of fire, giving out an intense heat. We determined to stay by the vessel all night, as the light would attract any ship passing within a considerable distance of us. We had eaten nothing since the morning, and had had plenty to do and to think of, to prevent our being hungry; but now, as the evening air began to get cool and pleasant, we all found we had very good appetites, and supped well on biscuits and water.

We then had to make our arrangements for the night. Our mooring ropes had been burnt, and we were thus cast adrift from the ship, and were afraid of getting out of sight of it during the night, and so missing any vessel which might chance to be attracted by its light. A portion of the masts and rigging were floating near the ship, and to this we fastened our boats ; but so many half-burnt spars and planks were floating about us, as to render our situation very perilous, for there was a heavy swell, and our boats might have been in an instant stove in by coming in contact with them.

We therefore cast loose again, and kept at a distance of a quarter or half a mile from the ship by rowing when requisite. We were incessantly baling the whole night. Ourselves and everything in the boats were thoroughly drenched, so we got little repose : if for an instant we dozed off into forgetfulness, we soon woke up again to the realities of our position, and to,


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 1852.] TEN DAYS IN THE BOATS. 275

see the red glare which our burning vessel cast over us. It was now a magnificent spectacle, for the decks had completely burnt away, and as it heaved and rolled with the swell of the sea, presented its interior towards us filled with liquid flame, — a fiery furnance tossing restlessly upon the ocean.

At length morning came ; the dangers of the night were past, and with hopeful hearts we set up our little masts, and rigged our sails, and, bidding adieu to the still burning wreck of our ship, went gaily bounding along before a light east wind. And then pencils and books were hunted out, and our course and distance to Bermuda calculated ; and we found that this, the nearest point of land in the vast waste of waters round us, was at least seven hundred miles away. But still we went on full of hope, for the wind was fair, and we reckoned that, if it did not change, we might make a hundred miles a day, and so in seven days reach the longed-for haven.

As we had supped but scantily the night before, we had now good appetites, and got out our ham and pork, biscuit and wine and water, and made a very hearty meal, finding that even uncooked meat was not to be despised where no fire could be got to cook it with.

The day was fine and warm, and the floating seaweed, called gulf-weed, was pretty abundant. The boats still required almost incessant baling, and though we did not ship many seas, yet there was quite enough spray to keep us constantly wet. . At night we got a rope fastened to the long-boat, for her to tow us, in order that we might not get separated ; but as we sailed pretty equally, we kept both sails up. We passed a tolerable night under the circumstances. The next day, the 8th, was fine, gulf-weed still floated plentifully by us, and there were numerous flying-fish, some of which fell into our boats, and others flew an immense distance over the waves. I now found my hands and face very much blistered by the sun, and exceedingly sore and painful. At night two boobies, large dusky sea-birds with very long wings, flew about us. During the night I saw several meteors, and in fact could not be in a better position for observing them, than lying on my back in a small boat in the middle of the Atlantic. We also saw a flock of small birds fly by, making a chirping noise ; the sailors did not know what they were.

The 9th was again fine and hot, and my blistered hands


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were very painful. No ship appeared in sight, though we were crossing the track of the West India vessels. It was rather squally, and I passed a nervous, uncomfortable night ; our boats did not, however, now leak so much, which was a great satisfaction.

The ioth was squally, and the wind veered to the south- west, so that we could not make our course for Bermuda, but were obliged to go to the north of it. The sea ran very high, and sudden gusts of wind would frequently heel us over in a manner very alarming to me. We had some heavy showers of rain, and should have liked to have caught some fresh water, but could not, as all our clothes and the sails were saturated with salt. Our position at noon was in latitude 31 59' north, longitude 57 22' west.

The nth was still rough and squally. There was less gulf- weed now. The wind got still more to the westward, so that we were obliged to go nearly north. Our boats had now got swollen with the water, and leaked very little. This night I saw some more falling stars.

On the 1 2th the wind still kept foul, and we were getting quite out of the track of ships, and appeared to have but little chance of reaching Bermuda. The long-boat passed over some green water to-day, a sign of there being soundings, probably some rock at a moderate depth. Many dolphins swam about the boats ; their colours when seen in the water are superb, the most gorgeous metallic hues of green, blue, and gold : I was never tired of admiring them.

On the 13th the wind was due west, blowing exactly from the point we wanted to go to. The day was very fine, and there were several stormy petrels, or Mother Cary's chickens, flying about us. We had now been a week in the boats, and were only halfway to the Islands, so we put all hands on short allowance of water before it was too late. The sun was very hot and oppressive, and we suffered much from thirst.

The 14th was calm, and we could not get on at all. The sun was scorching and we had no shelter, and were parched with thirst the whole day. Numerous dolphins and pilot-fish were about the boats. At night there was a very slight favour- able breeze, and as we had by this time got our clothes pretty dry we slept well.

On the 15th the wind again died away, and we had another


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 I§52.] LOSS OF COLLECTIONS. 277

calm. The sea was full of minute Medusa, called " blubber " by the sailors : some were mere whitish oval or spherical lumps, others were brown, and beautifully constructed like a little cap, swimming rapidly along by alternate contractions, and expan- sions, and so expelling the water behind them. The day was very hot, and we suffered exceedingly from thirst. We were almost in despair about seeing a ship, or getting on to the Islands. At about 5 p.m., while taking our dinner, we saw the long-boat, which was at some distance from us, tack. "She must see a sail," said the captain, and looking round we saw a vessel coming nearly towards us, and only about five miles distant. We were saved !

The men joyfully drank the rest of their allowance of water, seized their oars, and pulled with hearty goodwill, and by seven o'clock we were alongside. The captain received us kindly on board. The men went first to the water-casks, and took long and hearty draughts, in which we joined them, and then enjoyed the almost forgotten luxury of tea. From having been so long cramped in the boats, I could hardly stand when I got on board.

That night I could not sleep. Home and all its pleasures seemed now within my grasp; and crowding thoughts, and hopes and fears, made me pass a more restless night than I should have done, had we still been in the boats, with dimin- ished hopes of rescue. The ship was the Jordeson, Captain Venables, from Cuba, bound for London, with a cargo of mahogany, fustic, and other woods. We were picked up in latitude 32 48' north, longitude 6o° 27' west, being still about two hundred miles from Bermuda.

For several days afterwards we had fine weather and very light winds, and went creeping along about fifty miles a day. It was now, when the danger appeared past, that I began to feel fully the greatness of my loss. With what pleasure had I looked upon every rare and curious insect I had added to my collection ! How many times, when almost overcome by the ague, had I crawled into the forest and been rewarded by some unknown and beautiful species ! How many places, which no European foot but my own had trodden, would have been recalled to my memory by the rare birds and insects they had furnished to my collection ! How many weary days and weeks had I passed, upheld only by the fond hope of bringing home


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many new and beautiful forms from those wild regions ; every one of which would be endeared to me by the recollections they would call up, — which should prove that I had not wasted the advantages I had enjoyed, and would give me occupation and amusement for many years to come ! And now every- thing was gone, and I had not one specimen to illustrate the unknown lands I had trod, or to call back the recollection of the wild scenes I had beheld ! But such regrets I knew were vain, and I tried to think as little as possible about what might have been, and to occupy myself with the state of things which actually existed.

On the 22nd of August we saw three water-spouts, the first time I had beheld that curious phenomenon. I had much wished once to witness a storm at sea, and I was soon grati- fied.

