Santarem—Population—Trade—River Tapajos—Cuiaba—Diamond region—Account of the Indians of the Tapajos.
Santarem, four hundred and sixty miles from the mouth of the Rio Negro, and six hundred and fifty miles from the sea, is the largest town of the province, after Pará. By official returns it numbers four thousand nine hundred and seventy-seven free, (eighty-seven being foreigners,) and one thousand five hundred and ninety-one slave inhabitants. There were two hundred and eighty-nine births, forty-two deaths, and thirty-two marriages in the year 1849.
I would estimate the population of the town of Santarem at about two thousand souls. In the official returns, all the settlers on the cocoa plantations for miles around, and all the tapuios engaged in the navigation of the river, are reckoned in the estimate. This, I believe, is the case with all the towns; and thus the traveller is continually surprised to find population rated so high in places where he encounters but few people.
There is said to be a good deal of elephantiasis and leprosy among the poorer class of its inhabitants. I did not visit their residences, which are generally on the beach above the town, and therefore saw nothing of them; nor did I see much poverty or misery.
There are tokens of an increased civilization in a marble monument in the cemetery, and a billiard table. The houses are comfortably furnished, though I believe every one still sleeps in a hammock. The rides in the environs are agreeable, the views picturesque, and the horses good. A tolerably good and well-bitted horse may be had for seventy-five dollars; they graze in the streets and outskirts of the town, and are fed with Indian corn.
There is a church (one of the towers has lately tumbled down) and two or three primary schools. The gentlemen all wear gold watches, and take an immoderate quantity of snuff. I failed to get statistics of the present trade of Santarem; but an examination of the following tables furnished by Mr. Gouzennes, the intelligent and gentlemanly vice-consul of France, will show the increase in the exports of the place in the three years between 1843 and 1846.
These tables show the tonnage and cargoes of the vessels arriving in Santarem for three months in each year.
Mr. Gouzennes gave me the table for 1843, and to M. Castelnau the table for 1846. He also gave me a letter to M. Chaton, French consul at Pará, requesting that gentleman to give me his tables for the last year, (1851;) but they had been sent to France.
I think, but have no means of forming an accurate judgment, that the importations of Santarem have not increased in the same proportion in the years between 1846 and 1852. A few of these articles—such as the cotton, the coffee, a part of the tobacco, and the farinha—were probably consumed in Santarem. The rest were reshipped to Pará for consumption there, or for foreign exportation.
The decrease in the consumption of farinha is significant, and shows an increased consumption of flour from the United States.
I had from Capt. Hislop, an old Scotchman, resident of Santarem, and who had traded much with Cuiaba, in the province of Matto Grosso, the following notices of the river Tapajos, and its connexion with the Atlantic, by means of the rivers Paraguay and La Plata.
Hence to the port of Itaituba, the river is navigable for large vessels, against a strong current, for fifteen days. The distance is about two hundred miles. From Itaituba the river is navigable for boats of six or eight tons, propelled by paddling, poling, or warping. There are some fifteen or twentycaxoieras, or rapids, to pass, where the boat has to be unloaded and the cargoes carried round on the backs of the crew. At one or two the boat itself has to be hauled over the land.
The voyage to the head of navigation on the RioPreto, a confluent of theTapajos, occupies about two months. At this place mules are found to carry the cargo fifteen miles, to the village ofDiamantino, situated on the high lands that divide the headwaters of the streams flowing south from those of the streams flowing north, which approach each other at this point very closely.
These high lands are rich in diamonds and minerals. I saw some in possession of Capt. Hislop. The gold dust is apparently equal in quality to that I had seen from California.
From Diamantino to Cuiabá the distance is ninety miles, the road crossing the Paraguay river, which there, at some seasons, is nearly dry and muddy, and at others a rapid and deep stream, dangerous for the mules to pass.
Some years ago a shorter land-carriage was discovered between the headwaters of the northern and southern streams.
By ascending theArinos, a river which empties into theTapajos, below the mouth of the Preto, a point was reached within eighteen miles by land-carriage of a navigable point on the Cuiaba river above the city. The boat was hauled over these eighteen miles by oxen, (showing that the passage can be neither very high nor rugged,) and launched upon the Cuiaba, which is navigable thence to the city.
This was about three years ago; but the trade, for some reason, is still carried on by the old route of thePreto, and the land-carriage of one hundred and five miles to Cuiaba.
A person once attempted to descend by theSan Manoel, a river that rises in the same high lands as the Preto and Arinos, and empties into the Tapajos, far below them; but he encountered so many obstructions to navigation that he lost all but life.
The passage from Diamantino to Santarem occupies about twenty-six days.
Cuiaba is a flourishing town of about ten thousand inhabitants, situated on the river of the same name, which is thence navigable for large vessels to its junction with the Paraguay, which river is free from impediments to the ocean. It is the chief town of the rich province of Matto Grosso. It receives its supplies—the lighter articles of merchandise and luxury—by land, from Rio Janeiro; and its heavier articles—such as cannot be transported on mules for a great distance—by this route of the Tapajos. These are principally salt, iron, iron implements, wines, liquors, arms, crockeries, and guaraná, of which the people there are passionately fond.
St. Ubes or Portuguese salt is worth in Cuiaba thirteen and a half dollars thepanero, of one hundred and eight pounds. Lately, however, salt has been discovered on the bottom and shores of a lake in Bolivia, near the Paraguay river. It undergoes some process to get rid of its impurities, and then is sold at four dollars the panero.
Cuiaba pays for these things in diamonds, gold dust, and hides. The diamond region is, as I have before said, in the neighborhood of the village of Diamantino, situated on the high lands that divide the headwaters of the tributaries of the Amazon and La Plata. M. Castelnau visited this country, and I give the following extracts from his account of it. He says:
"The mines of gold, and especially those of diamonds, to which the city of Diamantino owes its foundation and its importance, appear to have been known from the time thePaulistasmade their first settlements in the province of Matto Grosso; but, under the Portuguese government, the working of the diamond mines was prohibited to individuals under the severest penalties.
"A military force occupied the diamond districts, and watched the Crown slaves who labored in the search of this precious mineral. Every person finding one of these stones was obliged to remit it to the superintendency of diamonds at Cuyaba, for which he received a moderate recompense, whilst he would have been severely punished if detected in appropriating it.