Early in September we had a very heavy gale. The baro- meter had fallen nearly half an inch during the night ; and in the morning it was blowing strong, and we had a good deal of canvas up when the captain began to shorten sail ; but before it could be taken in, four or five sails were blown to pieces, and it took several hours to get the others properly stowed. By the afternoon we were driving along under double-reefed topsails. The sea was all in a foam, and dashed continually over us. By night a very heavy sea was up, and we rolled about fearfully, the water pouring completely over the bul- warks, deluging the decks, and making the old ship stagger like a drunken man. We passed an uncomfortable night, for a great sea broke into the cabin skylight and wetted us all, and the ship creaked and shook, and plunged so madly, that I feared something would give way, and we should go to the bottom after all ; all night, too, the pumps were kept going, for she leaked tremendously, and it was noon the next day before she was got free of water. The wind had now abated, and we soon had fine weather again, and all hands were busy bending new sails and repairing the old ones.

We caught at different times several dolphins, which were not bad eating. I did not see so much to admire in the colours of the dying dolphin ; they are not to be compared with the colours of the living fish seen in the blue transparent watef.

We were now getting rather short of provisions, owing to


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the increased number of mouths : our cheese and ham were finished,— then our peas gave out, and we had no more pea- soup, — next the butter came to an end, and we had to eat our biscuit dry, — our bread and pork, too, got very short, and we had to be put upon allowance. We then got some supplies from another ship; but our voyage was so much prolonged, and we had adverse winds and another heavy gale, so that we were again in want, finished our last piece of meat, and had to make some scanty dinners off biscuit and water. Again we were relieved with a little supply of pork and some molasses, and so managed pretty well.

We were in the Channel on the night of the 29th of Sep- tember, when a violent gale occurred, that did great damage to the shipping, and caused the destruction of many vessels much more seaworthy than our own. The next morning we had four feet of water in the hold.

On the 1 st of October the pilot came on board, and Captain Turner and myself landed at Deal, after an eighty days' voyage from Para; thankful for having escaped so many dangers, and glad to tread once more on English ground.


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Andes, in 78 west longitude, is already a large river, on a meridian where all the other streams which can lay a claim to be considered the head-waters of the Amazon have as yet no existence. On going up the Amazon from its mouth, it is that branch on which you can keep longest in the general east and west direction of the river ; and if the actual length of its course is considered, it still keeps its place, for I find that there is not more than ten or twenty miles' difference between it and the Uaycali, reckoning to the most distant source of the latter ; and its course is at present so uncertain, that future surveys may increase or diminish it considerably.

These considerations, I think, decide the question as to the propriety of considering the Maranon as the true source of the Amazon. We find that from its origin in the Lake Lauricocha, to its mouth in longitude 50 west, in length, following the main curves, but disregarding the minuter windings, is 2,740 English miles.

Its extent, in a straight line from east to west, is about 2,050 miles ; and from n orth to south, itsjributary streams cover a space-of- 1 -fi -20- miles.

The whole area of its basin, not including that of the Tocantins, which I consider a distinct river, is 2,330,000 English square miles, or 1,760,000 nautical square miles. This is more than a third of all South America, and equal to two-thirds of all Europe. All western Europe could be placed in it without touching its boundaries, and it would even con- tain our whole Indian empire.

The numerous tributary streams of the Amazon, many of them equal to the largest rivers of Europe, differ remarkably in the colour of their waters, the character of the vegetation on their banks, and the animals that inhabit them. They may be divided into three groups, — the white-water rivers, the blue- water rivers, and the black-water rivers.

The main stream of the Amazon itself is a white-water river, this name being applied to those waters which are of a pale yellowish olive-colour. This colour does not seem to depend entirely - on free earthy matter, but rather on some colouring material held in solution ; for in lakes and inlets, where the waters are undisturbed and can deposit all their sediment, they still retain the colour.

The waters of the Amazon continue of the same colour up


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to the mouth of the Uaycali, when they become blue or trans- parent, and the white waters are extended up that branch.

This has been taken as an evidence of the Uaycali being the main stream of the Amazon ; but I cannot consider that it has anything to do with the question. It is evident that if equal quantities of clear and muddy water are mixed together, the result will differ very little from the latter in colour, and if the clear water is considerably more in quantity the resulting mixture will still be muddy. But the difference of colour between the white- and blue-water rivers, is evidently owing to the nature of the country they flow through : a rocky and sandy district will always have clear-water rivers ; an alluvial or clayey one, will have yellow or olive-coloured streams. A river may therefore rise in a rocky district, and after some time flow through an alluvial basin, where the water will of course change its colour, quite independently of any tributaries which may enter it near the junctions of the two formations.

The Iga and Japura have waters very similar in colour to the Amazon. The Rio Branco, a branch of the Rio Negro from the north, is remarkable for its peculiar colour : till I saw it, I had not believed it so well deserved its name. The Indians and traders had always told me that it was really white, much more so than the Amazon ; and on descending the Rio Negro in 1852 I passed its mouth, and found that its waters were of a" milky colour mixed with olive. It seemed as if it had a quan- tity of chalk in solution, and I have little doubt of there being on its banks considerable beds__o£_the pure wh ite clay which occurs in many parts of the Amazon, and which helps to give the waters their peculiar whiteness. The Madeira and Puriis have also white waters in the wet season, when their powerful currents bring down the alluvial soil from their banks ; but in the dry season they are a dark transparent brownish-olive.

All the rivers that rise in the mountains of Brazil have blue or clear water. The Tocantins, the Xingu, and the Tapajoz, are the chief of this class. The Tocantins runs over volcanic and crystalline rocks in the lower parts of its course, and its waters are beautifully transparent ; the tide, however, enters for some miles, and renders it turbid, as also the Xingu. The Tapajoz, which enters the Amazon about five hundred miles above Para, is clear to its mouth, and forms a striking contrast to the yellow flood of that river.


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It is above the Madeira that we first meet with the curious phenomenon of greajUuv^r^-of-bfeek-TvateT. The Rio Negro is the largest and most celebrated of these. It rises in about 2 30' N. lat, and its waters are there much blacker than in the lower part of its course. All its upper tributaries, the smaller ones especially, are very dark, and, where they run over white sand, give it the appearance of gold, from the rich colour of the water, which, when deep, appears inky black. The small streams which rise in the same district, and flow into the Orinooko, are of the same dark colour. The Cassi- quiare first pours in some white or olive-coloured water. Lower down, the Cababuris, Maraviha, and some smaller white-water streams help to dilute it, and then the Rio Branco adds its flood of milky water. Notwithstanding all this, the Rio Negro at its mouth still appears as black as ink ; only in shallow water it is seen to be paler than it is up above, and the sands are not dyed of that pure golden tint so remarkable there.

On the south of the Amazon there are also some black- water streams — the Coary, the Teffe, the Jurua, and some others. The inhabitants have taken advantage of these, to escape from the plague of the mosquitoes, and the towns of Coary and Ega are places of refuge for the traveller on the Upper Amazon, those annoying insects being scarcely ever found on the black waters. The causes of the peculiar colour of these rivers are not, I think, very obscure ; it appears to me to be produced by the solution of decaying leaves, roots, and other vegetable matter. In the virgin forests, in which most of these streams have their source, the little brooks and rivulets are half choked up with dead leaves and rotten branches, giving various brown tinges to the water. When these rivulets meet together and accumulate into a river, they of course have a deep brown hue, very similar to that of our bog or peat water, if there are no other circumstances to modify it. But if the streams flow through a district of soft alluvial clay, the colour will of course be modified, and the brown completely overpowered ; and I think this will account for the anomalies observed, of streams in the same districts being of different colours. Those whose sources are pretty well known are seen to agree with this view. The Rio Negro, the Atabapo, the Isanna, and several other smaller rivers, have their sources


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and their whole course in the deep forest ; they flow generally over clean granite rocks and beds of sand, and their streams are gentle, so as not to wear away the soft parts of their banks.

The lea, Japura, and Upper Amazon, on the contrary, flow through a long extent of alluvial country, and, having their sources on the slopes of the Andes, are much more liable to sudden floods, and by their greater velocity bring down a quantity of sediment. In fact, it seems clear, that a thorough knowledge of the course of each river would enable us to trace the colour of its waters to the various peculiarities of the country through which it flows.

With the exception of the streams rising in the Andes, the boundaries of the Amazon basin, or the most distant sources of its tributaries on the north and south, are comparatively little elevated above the level of the sea. The whole basin, with the exception of a very small portion, is one great plain of the most perfect and regular character.

The true altitude of the source in the Lake Lauricocha has not been ascertained. At Tomependa Humboldt states it to be 1,320 feet above the sea: this is as near as possible 2,000 miles in a straight line from the mouth ; so that the average rise is only eight inches in a mile. But if we take the height at Tabatinga, on the boundary of Brazil, which, according to Spix and Martius is 670 feet, we shall find, the distance being about 1,400 miles, that the rise is only five and a half inches per mile. If we had the height of Barra do Rio Negro accurately, we should no doubt find the rise to that point not more than two or three inches in a mile. The distance is, in a straight line, about 700 miles, and we may therefore probably estimate the height at less than 200, and perhaps not more than 150 feet.

This height I am inclined to believe quite great enough, from some observations I made with an accurate thermometer, reading to tenths of a degree, on the temperature of boiling water. This instrument I received from England, after leaving Para The mean of five observations at Barra, some with river and some with rain-water, gave 2i2 > 5° as the temperature of boiling water ; a remarkable result, showing that the barometer must stand there at more than thirty inches, and that unless it is, in the months of May and August, considerably more than


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that at the sea-level, Barra can be but very little elevated above the sea.

For the height of the country about the sources of the Rio Negro, Humboldt is our only authority. He gives 812 feet as the height of Sao Carlos ; he, however, states that the determina- tion is uncertain, owing to an accident happening to the barometer ; I may, therefore, though with great diffidence, venture to doubt the result. The distance, in a straight line, from the mouth of the Rio Negro to Sao Carlos, is rather less than from the same point to Tabatinga, whose height is 670 feet. The current, however, from Tabatinga is much more rapid than down the Rio Negro, the lower part of which has so little fall, that in the month of January, when the Amazon begins to rise, the water enters the mouth of the Rio Negro, and renders that river stagnant for several hundred miles up. The falls of the Rio Negro I cannot consider to add more than fifty feet to the elevation, as above and below them the river is not very rapid. Thus, from this circumstance alone, we should be disposed to place Sao Carlos at a rather less elevation than Tabatinga, or at about 600 feet. My observations up the Rio Negro gave consistent results. At Castanheiro, about five hundred miles up, the temperature of boiling water was 21 2*4°, at the mouth of the Uaupes 2i2'2°, and at a point just below Sao Carlos, 2i2*o°. This would not give more than 250 feet for the height of Sao Carlos above Barra ; and, as we have estimated this at 200 feet above the sea, the height of Sao Carlos will become 450 feet, which I think will not be found far from the truth.

The velocity of the current varies with the width of the stream and the time of the year ; we have little accurate infor- mation on this subject. In a Brazilian work on the Province of Para, the Madeira is stated to flow 2,970 bracas, or about three and a half miles, an hour in the wet season. At Obidos I made an observation in the month of November, when the Amazon is at the lowest level, and found it four miles an hour ; but this by no means represents the current in the rainy season. On descending to Para, in the month of June, 1852, I found that we often floated down about five miles an hour, and as the wind was strong directly up the river, it probably retarded us, rather than helped us on, our vessel not being rigged in the best manner.


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Martius calculates that 500,000 cubic feet of water per second pass Obidos. This agrees pretty well with my own calculations of the quantity in the dry season ; when the river is full, it is probably much greater. If we suppose, on a moderate calculation, that seventy-two inches, or six feet, of rain fall annually over the whole Amazon valley, it will amount to 1,500,000 cubic feet per second, the whole of which must either evaporate, or flow out of the mouth of the Amazon ; so that if we increase the amount given by Martius by one half, to take in the lower part of the Amazon and to allow for the whole year, we shall have the evaporation as one half of the rain falling annually.

It is a fact which has been frequently stated, and which seems fully established, that the Amazon carries its fresh waters out into the ocean, which it discolours for a distance of a hundred and fifty miles from its mouth. It is also generally stated that the tide flows up the river as far as Obidos, five hundred miles from the mouth. These two statements appear irreconcilable, for it is not easy to understand how the tides can flow up to such a great distance, and yet no salt water enter the river. But the fact appears to be, that the tide never does flow up the river at all. The water of the Amazon rises, but during the flood as well as the ebb the current is running rapidly down. This takes place even at the very mouth of the river, for at the island of Mexiana, exposed to the open sea, the water is always quite fresh, and is used for drinking all the year round. But as salt water is heavier than fresh, it might flow up at the bottom, while the river continued to pour down above it ; though it is difficult to conceive how this could take place to any extent without some salt water appearing at the margins.

The rising of the water so far up the river can easily be explained, and goes to prove also that the slope of the river up to where the tide has any influence cannot be great ; for as the waters of the ocean rose, the river would of course be banked up, the velocity of its current still forcing its waters onward ; but it is not easy to see how the stream could be thus elevated to a higher level than the waters of the ocean which caused the rise, and we should therefore suppose that at Obidos, where the tidal rise ceases to be felt, the river is just higher than the surface of the ocean at the highest spring-tides,


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A somewhat similar phenomenon is seen at the mouth of the Tapajoz. Here, at the end of the dry season, there is but a small body of water, and the current is very sluggish. The Amazon, however, rises considerably with the tides, and its waters then become higher than those of the Tapajoz, and they therefore enter into that river and force it back ; we then see the Amazon flowing rapidly down, at the same time that the Tapajoz is flowing up.

It seems to be still a disputed question among geographers, whether the Para river is or is not a branch of the Amazon. From my own observation, I am decidedly of opinion that it is not : it appears to me to be merely the outlet of the Tocantins and of numerous other small streams. The canal or channel of Tagipuni, which connects it with the Amazon, and by which all the trade between Para" and the interior is carried on, is one of a complete network of channels, along which the tide ebbs and flows, so as in a great measure to disguise the true direction and velocity of its current. It seems probable that not a drop of Amazon water finds its way by this channel into the Para river, and I ground my opinion upon the following facts.

It is well known, that in a tidal river the ebb-tide will continue longer than the flood, because the stream of the river requires to be overcome, and thus delays the commencement of the flood, while it facilitates that of the ebb. This is very remarkable in all the smaller rivers about Para. Taking this as our guide, we shall be able to ascertain which way the current in the Tagipuru sets, independently of the tide.