"At this period, throughout Brazil, the commerce in diamonds was prohibited, as strictly as their extraction, to all except the special agents named by the government for this purpose.
"Subsequently to the government ofJoão Carlos, of whom we have already spoken, this commerce became more or less tolerated, then altogether free.
"If, as we are assured, the laws which heretofore governed this branch of industry are not legally repealed, they have at least completely fallen into disuse. The inhabitants ofDiamantinoonly complain that the prohibition of the slave trade renders it impossible for them to profit by the wealth of the country.
"In 1746 valuable diamonds were found, for the first time, in Matto Grosso, and were soon discovered in great quantities in the little river ofOuro. The governor,Manuel Antunes Nogueiza, designing to take possession of these lands for the benefit of the Crown, ejected the inhabitants therefrom. Famine made great ravages among the wretches thus deprived of their homes.
"From that time the country seems to have suffered every evil. A long drought was followed by a terrible earthquake on the 24th September, 1746. It was not until May 13, 1805, that the inhabitants were again permitted to take possession of their property, but upon condition of remitting to the Crown, under severe penalties, all the diamonds found.
"In 1809 a royal mandate established at Cuyabá a diamondjunta.
"Gold and diamonds, which are always united in this region, as in many others, are found especially in the numerous water-courses which furrow it, and also throughout the whole country.
"After the rains, the children ofDiamantinohunt for the gold contained in the earth even of the streets, and in the bed of the river Ouro, which, as has been said, passes through the city; and they often collect to the value of one or two patacas (from eight to fifteen grains) Brazil weight.
"It is related that a negro, pulling vegetables in his garden, found a diamond in the earth attached to the roots. It is also said that, shortly before our arrival at Diamantino, a muleteer, driving a stake in the ground to tie his mules to, found a diamond of the weight of a demi-oitavo, (about nine carats.) This last circumstance occurred in thechapada(table-land) ofSan Pedro.
"We have heard it stated that diamonds are sometimes found in the stomachs of the fowls.
"The rivers Diamantino, Ouro, and Paraguay appear already to be completely exhausted. The riverBuritécontinues to furnish many stones; but theSanta Anna, so to speak, is still virgin, and, notwithstanding the incredible quantity of diamonds taken from it, it does not appear to have lost its primitive richness.
"It would appear, however, that diamond-hunting is not as productive as it is believed; for they quote in the country, as very remarkable,the result obtained by a Spaniard, Don Simon by name, who in four years, (only working, it is true, during the dry season, but with two hundred slaves) had collected four hundred oitavas of diamonds, (about seven thousand carats.) He was obliged to abandon the work because he lost many slaves in consequence of the pestilential fevers which reign in the diamond region, and particularly upon the borders of the river Santa Anna. Before his departure, he filled up the place from whence he extracted the stones.
"Later another individual found eighty oitavas of diamonds upon one point alone in the river.
"The largest diamond taken from the Santa Anna weighed, it is said, three oitavas, (about fifty-two carats.) It was many years since, and they know not the price it sold for.
"They assert that the stones taken from this river are more beautiful than those from other diamond localities, and that there are persons who, in commerce, can distinguish the difference.
"It was very difficult to obtain from the inhabitants of Diamantino, who seemed to think themselves still under the Portuguese laws in regard to diamonds and gold, exact information about the quantities of these two minerals exported each year from the district. However, by uniting the most positive data, we have formed the following table, which presents the approximate quantities of diamonds drawn from the country from 1817 to 1845, as well as the fluctuation of prices, and the number of slaves employed.
"We have added to this table the value of the slaves.
"At the time of our journey about two thousand persons, of whom eight hundred were slaves, were engaged in this kind of work.
"In 1817 a stone of an oitava was sold for two hundred dollars.
"Gold is worth the following prices the oitava:
"In 1817, sixty-seven and one-half cents.1820, sixty-seven and one-half cents.1830, seventy-five cents.1840, one dollar and sixty cents.1844, one dollar and eighty cents.
"We see that the prices of diamonds and gold have advanced since 1817. This is owing to three causes:
"1st. The diminution of the number of African slaves, in consequence of the laws against the slave trade.
"2d. The diminution of the quantity found.
"3d. The celebrity which this rich locality has progressively acquired, and which attracts there many persons.
"At present thevintemof diamonds in very small pieces is worth in commerce from four and a half to five dollars. A stone of a demi-oitava would be worth now from two to three hundred dollars, according to its beauty. A stone of an oitava would be worth seven hundred and fifty dollars.
"Two or three years ago a stone of three-quarters of an oitava was sold at four hundred dollars, and another of the same weight for five hundred.
"Now there is scarcely found more than two hundred oitavas of diamonds per annum, and only two or three stones of a demi-oitava and above.
"The richest man of Diamantino had in his possession, at the time of our journey, two hundred oitavas of diamonds.
"The slaves sell the diamonds they steal at two, and two and a half dollars the vintem; large and small, indifferently.
"To recapitulate. After the researches which I made at the places, it appears to me probable that the quantity of diamonds extracted from Diamantino and from Matto Grosso amounts, since the discovery by the Paulistas to the present time, (1849,) to about sixty-six thousand oitavas; it must be remembered that in this sum are included a great number of large stones.
"In estimating the mean value of the oitava at one hundred and twenty-five dollars, we arrive at a total of about eight million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It is proper to add to this sum that of the diamonds taken from the basin of the riverClaro. Although this last yields inconsiderably at present, and may be far from what it was under the Portuguese government, I cannot estimate it at less than fourteenthousand oitavas, worth about one million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
"Thus the amount of diamonds drawn to the present time from the province of Matto Grosso will amount to about eighty thousand oitavas, worth ten millions of dollars.
"I do not doubt that this region may one day furnish, if it is submitted to a well-conducted exploration, an infinitely larger quantity. Unfortunately, as we have already said, the search for these stones is accompanied with great danger; and I am convinced that these baubles of human vanity have already cost, to Brazil alone, the life of more than a hundred thousand human beings."
M. Castelnau has given the value of diamonds and gold in the Portuguese currency ofreis, and occasionally in francs. In turning the reis into dollars, I have estimated the dollar at two thousand reis. When I left Brazil, the Spanish dollar was worth nineteen hundred and twenty reis, and the Mexican eighteen hundred: so that my values are under the mark; but there is probably less error in this than in any estimate that Castelnau could form from his data.