On my journey from Para to the Amazon, our canoe could only proceed with the tide, having to wait moored to the bank while it was against us, so that we were of course anxious to find the time of our tedious stoppages diminished. Up to a certain point, we always had to wait more time than we were moving, showing that the current set against us and towards Para; but after passing that point, where there was a bend, and several streams met, we had but a short time to wait, and a long ebb in our favour, showing that the current was with us or towards the Amazon, whereas it would evidently have been different had there been any permanent current flowing from the Amazon through the Tagipuru towards Para.

J therefore look upon the Tagipuru as a channel formed by


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the small streams between the Tocantins and Xingu, meeting together about Melgaco, and flowing through a low swampy country in two directions, towards the Amazon, and towards the Para - river.

At high tides the water becomes brackish, even up to the city of Para, and a few miles down is quite salt. The tide flows very rapidly past Para, up all the adjacent streams, and as far as the middle of the Tagipuru channel ; another proof that a very small portion, if any, of the Amazon water is there to oppose it.

The curious phenomenon of the bore, or " piroroco," in the rivers Guama and Moju, I have described and endeavoured to explain in my Journal, and need not now repeat the account of it. (See page 89.)

Our knowledge of the courses of most of the tributaries of the Amazon is very imperfect. The main stream is tolerably well laid down in the maps as far as regards its general course and the most important bends ; the details, however, are very incorrect. The numerous islands and parallel channels, — the great lakes and offsets, — the deep bays, — and the varying widths of the stream, are quite unknown. Even the French survey from Para to Obidos, the only one which can lay claim to detailed accuracy, gives no idea of the river, because only one channel is laid down. I obtained at Santarem a manu- script map of the lower part of the river, much more correct than any other I have seen. It was, with most of my other papers, lost on my voyage home ; but I hope to be able to obtain another copy from the same party. The Madeira and the Rio Negro are the only other branches of the Amazon whose courses are at all accurately known, and the maps of them are very deficient in anything like detail. The other great rivers, the Xingu, the Tapajoz, the Puriis, Coari, Teffe, jurua, Jutaf, Jabari, lea, Japura, etc., though all inserted in our maps, are put in quite by guess, or from the vaguest information of the general direction of their course. Between the Tocantins and the Madeira, and between the Madeira and the Uaycali, there are two tracts of country of five hundred thousand square miles each, or each twice as large as France, and as completely unexplored as the interior of Africa.

The Rio Negro is one of the most unknown in its charac- teristic features ; although, as before stated, its general course


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is laid down with tolerable accuracy. I have narrated in my Journal how I was prevented from descending on the north side of it, and thus completing my survey of its course.

The most remarkable feature is the enormous width to which it spreads, — first, between Barra and the mouth of the Rio Branco, and from thence to near St. Isabel. In some places, I am convinced, it is between twenty and thirty miles wide, and, for a very great distance, fifteen to twenty. The sources of the rivers Uaupes, Isanna, Xie, Rio Negro, and Guaviare, are very incorrectly laid down. The Serra Tunuhy is generally represented as a chain of hills cutting off these rivers ; it is, however, a group of isolated granite peaks, about two thousand feet high, situated on the north bank of the river Isanna, in about i° north latitude and 70 west longitude. The river rises considerably beyond them, in a flat forest- country, and further west than the Rio Negro, for there is a path across to the Iniriza, a branch of the Guaviare which does not traverse any stream, so that the Rio Negro does not there exist.

My own journey up the Uaupe's extended to near 72 west longitude. Five days further in a small canoe, or about a hundred miles, is the Jurupari caxoeira, the last fall on the river. Above that, traders have been twelve days' journey on a still, almost currentless river, which, by the colour of its water, and the aspect of its vegetation, resembles the Upper Amazon. For all this distance, which must reach very nearly to the base of the Andes, the river flows through virgin forest. But the Indians in the upper part say there are campos, or plains, and cattle, further up; and they possess Spanish knives and other articles, showing that they have communications with the civilised inhabitants of the .country to the east of Bogota.

I am therefore strongly inclined to believe that the rivers Ariari and others, rising about a hundred miles south of Bogota, are not, as shown in all our maps, the sources of the Guaviare, but of the Uaupes, and that the basin of the Amazon must therefore be here extended to within sixty miles of the city of Bogota This opinion is strengthened by information obtained from the Indians of Javita, who annually ascend the Guaviare to fish in the dry season, and who state that the river is very small, and in its upper part, where some hills occur and the

19


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forest ends, it is not more than a hundred yards wide ; whereas the Uaupes, at the furthest point the traders have reached, is still a large river, from a quarter of a mile to a mile in width. The Amazon and all its branches are subject, like most tropical rivers, to an annual rise and fall of great regularity. In the main stream, and in all the branches which flow from the Andes, the waters begin to rise in December or January, when the rains generally commence, and continue rising till June, when the fine weather has just set in. The time when the waters begin to fall is about the 21st of June, — seldom deviating more than a few days from this date. In branches which have their sources in a different direction, such as the Rio Negro, the time of rising does not coincide. On that river the rains do not commence steadily till February or March, when the river rises with very great rapidity, and generally is quite filled by June, and then begins to fall with the Amazon. It thus happens that in the months of January and February, when the Amazon is rising rapidly, the Rio Negro is still falling in its upper part ; the waters of the Amazon therefore flow into the mouth of the Rio Negro, causing that river to remain stagnant like a lake, or even occasionally to flow back towards its source. The total rise of the Amazon between high and low water mark has not been accurately ascertained, as it cannot be properly determined without a spirit-level ; it is, however, certainly not less than forty, andiprobably often fifty feet. If therefore we consider the enormous water surface raised fifty feet annually, we shall gain from another point of view an idea of the immense quantity of water falling annually in the Amazon valley. We cannot take the length of the Amazon with its main tributaries at less than ten thousand miles, and their average width about two miles ; so that there will be a surface of twenty thousand square miles of water, raised fifty feet every year. But it is not only this surface that is raised, for a great extent of land on the banks of all the rivers is flooded to a great depth at every time of high water. These flooded lands are called, in the language of the country, "gapd," and are one of the most singular features of the Amazon. Sometimes on one side, sometimes on both, to a distance of twenty or thirty miles from the main river, these gapds extend on the Amazon, and on portions of all its great branches. They are all covered with a dense virgin forest of


text: One of a Thousand/Wade, Levi Clifford

title: One of a Thousand/Wade, Levi Clifford


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lofty trees, whose stems are every year, during six months, from ten to forty feet under water. In this flooded forest the Indians have paths for their canoes, cutting across from one river to another, which are much used, to avoid the strong current of the main stream. From the mouth of the river Tapajoz to Coary, on the Solimoes, a canoe can pass, without once entering the Amazon : the path lies across lakes, and among narrow inland channels, and through miles of dense flooded forest, crossing the Madeira, the Purus, and a hundred other smaller streams. All along, from the mouth of the Rio Negro to the mouth of the Iga, is an immense extent of gapo, and it reaches also far up into the interior ; for even near the sources of the Rio Negro, and on the upper waters of the Uaupe's, are extensive tracts of land which are annually overflowed.