One will readily perceive, from these estimates, that diamond-hunting, as a business, is unprofitable. But this, like all mining operations, is a lottery. A man in the diamond region may stumble upon a fortune at an instant of time, and without a dollar of outlay; but the chances are fearfully against him. I would rather depend upon the supplying of the miners with the necessaries and luxuries of life, even by the long land-travel from Rio Janeiro, or by the tedious and difficult ascent of the Tapajos.
M. Castelnau, speaking of this trade, says that, taking one article of merchandise with another, the difference of their value at Pará and Diamantino is eight hundred and fifty per cent., the round trip between the two places occupying eight months; but that the profits to the trader are not to be estimated by the enormous difference of the value of the merchandise at the place of purchase and the place of sale. He estimates the expenses of a boat of nine tons (the largest that can ascend the river) at eight hundred and eighty dollars. Her cargo, bought at Pará, cost there but three hundred and fifty-five dollars: so that when it arrives at Diamantino it has cost twelve hundred and thirty-five dollars; thus diminishing the profits to the trader to about two hundred and forty-four per cent.
I do not find in Castelnau's estimate of the expenses of a canoe the labor and time employed in shifting the cargo at Santarem from thelarge vessel to the boats. This would probably take off the extra forty-four per cent., leaving a clear profit of two hundred. This is on the upward voyage. His return-cargo of hides, with what gold dust and diamonds he has been able to purchase, will also pay the trader one hundred per cent. on his original outlay, increased by his profits.
Let us suppose a man sends a cargo from Pará, which costs him there three hundred and fifty dollars. His two hundred per cent. of clear profit in Diamantino has increased this sum to one thousand and fifty. One hundred per cent. on this, the return-cargo, has made it two thousand one hundred dollars; so that he has pocketed a clear gain of seventeen hundred and fifty dollars, making a profit of five hundred per cent. in eight months.
Although there seems, from the accounts we have of the Tapajos, no chance of a steamer's reaching the diamond region by that river, yet I have very little doubt but that she may reach it by the rivers Plata, Paraná, and Paraguay. Should this be the case, and should Brazil have the magnanimity to throw open the diamond region to all comers, and encourage them to come by promises of protection and privileges, I imagine that this would be one of the richest places in the world, and that Brazil would reap enormous advantages from such a measure.
The place at present is too thinly settled, and the wants of the people too few, to make this trade (profitable as it appears to be on the small scale) of any great importance.
Captain Hislop monopolized at one time nearly all the trade of the Tapajos. He told me that some years ago he sent annually to Cuiabá goods to the value of fifteen or twenty thousand dollars, and supposes that all othercommerciantestogether did not send as much more. He complains, as all do, of the credit system, and says that the Cuiabanos now owe him twenty thousand dollars.
The trade now is almost nothing. The Cuiabanos themselves come down to get their supplies, which they pay for principally in hides.
I made several pleasant acquaintances in Santarem. One of the most agreeable was a young French engineer and architect, M.Alphonse Maugin De Lincourt, to whom I am indebted for some valuable presents, much interesting conversation, and the following notes of a voyage on the Tapajos, which, as describing the manners and customs of the Indian tribes occupying the borders of that river, I am persuaded will not be uninteresting.
"As soon as the Brazilian —— (the principal authority of the little port of Itaituba) had procured me some Indians and a small canoe, called in the countrycanoa de Caxoeiras, I left this place for the purpose of visiting the great cataracts of the river Tapajos.
"I was the only white man among nine Indians, none of whom, with the exception of the Indian hunter, could understand me. I cannot express what I at first suffered in thus finding my life at their mercy. The boat, under the efforts of these nine pagans, had more the motion of an arrow than that of a boat ascending against the current of a river.
"Only seeking the principal falls of the Tapajos, we passed, without stopping, over those of Tapacura, Assu, andPracau, and, continuing our route to the large ones, we arrived there the following day, without having met with anything remarkable to relate.
"There the scene changed. The river is no longer the calm Tapajos which slowly moves towards the Amazon; it is the foamingMaranhão, the advance cataract of the narrow and deepCaxoeira das Furnas; it is the roaring and terriblecoata, whose currents cross and recross, and dash to atoms all they bear against its black rocks.
"We surmounted all in the same day. Seated motionless in the middle of the canoe, I often closed my eyes to avoid seeing the dangers I escaped, or the perils that remained to be encountered.
"The Indians—sometimes rowing with their little oars, sometimes using their long, iron-bound staffs, or towing the boat while swimming, or carrying it on their shoulders—landed me at last on the other side of theCaxoeiras.
"Arrived at the foot of the fifth cataract, the Indians hesitated a moment and then rowed for the shore. Whilst some were employed in making a fire, and others in fastening the hammocks to the forest trees, the hunter took his bow and two arrows, and such is the abundance which reigns in these countries, that a moment afterwards he returned with fish and turtles.
"The Indians, exhausted from the fatigues of the day, were not able to watch that night. I was sentinel, for these shores are infested by tigers and panthers. Walking along the beach to prevent sleep, I witnessed a singular spectacle, but (as I was informed by the inhabitants) one of frequent occurrence. An enormous tiger was extended full length upon a rock level with the water, about forty paces from me. From time to time he struck the water with his tail, and at the same momentraised one of his fore-paws and seized fish, often of an enormous size. These last, deceived by the noise, and taking it for the fall of forest fruits, (of which they are very fond,) unsuspectingly approach, and soon fall into the claws of the traitor. I longed to fire, for I had with me a double-barrelled gun; but I was alone, and if I missed my aim at night I risked my life, for the American tiger, lightly or mortally wounded, collects his remaining strength and leaps with one bound upon his adversary.
"I did not interrupt him, and when he was satisfied he went off. The next day we passed the difficult and dangerous cataract ofApuy. The canoe was carried from rock to rock, and I followed on foot through the forest.
"The farther we advance in these solitudes, the more fruitful and prodigal nature becomes; but where life superabounds, evil does not less abound. From the rising to the setting of the sun clouds of stinging insects blind the traveller, and render him frantic by the torments they cause. Take a handful of the finest sand and throw it above your head, and you would then have but a faint idea of the number of these demons who tear the skin to pieces.
"It is true, these insects disappear at night, but only to give place to others yet more formidable. Large bats (true, thirsty vampires) literally throng the forests, cling to the hammocks, and, finding a part of the body exposed, rest lightly there and drain it of blood.
"At a station called by the IndiansTucunaré-cuoire, where we passed the night, one of them was bitten, whilst asleep, by one of these vampires, and awoke exceedingly enfeebled.
"In the same place the alligators were so numerous and so bold, and the noise they made so frightful, that it was impossible to sleep a moment.
"The next day I overtook a caravan of Cuyabanos, who had left Itaituba before me. They went there to exchange diamonds and gold dust for salt and other necessary commodities, and were returning with them to Cuyabá.
"They had passed a day at Tucunaré cuoire, and had slept there.
"Thinking that I was a physician, one of them begged me to examine the recent wounds of a companion. In vain I refused. He still continued his importunities, lavishing upon me titles of Seigneur and Signor Doctor, as if he had been in the presence of M. Orfila.
"I went with him. The wounded man was a young Indian, whom an alligator had seized by the leg the night the caravan slept at Tucunaré-cuoire.Awakened by his cries, the Cuyabanos fell upon the monster, who, in spite of every thing, escaped.
"I relieved him as well as I could. I had with me but a scalpel, some camphor, and a phial of volatile salts. It would have been best to amputate the limb, which was horribly mutilated.
"I had myself an opportunity of observing the dangers and privations these men submit to, to carry to Cuyabá the commodities necessary there.
"A caravan called hereMonçãowhich is loaded at Itaituba, for ten contos of reis, (five thousand dollars,) with salt, guaraná, powder, and lead, arriving in safety at Cuyabá, can calculate upon fifteen or twenty contos of reis profit.
"At Pará the salt can be sold for three francs the alquiere; at Cuyabá, it is worth one hundred and fifty francs.
"They can descend the river in forty days; but it requires five months to ascend it.
"The forests that border theTapajosare infested by savage Indians, who frequently attack theMonçãos; and dangerous fevers sometimes carry off those whom the Indian arrow has spared.
"I left the caravan atSta. Ana dos Caxoeiras; it continued its route towards the source of the Tapajos, and I entered the country inhabited by theMundrucus.
"TheMundrucus, the most warlike nation of the Amazon, do not number less than fifteen or twenty thousand warriors, and are the terror of all other tribes.
"They appear to have a deadly hatred to the negro, but a slight sympathy for the white man.
"During the rainy season they go to the plains to pull the sarsaparilla root, which they afterwards exchange for common hardware and rum; the other six months of the year are given to war.
"EachMalocca(village) has an arsenal, or fortress, where the warriors stay at night; in the day they live with their families.
"The children of both sexes are tattooed (when scarcely ten years old) with a pencil, or rather a kind of comb, made of the thorns of the palm-tree, calledMuru-muru. The father (if the child is a boy) marks upon the body of the poor creature, who is not even permitted to complain, long bloody lines, from the forehead to the waist, which he afterwards sprinkles with the ashes or coal of some kind of resin.
"These marks are never effaced. But if this first tattooing, which is compulsory among the Mundrucus, sometimes suffices for woman's coquetry, that of the warriors is not satisfied. They must have at least a good layer ofgeni papo, (huitoc,) or ofroucou, (annatto,) upon everylimb, and decorate themselves moreover in feathers. Without that, they would consider themselves as indecent as a European would be considered who would put on his coat without his shirt.
"The women may make themselves bracelets and collars of colored beads, of shells, and of tigers' teeth, but they cannot wear feathers.
"In time of war the chiefs have right of life and death over simple warriors. The Mundrucus never destroy their prisoners; on the contrary, they treat them with humanity, tattoo them, and afterwards regard them as their children.
"This warlike nation, far from being enfeebled as other tribes are, who, since the conquest of Brazil by the Europeans, are nearly annihilated, increases, notwithstanding the long wars they every year undertake against the most ferocious savages.
"Once friends of the whites, they yielded to them the lands they inhabited on the borders of the Amazon, between the rivers Tapajos and Madeira, and fled to live an independent life, which they have never renounced, in the deep solitudes of the Tapajos above the cataracts.
"I visited the old Mundrucu chief,Joaquim, who rendered himself so terrible to the rebels of Pará during the disorders of 1835. He is a decrepit old man, almost paralyzed. He received me very well, and appeared flattered that a traveller from a distant country sought to see him. He told me, in bad Portuguese, 'I am theTuchão, Joaquim. I love the whites, and have never betrayed them. I left my friends, mycacoaes, (cocoa plantations,) and my house on the borders of the Madeira to defend them. How many Cabanos (insurgents) have I not killed when I showed my war canoe that never fled?
"Now I am old and infirm; but if I remain in the midst of these women, and do not soon leave for the fields to chase away these brigands of Muras, who lay waste my cacoaes, I will be bewitched and die here like a dog.
"The Mundrucus do not believe that diseases afflict them. When a prey to them, they say it is a spell some unknown enemy has cast over them; and if thePugé, or Magician of the Malocca, interrogated by the family of the dying man, names a guilty person, he whom he named may count upon his death.
"I have heard afterwards that when he was fighting so generously with his Mundrucus for the cause of the white man, a Brazilian colonel, who commanded the expedition, ordered him to pull manioc roots in a field supposed to be in the power of the rebels. The chief was furious, and, angrily eyeing the Brazilian, said, 'Dost thou believe my canoeis made to carry to the field women and children? It is a war canoe, and not a boat to bring thee farinha.'
"This same colonel revenged himself for this refusal by calumniating to the Emperor the conduct of the brave Mundrucu; and on that representation the court objected to recompense him. He remained poor as an Indian, when, according to the example of the Brazilian officers, he could have amassed wealth. He is old now, and has no heir, because he has only daughters.
"The next day he came to see me, and begged me to cure his nephew, a young Indian of eighteen or twenty years, whom he dearly loved, and whom he would have had inherit his courage and his titles; but the poor devil had nothing of the warrior, and every day, for several hours, had an epileptic attack. I again had recourse to the phial of salts; gave him some for the sick man to smell at the time of the attacks; and also directed that he should drink some drops weakened with water.
"The remedy had a good effect. The attacks became less frequent and long; and during the three days I remained in the neighborhood of the Malocca the old Tuchão came every day to thank me; pressed my hands with affection, and brought me each time different small presents—fruits, birds, or spoils taken heretofore from an enemy.