In the whole country around the mouth of the Amazon, round the great island of Marajo, and about the mouths of the Tocantfns and Xingu, the diurnal and semi-monthly tides are most felt, the annual rise and fall being almost lost. Here the low lands are overflowed at all the spring-tides, or every fort- night, subjecting all vegetation to another peculiar set of circumstances. Considerable tracts of land, still covered with vegetation, are so low, that they are flooded at every high water, and again vary the conditions of vegetable growth.

GEOLOGY.

Fully to elucidate the Geology of the Amazon valley, requires much more time and research than I was able to devote to it. The area is so vast, and the whole country being covered with forests renders natural sections so comparatively scarce, that the few distant observations one person can make will lead to no definite conclusions.

It is remarkable that I was never able to find any fossil remains whatever, — not even a shell, or a fragment of fossil wood, or anything that could lead to a conjecture as to the state in which the valley existed at any former period. We are thus unable to assign the geological age to which any of the various beds of rock belong.*

My notes, and a fine series of specimens of the rocks of the Rio

of cretaceous age.
 * The sandstone rocks of Montealegre have since been ascertained to be


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Negro, were lost, and I have therefore very few materials to go upon.

GrnmV ipems to-bf^ in South America, more extensively developed than in any other part of the world. Darwin and Gardner found it in every part of the interior of Brazil, in La Plata, and Chile. Up the Xingu" Prince Adalbert met with it. Over the whole of Venezuela and New Granada, it was found by Humboldt. It seems to form all the mountains in the interior of Guiana, and it was met with by myself over the whole of the upper part of the Rio Negro, and far up the Uaupes towards the Andes.

From what I could see of the granitic formation of the Upper Rio Negro, it appeared to be spread out in immense undulating areas, the hollows of which, being filled up with alluvial deposits, form those beds of earth and clay which occur, of various dimensions, everywhere in the midst of the granite formation. In these places grow the lofty virgin forests, while on the scantily covered granite rocks, and where beds of sand occur, are the more open catinga forests, so different in their aspect and peculiar in their vegetation. What strikes one most in this great formation, is its almost perfect flatness. There are no ranges of mountains, or even slightly elevated plateaus ; all is level, except the abrupt peaks that rise suddenly from the plain, to a height of from one hundred to three thou- sand feet. In the Upper Rio Negro these peaks are very numerous. The first is the Serra de Jacami, a little above vSt. Isabel ; it rises immediately from the bank of the river, on the south side, to a height of about six hundred feet. Several others are scattered about, but the Serras de Curicuriarf are the most lofty. They consist of a group of three or four moun- tains, rising abruptly to the height of near three thousand feet ; towards their summits are immense precipices and jagged peaks. Higher up, on the same river, is another group of rather less height. On the Uaupes are numerous hills, some conical, others dome-shaped, but all keeping the same character of abrupt elevations, quite independent of the general profile of the country. About the falls of the river Uaupes there are small hills of granite, broken about in the greatest confusion. Great chasms or bowls occur, and slender pillars of rock rise above the surrounding forest like dead trunks of giant trees. Up the river Isanna, the Tunuhy mountains are a similar isolated


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group. The Cocof is a quadrangular or cubical mass, about a thousand feet in elevation, which forms the boundary between Brazil and Venezuela ; and behind it are the Pirapocd, and the serras of the Cababuris, which seem rather more extensive, and form something more like a connected range of hills.

But the great peculiarity of them all is, that the country does not perceptibly rise to their bases ; they spring up abruptly, as if elevated by some local isolated force. I ascended one of the smaller of these serras as far as practicable, and have recorded my impressions of it in my Journal. (See page 153.)

The isolation and abrupt protrusion of these mountains is not, however, altogether without parallel in the Andes itself. This mighty range, from all the information I can obtain, rises with almost equal abruptness from an apparently level plain. The Andes of Quito, and southward to the Amazon, is like a hugh rocky rampart, bounding the great plain which extends in one unbroken imperceptible slope from the Atlantic Ocean to its base. It is one of the grandest physical features of the earth, — this vast unbroken plain, — that mighty and precipitous mountain-range.

The granitic rocks of the Rio Negro in general contain very little mica ; in some places, however, that mineral is abundant, and exists in large plates. Veins of pure quartz are common, some of very great size ; and numerous veins or dykes of granite, of a different colour or texture. The direction of these is generally nearer east and west, than north and south.

Just below the falls of the Rio Negro are some coarse sand- stone rocks, apparently protruding through the granite, dipping at an angle of 6o° or 70 south-south-west. (Plate IX. c.) Near the same place a large slab of granite rock exhibits quantities of curiously twisted or folded quartz veins (Plate IX. b.), which vary in size from a line to some inches in diameter, and are folded in a most minute and regular manner.

On an island in the river, near this place, are finely stratified crystalline rocks, dipping south from 70 to vertical, and sometimes waved and twisted.

The granite often exhibits a concentric arrangement of lamina?, particularly in the large dome-shaped masses in the bed of the river (Plate X. a. c), or in portions protruding from


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 1851.] BAD NEWS. 223

left little hope of his recovery. The only additional informa- tion brought since, was that the Princess Victoria, with a valuable cargo, had been lost entering Para ; and that the con- sequent excitement and anxiety of Mr. Miller, had led to an attack of brain fever, which had terminated in his death. From no one could I obtain a word of information about my brother, and so remained in a state of the greatest suspense. Had he recovered, he would himself, of course, have written ; but, on the other hand, it was strange that none of the English resi- dents in Pari had sent me a line to inform me of his death, had it occurred.

I was a fortnight in Barra, busily occupied buying and sell- ing, and arranging and packing my miscellaneous collections. I had to make insect-boxes and packing-cases, the only car- penter in the place having taken it into his head to leave a good business, and, like everybody else, go trading about the rivers.

In the evening, and at all spare moments, we luxuriated in the enjoyments of rational conversation, — to me, at least, the greatest, and here the rarest of pleasures. Mr. Spruce, as well as myself, much wished that we could ascend together ; but my canoe was too small to accommodate us both, and my men were too few for his, loaded, as it would be, with our combined cargoes. No men were to be obtained at Barra for love or money. Even the authorities, when they require to make some journey on official business, are obliged, frequently, to beg men of Senhor Henrique or some other negociante. To such a state is this fine country reduced by Brazilian misrule and immorality !

Just as I was about to start, the Subdelegarde sent to inform me I must take a passport, an annoyance I had quite forgotten. However, there was no remedy, as the clerk does not like to lose his fee of a " crusado." I had first to get paper stamped (and the Stamp-office was not open), and then to go the other end of the city to where the clerk lived, to get the passport. As everything was on board and all ready, this was a great bore, and Senhor Henrique advised me to go without a pass- port, and he would send it after me. As I knew the Subdele- garde would not send after me to fetch me back, I took his advice and started. Mr. Spruce came with me for a day's trip, taking a couple of boys and a montaria to return in. We had


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Rh , and did not extend itself to matters outside his own domain. The celebrated Edison was the first to show what valuable results might be obtained by devoting that singular faculty which may be called adaptiveness to employ itself exclusively in invention. Thousands of valuable hints had been thrown out, hundreds of clever devices patented, which fromfor [sic] one reason or another had never been brought to perfection. To examine the innate possibilities of these inventions, to bring the adaptive talent of the world to bear upon crude and incomplete designs, to combine A's ideas with B's, and adapt both to complete the valuable project bequeathed by C, and finally to concentrate the maximum of inventive ability in their own employment,—such was the grand device of the projector of the Yellow Creek Works. The result more than justified the design. Invention being reduced to a system, and the genius of one inventor no longer working in solitude, but assisting and supplying the deficiencies of every other, mechanical improvement advanced by leaps and bounds.