"From Santa Ana, where I crossed the river, I determined to enter the forests, and not to descend by the cataracts. Six Indians went back with the boat to Itaituba; the three others remained to accompany me to the Mahués Indians, whom no European traveller had visited, and whom I much desired to know.
"The Indian hunter, to whom I gave one of my guns, carried my hammock and walked in front. I followed him, loaded with a gun and a sack, (which contained ammunition,) my compass, paper, pencils, and some pieces of guaraná. The other two Indians walked behind carrying a little manioc flour, travelling necessaries, and a small press to dry the rare plants that I might collect on my journey.
"We followed a narrow pathway, sometimes across forests, uneven, and muddy, broken by small pebbly rivulets, the water of which is occasionally very cold; sometimes climbing steep mountains, through running vines and thorny palm-trees. I was covered with a cold and heavy sweat, which forced me to throw off my garment, preferring to endure the stings of myriads of insects to the touch of a garment that perspiration and the humidity of the forest had chilled.
"Towards five o'clock we stopped near a rivulet; for in these forests it soon becomes night. The Indians made a fire and roasted the birdsand monkeys that the hunter had killed. I selected a parrot for supper.
"The following day we arrived, about nightfall, at the Indian village ofMandu-assu.
"The Mahués Indians do not tattoo the body as the Mundrucus, or, if they do, it is only with the juice of vegetables, which disappears after four or five days.
"Formerly, when they were enemies of the white man, they were conquered and subdued by the Mundrucus. At present they live in peace with their neighbors, and willingly negotiate with the whites.
"The men are well formed, robust, and active; the women are generally pretty. Less warlike than the Mundrucus, they yield willingly to civilization; they surround their neat cabins with plantations of banana trees, coffee, or guaraná.
"The precious and medicinal guaraná plant, which the Brazilians of the central provinces of Goyaz and Matto Grosso purchase with its weight in gold, to use against the putrid fevers which rage at certain periods of the year, is owed to the Mahués Indians. They alone know how to prepare it, and entirely monopolize it.
"The Tuchão of the Malocca, called Mandu-assu, received me with cordiality, and offered me his cabin. Fatigued from the journey, and finding there some birds and rare plants, I remained several days.
"Mandu-assu marvelled to see me carefully preserve the birds the hunter killed, and the leaves of plants, or wood, that possessed medicinal virtues. He never left me; accompanied me through the forests, and gave me many plants of whose properties I was ignorant.
"Rendered still more communicative by the small presents I made him, he gave me not only all the particulars I wished upon the cultivation and preparation of the guaraná, but also answered fully all my questions.
"I left him for the Malocca ofMossé, whose chief was his relative. This chief was more distant and savage than Mandu-assu, and received me with suspicion. I was not discouraged, as I only went to induce him to exchange, for some articles, hisparicá, or complete apparatus for taking a kind of snuff which the great people of the country frequently use.
"My cause, however, was not altogether lost; my hunter, who had been in a cabin of the village, took me to see a young Indian who had been bitten the evening previous by asurucucuranoserpent. I opened the wound, bled him, and again used the volatile salts. Whilst I operated, a young Indian woman, singularly beautiful, sister of thewounded man, supported the leg. She watched me with astonishment, and, whilst I was binding up the wound with cotton soaked in alkali, (salts,) she disappeared, and I saw her no more.
"The Indian was relieved. The old Tuchão knew of it; and, to thank me for it, or rather, I believe, to test me, presented me with a calabash, in which he poured a whitish and disgusting drink, exhaling a strong door of corruption. This detestable liquor was thecachiri, (masato,) a drink that would make hell vomit; but the Indians passionately love it. I knew by experience that by refusing to drink I would offend this proud Mahué, and that if I remained in this Malocca I should assuredly die from want, because even a calabash of water would be refused me. I shut my eyes and drank.
"The cachiri is the substance of the manioc root, softened in hot water, and afterwards chewed by the old women of the Malocca. They spit it into great earthen pans, when it is exposed to a brisk fire until it boils. It is then poured into pots and suffered to stand until a putrid fermentation takes place.
"The Indian afterwards took his paricá. He beat, in a mortar of sapucaia, a piece of hard paste, which is kept in a box made of a shell; poured this pulverized powder upon a dish presented by another Indian, and with a long pencil of hairs of thetamandua bandeira, he spread it evenly without touching it with the fingers; then taking pipes joined together, made of the quills of thegaviâo real, (royal eagle,) and placing it under his nose, he snuffed up with a strong inspiration all the powder contained in the plate. His eyes started from his head; his mouth contracted; his limbs trembled. It was fearful to see him; he was obliged to sit down, or he would have fallen; he was drunk, but this intoxication lasted but five minutes; he was then gayer.
"Afterwards, by many entreaties, I obtained from him his precious paricá, or rather one of them, for he possessed two.
"At the Malocca ofTaguariti, where I was the next day, the Tuchão, observing two young children returning from the woods laden with sarsaparilla, covered with perspiration, and overcome, as much by the burden they carried as the distance they had travelled, called them to him, beat some paricá, and compelled them to snuff it.
"I then understood that a Tuchão Mahué had a paternal authority in his Malocca, and treated all as his own children. He forced these children to take the paricá, convinced that by it they avoided fevers and other diseases. And, in truth, I soon saw the children leave the cabin entirely refreshed, and run playing to the brook and throw themselves in.
"Several vegetable substances compose paricá: first, the ashes of a vine that I cannot class, not having been able to procure the flowers; second, seeds of theacacia angico, of the leguminous family; third, juice of the leaves of theabuta, (cocculus) of the menispermes family.
"I never saw a Mahué Indian sick, nor ever heard them complain of the slightest pain, notwithstanding that the forests they inhabit are the birthplaces of dangerous fevers, which rarely spare the Brazilian merchants who come to purchase sarsaparilla root.
"I had often heard of the great Tuchão,Socanochief, and king of the Mahué nation, who, (unlike the kings of France,) notwithstanding the urgent entreaties of his subjects, abdicated in favor of his brother, and retired apart in a profound solitude, to pass there tranquilly the remainder of his life. I wished to see this philosopher of the New World before going to Itaituba, from which I was eleven days' journey on foot.
"I went again to Massú to see the Indian bitten by the serpent, and perhaps a little, also, to see the Indian girl. He was still lame, but walked, however, better. The girl was incorruptible. Promises, bracelets, collars of pearl, (false)—all were useless.