The speciality of the Yellow Creek Works, in which they were without rivals, was the invention


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 294 GEOLOGY OF

the ground (Plate X. b). Near Sao Gabriel, and in the Uaupe"s, large masses of pure quartz rock occur, and the shining white precipices of the serras are owing, I have no doubt, to the same cause. At Pimichin, near the source of the Rio Negro, the granite contains numerous fragments of stratified sandstone rock imbedded in it (Plate IX. a) ; I did not notice this so distinctly at any other locality.

High up the river Uaupe"s there is a very curious formation All along the river-banks there are irregular fragments of rocks, with their interstices filled up with a substance that looks exactly like pitch. On examination, it is found to be a conglomerate of sand, clay, and scoria?, sometimes very hard, but often rotten and easily breaking to pieces ; its position immediately suggests the idea of its having been liquid, for the fragments of rocks appear to have sunk in it.

Coarse volcanic scoriae, with a vitreous surface, are found over a very wide area. They occur at Caripe, near Para, — above Baiao, in the Tocantins, — at the mouth of the Tapajoz, — at Villa Nova, on the Amazon, — above Barra, on the Rio Negro, and again up the Uaupe"s. A small conical hill behind the town of Santarem, at the mouth of the Tapajoz, has all the appearance of being a volcanic cone.

The neighbourhood of Para consists entirely of a coarse iron sandstone, which is probably a continuation of the rocks observed, by Mr. Gardner at Maranham and in the Province of Piauhy, and which he considered to belong to the chalk formation. Up the Tocantins we found fine crystalline stratified rocks, coarse volcanic conglomerates, and fine-grained slates. At the falls were metamorphic slates and other hard crystalline rocks ; many of these split into flat slabs, well adapted for building, or even for paving, instead of the stones now imported from Portugal into Para. In the serras of Montealegre, on the north bank of the Amazon, are a great variety of rocks, — coarse quartz conglomerates, fine crystalline sandstones, soft beds of yellow and red sandstones, and indurated clay rocks. These beds are all nearly horizontal, but are much cleft and shattered vertically ; they are alternately hard and soft, and by their unequal decay have formed the hanging stones and curious cave described in my Journal.

The general impression produced by the examination of the country is, that here we see the last stage of a process that has


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been going on, during the whole period of the elevation of the Andes and the mountains of Brazil and Guiana, from the ocean. At the commencement of this period, the greater portion of the valleys of the Amazon, Orinooko, and La Plata must have formed a part of the ocean, separating the groups of islands (which those elevated lands formed on their first appearance) from each other. The sediment carried down into this sea by the rapid streams, running down the sides of these mountains, would tend to fill up and level the deeper and more irregular depressions, forming those large tracts of alluvial deposits we now find in the midst of the granite districts. At the same time volcanic forces were in operation, as shown by the isolated granite peaks which in many places rise out of the flat forest district, like islands from a sea of verdure, because their lower slopes, and the valleys between them, have been covered and filled up by the sedimentary deposfts. This simultaneous action of the aqueous and volcanic forces, of submarine earthquakes and marine currents, shaking up, as it were, and levelling the mass of sedimentary matter brought down from the now increasing surface of dry land, is what has produced that marvellous regularity of surface, that gradual and imperceptible slope, which exists over such an immense area.*

At the point where the mountains of Guiana approach nearest to the chain of the Andes, the volcanic action appears to have been continued in the interval between them, throwing up the serras of Curicuriari, Tunuhy, and the numerous smaller granite mountains of the Uaupes ; and it is here probably that dry land first appeared, connecting Guiana and New Granada, and forming that slightly elevated ridge which is now the watershed between the basins of the Amazon and Orinooko. The same thing occurs in the southern part of the continent, for it is where the mountains of Brazil, and the eastern range of the Bolivian Andes, stretch out to meet each other, that the sedimentary deposits in that part appear to have been first raised above the water, and thus to have determined the limits of the basin of the Amazon on the south. The Amazon valley would then have formed a great inland gulf or

been formerly covered with thick sedimentary rocks, which have been removed by denudation.
 * The isolated granite domes and pillars show that the whole area has


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 296 CLIMATE OF

sea, about two thousand miles long and seven or eight hundred wide.

The rivers and mountain-torrents pouring into it on every side, would gradually fill up this great basin ; and the volcanic action still visible in the scorise of the Tocantins and Tapajoz, and the shattered rocks of Montealegre, would all tend to the levelling of the vast area, and to determining the channels of the future rivers. This process, continuing for ages, would at length narrow this inland sea, almost within the limits of what is now gapo, or flooded land. Ridges, gradually elevated a few feet above the waters, would separate the tributary streams ; and then the eddies and currents would throw up sandbanks as they do now, and gradually define the limits of the river, as we now see it. And changes are yet going on. New islands are yearly forming in the stream, large tracts of flooded land are being perceptibly raised by the deposits upon them, and the numerous great lakes are becoming choked with aquatic plants, and filled up with sediment.

The large extent of flat land on the banks of the river will still continue to be flooded, till some renewed earthquakes raise it gradually above the waters ; during which time the stream will work for itself a wider and deeper bed, capable of containing its accumulated flood. In the course of ages per haps this might be produced by the action of the river itself, for at every annual inundation a deposit of sediment is formed, and these lands must therefore be rising, and would in time become permanently elevated above the highest rise of the river. This, however, would take a very long time, for as the banks rose, the river, unable to spread its waters over the adjoining country, would swell higher, and flow more rapidly than before, and so overflow a country elevated above the level of its former inundations.

The complete history of these changes, — the periods of elevation and of repose, the time when the dividing ridges first rose above the waters, and "the comparative antiquity of the tributary streams, — cannot be ascertained till the country has been more thoroughly explored, and the organic remains, which must doubtless exist, be brought forward, to give us more accurate information respecting the birth and growth of the Amazon.


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CLIMATE.

The climate of the Amazon valley seems remarkable for uniformity of temperature, and for a regular supply of moisture. There are, in most parts of it, six months' wet, and six months' dry season, neither of which are so severe as in some other tropical countries. From June to December is the dry, and from January to May the wet season. In the dry season there are a few occasional rains, especially about All Saints' day, in November ; and during the wet season there are intervals of fine weather, and often bright mornings, and many days of gentle misty rain.

This is the general character of the climate over the whole of the main stream of the Amazon and its immediate neigh- bourhood. There are, however, remarkable deviations from this general routine, in particular localities. Para itself is one of these exceptional places. Here the seasons are so modified, as to render the climate one of the most agreeable in the world. During the whole of the dry season, scarcely ever more than three days or a week passes without a slight thunder- storm and heavy shower, which comes on about four in the afternoon and by six has cleared off again, leaving the atmo- sphere delightfully pure and cool and all vegetable and animal life refreshed and invigorated. Had I only judged of the climate of Para from my first residence of a year, I might be thought to have been impressed by the novelty of the tropical climate ; but on my return from a three years' sojourn on the Upper Amazon and Rio Negro, I was equally struck with the wonderful freshness and brilliancy of the atmosphere, and the balmy mildness of the evenings, which are certainly not equalled in any other part I have visited.