"Without wishing to attack the virtue of the Mundrucus women, I was induced to believe she would be more charitable, because in the wholeMundrucuanieit is not proved that there exists a dragon of such virtue as to resist the temptation of a small glass of rum.
"I assisted at an Indian festival so singular that it is only in use among the true Mahués. Following the example of the other nations of Brazil, (who tattoo themselves with thorns, or pierce the nose, the lips, and the ears,) and obeying an ancient law which commands these different tortures, this baptism of blood, to habituate the warriors to despise bodily sufferings, and even death, the Mahués have preserved from their ancestors the great festival of theTocandeira.
"An Indian is not a renowned Mahué, and cannot take a wife, until he has passed his arms at least ten times through long stalks of the palm-tree, filled intentionally with large, venomous ants. He whom I saw receive this terrible baptism was not sixteen years old. They conducted him to the chiefs, where the instruments awaited him; and, when muffled in these terrible mittens, he was obliged to sing and dance before every cabin of the Malocca, accompanied by music still more horrible. Soon the torments he endured became so great that he staggered. (The father and relatives dread, as the greatest dishonor that can befall the family, a cry or a weakness on the part of the youngmartyr. They encourage and support him, often by dancing at his side.) At length he came to the last cabin; he was pallid; his teeth chattered; his arms were swollen; he went to lay the gloves before the old chief, where he still had to endure the congratulations of all the Indians of the Malocca. Even the young girls mercilessly embraced him, and dragged him through all their circles; but the Indian, insensible to their caresses, sought only one thing—to escape. At length he succeeded, and, throwing himself into the stream, remained there until night.
"TheTocandeiraants not only bite, but are also armed with a sting like the wasp; but the pain felt from it is more violent. I think it equal to that occasioned by the sting of the black scorpion.
"In one of my excursions in the environs of the Malocca of Mandu-assu, I had occasion to take several of them. I enclosed them in a small tin box. I afterwards let one bite me, that I might judge in a slight degree what it costs the young Mahués to render themselves acceptable. I was bitten at 10 a. m. I felt an acute pain from it until evening, and had several hours' fever.
"At Mandu-assu I was invited to a great festival of the Malocca. The chief kept me company; the people remained standing, and ate afterwards. As the Mahués are less filthy than the Mundrucus, I ate with a little less disgust than with the last, who never took the trouble to skin the monkeys or deer they killed, but were contented with cutting them to pieces, and throwing them pell-mell in large earthen pots, where meat, hair, feathers, and all were cooked together. The Mahués at least, though they did not pick the game, burnt the hair and roasted the meat.
"The next day I departed for the Socano country. The Indians who accompanied me, having no curiosity to see the old Indian king, already tired of the journey, and seeing it prolonged four or five days independent of the eleven it would require to reach Itaituba, concerted to deceive me by conducting me through a pathway which they thought led to a port of the river Tapajos, and where they hoped to find some Brazilians of Itaituba with their canoes loaded with sarsaparilla.
"In trying to lead me by a false route, they deceived themselves; for we walked two long days, and the pathway, which was but a hunter's track, finally entirely disappeared. I was ignorant of the position of the Malocca I was seeking. I only heard it would be found nearer the river Madeira than the Tapajos. I wished to cut across the woods and journey towards the west; the Indians were discouraged, and followedme unwillingly. We passed a part of the third day in the midst of rugged and inundated forests, where I twice sank in mud to the waist.
"The hunter could kill nothing; and when, towards the evening, I wished to take some food, I could only find a half-gnawed leg of monkey. The Indians had not left me even a grain of farinha. Being near a stream, I grated some guaraná in a calabash and drank it without sugar, for they had left me none.
"Not daring to rest, for fear of being unable to rise, we immediately resumed our journey. Having again walked two hours across forests of vines, which caused me to stumble at every step; or crawling under large fallen trees, which constantly barred our way; or in the midst of large prickly plants, which lacerated my hands, I arrived, torn and bruised, at a small river, where we stopped.
"After drinking another portion of guaraná, I swung my hammock, but was soon obliged to rise, because a storm had gathered above us and now burst forth.
"If there is an imposing scene to describe, it is that of a storm which rages at night over an old forest of the New World. Huge trees fall with a great crash; a thousand terrific noises resound from every side; animals, (monkeys and tigers,) whom fear drives to shelter, pass and repass like spectres; frequent flashes of lightning; deluging torrents of rain—all combine to form a scene from which the old poets might have drawn inspiration to depict the most brilliant night of the empire of darkness.
"Towards midnight the storm ceased; all became tranquil, and I swung my hammock anew. The next day I awoke with a fever. I drank guaraná made more bitter than usual, and we started. The hunter met a band of large black monkeys. He killed five of them. The Indians recovered courage; for myself, I could proceed no further, so great were the pains I suffered from my feet to my knees. The fever weakened me so much that I carried my gun with difficulty; but I would not abandon it. I had only that to animate my guides and defend myself with.
"By frequently drinking guaraná the fever had left me; but towards the evening of the fifth day, finding we were still wandering, and the forests becoming deeper, I lost courage and could not proceed. The hunter swung my hammock and gave me guaraná. The two others, perfectly indifferent, were some paces from me, employed in broiling a monkey. I knew if I had not strength to continue the journey the nextday, they would abandon me without pity. Already they answered me insolently.
"After a moment passed in the saddest reflection, I called to the hunter to bring me my travelling case. I took from it the entire preparation of paricá of the Mossé chief, and a flask of arsenical soap, which I would not use except as the last resource. I took the paricá and did as I had seen the old Indian do. I instantly fell drunk in my hammock, but with a peculiar intoxication, and which acted upon my limbs like electric shocks. On rising, I put my foot to the ground, and, to my great surprise, felt no pain. At first I thought I dreamed. I even walked without being convinced. At length, positively sure that I was awake, and there still remaining two hours of daylight, I detached my hammock, and forced the Indians, by striking them, to follow me.
"When further on we stopped to rest, they brought me the roast monkey, which they had not touched. I snatched a leg and ate it with voracity. The next day, constantly compelling myself to take the guaraná, I had but slight fever; and towards the evening, after a toilsome journey, we arrived at a miserable Malocca, composed of about four or five Indian cabins."
Departure from Santarem—Monte Allegre—Prainha—Almeirim—Gurupá—River Xingu—Great estuary of the Amazon—India-rubber country—Method of collecting and preparing the India-rubber—Bay of Limoeiro—Arrival at Pará.
M. Alfonse was more generous than the Tuchão, for I could do nothing for him; yet he gave me his parica, his Mundrucus gloves, and a very valuable collection of dried leaves and plants, that he had gathered during his tour.
I spent a very agreeable day with him at the country house of M. Gouzennes, situated on the Igarapé-assu, about three miles from Santarem. The house is a neat little cottage, built ofpisé, which is nearly the same thing as the large sun-dried bricks, called by the Spaniardsadobe, though more carefully prepared. I supposed that this house, situated in the midst of a cocoa plantation, on low land, near the junction of two great rivers, under a tropical sun, and with a tropical vegetation, would be an unhealthy residence; but I was assured there was no sickness here.
We put up in earth, for transportation to the United States, plants of arrow-root, ginger, manacá, and some flowers. I believe that some of these reached home alive, and are now in the public garden.
Other gentlemen were also kind and civil to me. Mr. Bates, a young English entomologist, gave me a box of very beautiful butterflies; and the Vicario Gêral, the fœtus of a peixe-boi, preserved in spirits. Senhor Pinto, the Delegado, furnished me with horses to ride; and I took most of my meals with Capt. Hislop.
An attempt was made to murder the old gentleman a few weeks before I arrived. Whilst sleeping in his hammock, two men rushed upon him, and one of them gave him a violent blow in the breast with a knife—the point of the knife, striking the breast-bone, broke or bent. The robbers then seized his trunk and made off, but were so hotly pursued by the captain's domestics, whom he had called up, that they dropped their booty and fled.
A young Englishman named Golden, who had married a Brazilian lady, and was engaged in traffic on the river, was also kind to me, giving me specimens of India-rubber and cotton.
The trade of Santarem with Pará is carried on in schooners of aboutone hundred tons burden, of which there were five or six lying in port whilst I was there. The average passage downwards is thirteen, and upwards twenty-five days.
There are several well-stocked shops in the town, but business was at that time very dull. Every body was complaining of it. A schooner had been lying there for several months, waiting for a cargo; but the smallness of the cocoa crop, and the great decrease in the fishing business, and making of manteiga for this year, rendered it very difficult to make up one.
We had a great deal of heavy rain during our stay at Santarem, (generally at night,) with sharp lightning and strong squalls of wind from the eastward. The river rose with great rapidity for the last three or four days of my stay. The beach on which I was accustomed to bathe, and which was one hundred yards wide when I arrived, was entirely covered when I left. There were no symptoms of tide at that season, though I am told it is very perceptible in the summer time. Water boiled at Santarem at 210.5, indicating a height of eight hundred and forty-six feet above the level of the sea.
I left Santarem at 7 p. m., March 28. The Delegado could only muster me three tapuios and a pilot, and I shipped a volunteer. I believe he could have given me as many as I desired, (eleven,) but that he had many employed in the building of his new house, and, moreover, he had no conception that I would sail on the day that I appointed; people in this country never do, I believe, by any chance. If they get off on a journey within a week of the time appointed, they think they are doing well; and I have known several instances where they were a month after the time.
When the Delegado found that I would go with what men I had, he begged me to wait till morning, saying that the military commandant, who had charge of the Trabalhadores, had sent into the country for two, and was expecting them every hour. But I too well knew that it was idle to rely on expectations of this sort, and I sailed at once, thanking him for his courtesy.
I had several applications to ship for the voyage from Indians at Santarem; but I was very careful not to take any who were engaged in the service of others; for I knew that custom, if not law, gave the patron the service of the tapuio, provided this latter were in debt to the former, which I believe the patron always takes good care shall be the case.
I paid these men—the pilot forty, and the crew thirty cents per day. The Ticunas, who formed my crew from Tabatinga to Barra, I paidpartly in money and partly in clothes, at the rate of four dollars per month. I paid the Muras, from Barra to Santarem, at the same rate. The Peruvian Indians were generally paid in cotton cloth, at the rate of about twelve and a half cents per day.
We gave passage to the French Jew who had given us lodgings in his house at Santarem. I had great difficulty in keeping the peace between him and Potter, who had as much antipathy towards each other as an uneducated Frenchman and Englishman might be supposed to have.
We drifted with the current all night, and stopped in the morning at a small cocoa plantation belonging to some one in Santarem. The water of the river was, at this time, nearly up to the door of the house; and the country seemed to be all marsh behind. I never saw a more desolate, sickly looking place; but a man who was living there with his wife and six children (all strong and healthy looking) told me they were never sick there. This man told me that he could readily support himself and his family but for the military service he was compelled to surrender at Santarem, which took him away from his work and his family for several months in every year.
Thirty miles from the mouth of the Tapajos we passed the mouth of a creek called Igarapé Mahica, which commences close to the Tapajos. We found the black waters of that river at the mouth of the creek, and therefore it should be properly called a furo, or small mouth of the Tapajos.
We stopped at 9 p. m. under some high land close to the mouth of a small river called Curuá, on account of a heavy squall of wind and rain.
March 30.—We passed this morning the high lands on the left bank of the river, among which is situated the little town ofMonte Alegre. This is a village of fifteen hundred inhabitants, who are principally engaged in the cultivation of cocoa, the raising of cattle, and the manufacture of earthern-ware, and drinking cups made from gourds, which they varnish and ornament with goldleaf and colors, in a neat and pretty style.
In the afternoon we crossed the river, here about four miles wide, and stopped at the village ofPrainha.
Prainha is a collection of mud huts on a slight green eminence on the left bank of the river, ninety miles below Santarem. The inhabitants, numbering five hundred, employ themselves in gathering India-rubber and making manteiga. The island opposite the town having a lake in the centre abounding with turtle.
We saw several persons at this place who were suffering from sezoens, or tertianas, but all said they took them whilst up the neighboring rivers. If general accounts are to be relied on, there seems to be really no sickness on the main trunk of the Amazon, but only on the tributaries; though I saw none on the Huallaga and Ucayali.
I have no doubt of the fact that sickness is more often taken on the tributaries than on the main trunk; but I do not think it is because there is any peculiar malaria on the tributaries from which the main trunk is exempt. The reason, I think, is this; when persons leave their homes to ascend the tributaries, they break up their usual habits of life, live in canoes exposed to the weather, with bad and insufficient food, and are engaged in an occupation (the collection of India-rubber or sarsaparilla) which compels them to be nearly all the time wet. It is not to be wondered at that, after months of such a life, the voyager should contract chills and fever in its most malignant form.