The wet season has not so many stormy and cloudy days as in other parts. Sunshine and rain alternate, and the days are comparatively bright and cheerful, even when rainy. Generally, the variation of the thermometer in any one day does not exceed 15 ; 75 being the lowest, and 9o°the highest. The greatest variation in one day is not, I think, ever more than 20 ; and in four years, the lowest and highest tempera- tures were 70 and 95, giving only an extreme variation of 25° A more equable climate probably does not exist on the earth. (See Diagram, Plate XL)


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 29S CLIMATE OF

On the Guiana side of the Amazon, in the islands of Mexiana and Marajo, the seasons are more strongly marked than even higher up the river. In the dry season, for about three months, no rain ever falls ; and in the wet it is almost continual.

But it is in the country about the falls of the Rio Negro that the most curious modification of the seasons occur. Here the regular tropical dry season has almost disappeared, and a constant alternation of showers and sunshine occurs, almost all the year round. In the months of June, July, August, and September, when the Amazonian summer is in all its glory, we have here only a little finer weather about June, and then rain again as much as ever ; till, in January or February, when the wet season in the Amazon commences, there is generally here a month or two of fine warm weather. It is then that the river, which has been very slowly falling since July, empties rapidly, and in March is generally at its lowest ebb. In the beginning of April it suddenly begins to rise, and by the end of May has risen twenty feet, and then continues slowly rising till July, when it reaches its highest point, and begins to fall with the Amazon. The district of the greatest quantity of rain, or rather of the greatest number of rainy days, seems to be very limited, extending only from a little below the falls of Sao Gabriel to Marabitanas at the con- fines of Brazil, where the Pirapoco and Cocoi mountains, and the Serra of Tunuhy, seem to form a separation from the Venezuela district, where there is a more regular summer in the months of December, January, and February.

The water of the Rio Negro in the month of September did not vary in temperature more than two degrees. I unfor- tunately lost my thermometers, or had intended making a regular series of observations on the waters of the higher parts of the rivers I ascended.

The extreme variation of the barometer at Para" for three years was only three-tenths of an inch (see diagram, Plate XIL). The mean height, with all the necessary corrections, would seem to be almost exactly thirty inches ; I have, how- ever, already given my reasons for believing that there is a considerable difference in the pressure of the atmosphere in the interior of the country. In the month of May some very cold days are said to occur annually on the Upper Amazon


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and Rio Negro ; but I never myself experienced anything of the kind worthy of notice. Many intelligent persons have assured me that the cold is sometimes so severe that the in- habitants suffer much, and, what is much more extraordinary, the fishes in the rivers die of it. Allowing this to be the fact, I am quite unable to account for it, as it is difficult to conceive that a diminution of temperature of five or ten degrees, which is as much as ever takes place, can produce any effect upon them.

I have an authentic account of hail having once fallen on the Upper Amazon, a remarkable occurrence at a place only three degrees south of the equator, and about two hundred feet above the level of the sea. The children were out at play, and brought it to their parents, astonished at a substance falling from the clouds quite new to them, and which was so remarkably cold. The person who told me was a Portuguese, and his information can be perfectly relied on.


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Along the Andes of Quito, from Pasto to Guancabamba, it reaches close up to the eastern base of the mountains, and even ascends their lower slopes. In the moderately elevated country between the river Huallaga and Marafion, the forest extends only over the eastern portion, commencing in the neighbourhood of Moyobamba. Further on, to the east of Cuzco and La Paz, it spreads high up on the slopes of the Bolivian Andes, and passing a little to the west of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, turns off to the north-east, crossing the Tapajdz and Xingu rivers somewhere about the middle of their course, and the Tocantins not far above its junction with the Araguaya, and then passes over to the river Parnaiba, which it follows to its mouth.

The Island of Marajo, at the mouth of the Amazon, has its eastern half open plains, while in the western the forest commences. On the north of the Amazon, from its mouth to beyond Montealegre, are open plains ; but opposite the mouth of the Tapajdz at Santarem, the forest begins, and appears to extend up to the Serras of Carumani, on the Rio Branco, and thence stretches west, to join the wooded country on the eastern side of the Orinoko. West of that river, it commences south of the Vichada, and, crossing over the upper waters of the Guaviare and Uaupe's, reach the Andes east of Pasto, where we commenced our survey.

The forests of no other part of the world are so extensive and unbroken as this. Those of Central Europe are trifling in comparison ; nor in India are they very continuous or extensive ; while the rest of Asia seems to be a country of thinly wooded plains, and steppes, and deserts. Africa contains some large forests, situated on the east and west coasts, and in the interior south of the equator ; but the whole of them would bear but a small proportion to that of the Amazon. In North America alone is there anything approach- ing to it, where the whole country east of the Mississippi and about the great lakes, is, or has been, an almost uninterrupted extent of woodland.

In a general survey of the earth, we may therefore look upon the New World as pre-eminently the land of forests, contrasting strongly with the Old, where steppes and deserts are the most characteristic features.

The boundaries of the Amazonian forest have not hitherto


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been ascertained with 'much accuracy. The open plains of Caguan have been supposed much more extensive thanthey really are ; but I have very nearly determined their limits to the south and east, by the observations I made, and the information I obtained in my voyage up the Uaup£s. Again, on the Uaycali there is a district marked on the maps as the " Pampas del Sacramento," which has been supposed to be an open plain ; but the banks of the Amazon up to the mouth of the Uaycali are clothed with thick forest, and Messrs. Smyth and Lowe, who crossed the Pampa in two places, found no open plains ; and from their observations and those of Lieut. Mawe we must extend the forest district up to near Moya- bamba, west of the Huallaga, and to the foot of the mountains east of Pasco and Tarma. I was informed by a native of Ecuador, well acquainted with the country, that the Napo, Tigre, Pastaza, and the adjacent rivers all flow through dense forest, which extends up even to Baeza and Canelos and over all the lower slopes of the Andes. Tschudi informs us that the forest districts commence on all the north and east slopes cf the Andes of Peru, near Huanta, and at Urubamba north of Cuzco. I have learnt from a gentleman, a native of La Paz, that immediately on crossing the Bolivian Andes from that city and from Oropessa and Santa Cruz, you enter the great forests, which extend over all the tributaries of the Madeira. Traders up the Purus and all the southern branches of the Upper Amazon, neither meet with, nor hear accounts of, any open land, so that there is little doubt but that the extent here pointed out is one vast, ever-verdant, unbroken forest.

The forests of the Amazon are distinguished from those of most other countries, by the great variety of species of trees composing them. Instead of extensive tracts covered with pines, or oaks, or beeches, we scarcely ever see two individuals of the same species together, except in certain cases, principally among the Palms. A great extent of flooded land about the mouth of the Amazon, is covered with the Miriti Palms {Manritia flexnosa and M. vim/era), and in many places the Assai {Euterpe edulis) is almost equally abundant. Generally, however, the same species of tree is repeated only at distant intervals. On a road for ten miles through the forest near Para, there are only two specimens of the Masserandiiba, or Cow-tree, and all through the adjoining district they are


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equally scarce. On the Javfta road, on the Upper Rio Negro, I observed the same thing. On the Uaupes, I once sent my Indians into the forest to obtain a board of a particular kind of tree ; they searched for three days, and found only a few young trees, none of them of sufficient size.