The mere traveller passes these places without danger. It is the enthusiast in science, who spends weeks and months in collecting curious objects of natural history, or the trader, careless of consequences in the pursuit of dollars, who suffers from the sezoens.
Although there were a number of cattle grazing in the streets of Prainha, we could get no fresh meat; and indeed, but for the opportune arrival of a canoe with a single fish, our tuyuyus, or great cranes, would have gone supperless. These birds frequently passed several days without food—and this on a river abounding with fish, which shows the listless indifference of the people.
The banks of the river between Monte Alegre and Gurupá are bordered with hills that deserve the name of mountains. In this part of our descent we had a great deal of rain and bad weather; for wherever the land elevates itself in this country, clouds and rain settle upon the hills. But it was very pleasant, even with these accompaniments, to look upon a country broken into hill and valley, and so entirely distinct from the low flat country above, that had wearied us so long with its changeless monotony.
About fifty-five miles below Prainha we passed the mouth of the small river Parú, which enters the Amazon on the left bank. It is a quarter of a mile wide at its mouth, and has clear dark water.
It is very difficult to get any information from the Indian pilots on the river. When questioned regarding any stream, the common reply is, "It runs a long way up; it has rapids; savages live upon its banks; everything grows there;" (Vai longe,tem caxoieras,tem gentios,tem tudo.)I was always reminded of the Peruvian Indian with hishay platanos,hay yuccas,hay todo.
Our pilot, however, told me that the river was navigable for large vessels twenty days to the first rapids; that the current was very strong; that there was much sezoens on it; and that much sarsaparilla and cloves could be collected there.
The immediate banks of the river at its mouth are low; but close to the left bank commences a short but quite high range of hills, that runs parallel to the Amazon.
Six miles below this we passed the village ofAlmeirim, on the left bank, but did not stop. A little above the town, and a quarter of a mile from shore, there was a strong ripple, which the pilot said was caused by a ledge of rocks that are bare when the river is low. There is plenty of water on each side of it.
Fifty miles below Almeirim we steered across the river for Gurupá, running under sail from island to island. The river here is about ten miles wide. Large islands divide it into the Macapá and Gurupá channels; the latter conducting to Pará, the former running out to sea by the shores of Guyana.
After crossing, and at half a mile from the right bank, we fell into the dark waters of the Xingu, whose mouth we could see some six or eight miles above. Fifteen miles further brought us to Gurupá, where we arrived at a quarter past 9 p. m.
Gurupá is a village of one street, situated on a high grassy point on the right bank, with large islands in front, diminishing the width of the river to about a mile and a half. It contains about three hundred inhabitants, though the sub-delegado said it had two or three thousand; and the official report states the number at over one thousand.
The principal trade of the place is in India-rubber, obtained on the Xingu and the neighboring smaller streams. We found at this place, as at every other place below Barra, a great demand for salt fish. Everybody asked us if we had any to sell; and we could readily have obtained three dollars the arroba, for which we had paid but seventy-five cents in Barra. The scarcity of the fish is attributable to the fact that the river has fallen very little this year; but I incline to believe that the fish are not so plentiful, and that the people are not so active in taking them as before. It was amusing at Santarem to see the gathering of the population around a canoe, recently arrived with fish, as if this were a thing of rare occurrence. The people seemed so lazy that they would prefer eating farinha alone, rather than take the trouble to go down to the Amazon and catch fish.
I met, at the house of the Commandante-militar, with an old gentleman who was on his way toPorto de Moz, near the mouth of the Xingu, to take the office of municipal judge of the district. He seemed to be a man well informed with regard to all the river below Barra. He told me that the Xingu was obstructed by rapids for navigation in large vessels within four days' travel from its mouth, and that boats could not go far up on account of the savages. These rapids, however, cannot be a serious impediment for boats; for I was told at Santarem that the caravans from Cuiabá to Rio Janeiro passed the Xingu in boats, and found at that place porpoises of the Amazon; from which they inferred that there were no falls or serious obstacles in the river below them.
The judge asked me for accounts from Barra; and when he received the usual answer, that the town was not in a flourishing condition, and was short of the necessaries of life, he shrugged his shoulders, (as all in the lower province do when speaking of the new province,) as if to say, "I knew it."
He said that it might come to something in forty years; but that nothing could be expected of a place that furnished nothing to commerce but a few oils, and a littlepiassaba, and where the population was composed of Muras and Araras. He spoke bitterly of the Mura tribe of Indians, and said that they were lazy and deceitful.
According to his account, the white man furnishes the Mura with a boat, pays him, beforehand, a jacket, a shirt, a pair of trousers, and a hat; furnishes him with fish and farinha to eat, and tobacco to smoke, and sends him out to take Pirarucu; but when the Indian gets off, it is "Good-bye Mura;" or, if he does come back, he has spent so much time in his fishing that the fish are not worth the outlay and the time lost.
It was true, he said, there were cattle on the Rio Branco; but they could only be sent for and traded in when the river was full; and he concluded by making a great cross in the air, and lifting up his eyes, to give vent to the expression, "Heaven deliver me from Barra!"
I conversed with the old gentleman on some projects of reform as regarded the Indian population. He thought that a military force should be employed to reduce them to a more perfect system of subjection, and that they should, by all means, be compelled to work. I told him that a Portuguese had said that the best reform that could be made would be to hang all the Indians. My friend seemed a little shocked at this, and said that there was no necessity for such root-and-branch work. He said he would grant that the old ones might bekilled to advantage; but he thought they might be shot and not hung. This, I believe, was said "bona fide." I was amused at the old gentleman's philanthropy, and thought that, as a judge, he might have preferred the hanging process.
I find that most of the gentlemen of the lower province are disposed to sneer at the action of the government in erecting the Comarca of the Rio Negro into a province; but I think the step was a wise one. It may cost the government, and particularly the province of Pará, (from which funds are drawn for the support of the new province,) some money to support it for a while; but if the country is to be improved at all, it is to be done in this way. By sending there government officials—people who know what living is, and have wants—and by building government houses, (thus employing and paying the Indians,) stimulants are given to labor, and the resources of the country are drawn out; for these people who have gone from Pará and Rio Janeiro will not be content to live on turtle, salt fish, and farinha.