Certain kinds of hard woods are used on the Amazon and Rio Negro, for the construction of canoes and the schooners used in the navigation of the river. The difficulty of getting timber of any one kind for these vessels is so grea,t, that they are often constructed of half-a-dozen different sorts of wood, and not always of the same colours or degrees of hardness. Trees producing fruit, or with medicinal properties, are often so widely scattered, that two or three only are found within a reasonable distance of a village, and supply the whole population. This peculiarity of distribution must prevent a great trade in timber for any particular purpose being carried on here. The india-rubber and Brazil-nut trees are not altogether exceptions to this rule, and the produce from them is collected over an immense extent of country, to which the innumerable lakes and streams offer a ready access.

The chief district from which india-rubber is procured, is in the country between Para and the Xingu. On the Upper Amazon and the Rio Negro it is also found, but is not yet collected.

The Brazil-nuts, from the Bertholletia excelsa, are brought chiefly from the interior ; the greater part from the country around the junction of the Rio Negro and Madeira with the Amazon rivers. This tree takes more than a whole year to produce and ripen its fruits. In the month of January I observed the trees loaded at the same time with flowers and ripe fruits, both of which were falling from the tree ; from these flowers would be formed the nuts of the following year ; so that they probably require eighteen months for their complete development from the bud. The fruits, which are nearly as hard and heavy as cannon-balls, fall with tremendous force from the height of a hundred feet, crashing through the branches and undergrowth, and snapping off large boughs which they happen to strike against. Persons are sometimes killed by them, and accidents are not unfrequent among the Indians engaged in gathering them.

The fruits are all procured as they fall from the tree. They


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are collected together in small heaps, where they are opened with an axe, an operation that requires some practice and skill, and the triangular nuts are taken out and carried to the canoes in baskets. Other trees of the same family {Lecythidece) are very abundant, and are remarkable for their curious fruits, which have lids, and are shaped like pots or cups, whence they are called " pot-trees." Some of the smaller ones are called by the natives " cuyas de macaco," — monkeys' calabashes.

The next most important vegetable product of the Amazon district, is the Salsaparilha, the roots of Smilax syphilitica, and perhaps of other allied species. This plant appears to occur over the whole forest-district of the Amazon, from Venezuela to Bolivia, and from the Lower Amazon to Peru. It is not generally found near the great rivers, but far in the interior, on the banks of the small streams, and on dry rocky ground. It is principally dug up by the Indians, often by the most uncivilised tribes, and is the means of carrying on a consider- able trade with them.

The Brazilian nutmegs, produced by the JVectandrum Puchitry, grow in the country between the Rio Negro and Japura.

The Cumaru, or Tonquin-beans, are very abundant on the Upper Rio Negro, and are also found near Santarem on the Amazon.

A highly odoriferous bark, called by the Portuguese " Cravo de Maranhiio " (Cloves of Maranham), is produced by a small tree growing only on one or two small tributaries of the Rio Negro.

A peculiar transparent oil, with an odour of turpentine, called Sassafras by the Venezuelans, is abundantly obtained by tapping a tree, common on the Upper Rio Negro, whence it is exported to Barra, and used for mixing oil-colours. In the Lower Amazon, a bitter oil, called Andirdba, much used for lamps, is made from a forest fruit.

A whitish resin, with a strong camphorous smell, is pro- duced very abundantly in the Rio Negro and the Amazon, and is commonly used as pitch for the canoes and all the larger vessels of the country ; while the inner bark of young trees of the Bertholletia exce/sa, or Brazil-nut tree, is used instead of oakum for caulking.

Among the forest-trees of the Amazon, the Leguminosa are much the most abundant in species, and they also most attract


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attention from their curious bean-like fruits, often of extra- ordinary size or length. Some of the Ingas, and allied genera, have pods a yard long, and very slender ; while others are short, and three or four inches wide. There are some curious fruits of this family, which grow on a stalk three to five feet long and very slender, appearing as if some one had suspended a number of pods from the branches by long strings.

The flowers of this family are among the most brilliant and conspicuous ; and their often finely-cut pinnate foliage has a very elegant appearance.

The following is a list of the principal vegetable productions of commercial value in the Amazon forests :—

India-rubber, from the sap of the SipJionia elastica.

Brazil-nuts, the seeds of the Bertholletia excelsa.

Salsaparilha, the roots of Smilax syphilitica.

Tonquin-beans, the seeds of Dipteryx odorata.

Puxiri, the fruit of Nectandrum Puchury.

Sassafras oil, tree not known.

Andiroba oil, from the fruit of an unknown tree.

Crajuru, a red colour prepared from the leaves of Bignonia Chica.

Pitch — exudes from a forest tree.

Cacao, the seeds of Theobroma Cacao and other species.

Cravo, from an unknown tree.

Canella, the bark of Canella alba.

Vanilla, the fruits of various species of Vanilla.

Guarana, a preparation from a fruit, grated in water, to form an agreeable and medicinal drink.

Piassaba, the fibres from the petioles of a palm, Leo- poldi?iia n. s.

Balsam Capivi, from the Copaifera officinalis.

Silk cotton, from various species of Bombax.

In many parts of my Journal, I have expressed an opinion ' that travellers have exaggerated the beauty and brilliancy of tropical vegetation, and on a calm review of all I have seen in the districts I have visited, I must repeat it.

There is a grandeur and solemnity in the tropical forest, but little of beauty or brilliancy of colour. The huge buttress trees, the fissured trunks, the extraordinary air roots, the

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any striking flowering tree or shrub. This is partly owing to the flowers of most tropical trees being quickly deciduous : they no sooner open, than they begin to fall ; the Melastomas in particular, generally burst into flower in the morning, and the next day are withered, and for twelve months the tree bears no more flowers. This will serve to explain why the tropical flowering trees and shrubs do not make so much show as might be expected.

From the accounts of eye-witnesses, I believe that the forests of the southern United States present a more gay and brilliant appearance than those of tropical America.

Humboldt, in his " Aspects of Nature," repeatedly remarks on the contrast between the steppes of Tartary and the llanos of the Onnooko. The former, in the temperate zone, are gay with the most brilliant flowers ; while the latter, in the tropics, produce little but grasses and sedges, and only few and incon- spicuous flowering plants. Mr. Darwin mentions the brilliancy of the flowers adorning the plains of Monte Video, which, with the luxuriant thistles of the Pampas, seems hardly equalled in the campos of tropical Brazil, where, with some exceptions, the earth is brown and sterile. The countless beautiful geraniums and heaths of the Cape cease on entering the tropics, and we have no account of any plants equally striking and brilliant supplying their place.

What we may fairly allow of tropical vegetation is, that there is a much greater number of species, and a greater variety of forms, than in the temperate zones. Among this great variety occur, as we might reasonably expect, the most striking and brilliant flowers, and the most remarkable forms of stem and foliage. But there is no evidence to show that the proportion of species bearing brightly coloured, compared to those bearing inconspicuous flowers, is any greater in the tropics than in the temperate regions ; and with regard to individuals — which is, after all, what produces the effects of vegetation — it seems probable that there is a greater mass of brilliant colouring and picturesque beauty, produced by plants in the temperate, than in the tropical regions.

There are several reasons which lead us to this conclusion. In the tropics, a greater proportion of the surface is covered either with dense forests or with barren deserts, neither of which can exhibit many flowers. Social plants are less common