VISITING THE CARIPUNAS.
While they were halted for breakfast three canoes put out from a nook on the opposite shore; two of them paddled across to where the raft was tied up, while the third went a little way up the stream and stopped near the bank, as if waiting to see what reception would be given to their friends. Each canoe contained two men and one woman, all wearing very little clothing, and having their hair thick and long, so as tocover the shoulders. They had bows and arrows in their canoes, but did not offer to use them or even to pick them up, with the exception of one Indian, who took his weapons over his shoulder and stepped on shore.
A CARIPUNA INDIAN.
In spite of his scanty costume he was rather picturesque in appearance, as he had ornaments in his ears and a necklace of jaguar's claws hanging on his breast. By signs, he invited the party to visit their camp on the other side of the river; the rowers were timid about venturing there, but the Doctor quieted their fears by intimating, through Manuel and the pilot, that the weapons of the party were sufficient to defend them in case of trouble.
The Caripunas were given to understand that the visit would be made as soon as breakfast was over; they seemed perfectly satisfied with this arrangement, and returned to their canoes, where they sat until the meal was finished. The return of the boatmen to their oars was the signal for the Caripunas, who paddled on ahead and indicated the best place for landing.
The landing was made without difficulty, and the whole population of the village, some twenty or thirty men, women, and children, came out to meet the strangers. For fear of treachery, Dr. Bronson gave orders that none of the rowers should leave their places; Manuel was to remain standing by the side of the boat, and the three Americans were not to go more than a few yards from the shore, where the huts of the Indians stood about ten feet above the water's level.
An old man, who was evidently the chief of the tribe, came forward and led the way to an open shed between the two principal huts. It was evidently a place of public resort, and corresponded to the city hall or court-house of civilized lands. All the rest of the natives followed, and the conversation soon became as animated as it is possible to make it where neither party understands a word the other says. Frank observed that the skins of the natives were of a reddish-brown color, and the tallest of them did not exceed five feet eight inches in height.
Beads, small mirrors, fish-hooks, and similar barbaric goods were distributed in the shape of presents, and then our friends tried to make a bargain for whatever the Indians had to sell. Unfortunately they had only a few bows and arrows and some feathers from the birds of the forest; beyond these nothing was in the market; and as the natives were unwilling to part with their weapons, it required a good deal of persuasion and the display of the glittering baubles to secure their consent. With these trifles the strangers were compelled to be satisfied, and after a visit of an hour or more they returned to theirboat and continued the voyage.
A curious fact was ascertained by Mr. Keller in his visit to the Caripunas, that they bury their dead in their houses, removing the earth of the floor for that purpose. When a space beneath a hut is occupied with graves the place is abandoned, and a new dwelling is erected elsewhere. This is deserted in its turn, under the same conditions.
The Caripunas are skilful hunters and fishermen; they cultivate the soil occasionally, but not often, depending for their vegetable food upon the products of the forest. Some attempts have been made to civilize this people, but they have not succeeded, except in convincing them that it is better to be on friendly terms with their neighbors than in open hostility.
When the travellers reached Guajara-Merim, the first of the falls of the Madeira, their contract with their boatmen terminated. The men were paid off, each one receiving a small present in addition to his wages, and the pilot a larger one, in proportion to his importance. There is a small village of Mojos Indians just above the falls, and their special occupation is to transport travellers and their property up or down the stream. Manuel opened negotiations, but they could not be rapidly pushed, as it is not the custom of this people to do anything in a hurry.
It took an entire day to finish the transaction. A "garitea," a boat of about four tons' burden and having a crew of twelve men, was engaged for the voyage to San Antonio, at the foot of the lowest rapid. In addition to the crew there was a thirteenth man as pilot or captain, one of the twelve being second in command. Some of the rapids may be passed without danger in descending the river, and without the necessity of unloading the cargo; at others the cargo must be taken out, and the empty boat navigated down the rapids; while at others both boat and cargo must be taken around over the land. The whole distance where the boats must be drawn overland is nearly three miles, while for more than two miles the cargoes must be taken out in order to save them from possible damage or loss.
A WALK IN THE FOREST.
Frank and Fred had plenty of time for studying the falls of the Madeiraand making a short excursion into the forest in the vicinity, as another day was required for getting ready to start after the bargain had been concluded for the hire of the boat and its crew. We will refer to Fred's note-book for an account of what they saw and learned.
"There is a village of Caripuna Indians," wrote Fred, "a little way inland from the falls, and we paid it a visit. Most of the men were away on a fishing excursion, and the few that remained did not have anything we could buy. We made them some presents, but did not stay long, as we wanted to see a rubber-tree, and the manner of collecting the India-rubber of commerce.
"We had a guide from the Mojos village at the falls; he had been a collector of rubber, and spoke enough Spanish to enable us to understandhis explanations. Since the surveys were made for the railway a good many Mojos Indians have settled here, and they do quite a business in collecting rubber and sending it down the river to market.
BRANCH OF THE INDIA-RUBBER TREE.
"The rubber-trees are abundant on both sides of the river for a long distance in either direction. How far inland they may be found is not definitely known. The scientific name of the tree isSiphonia elastica, orSiphonia cachucha, but there are several other trees that produce the gum which is so largely used in American and European industry. An incision is made in the side of the tree, and a cup made of leaves and clay is so placed as to catch the juice which flows from the cut. In a few hours the cup is filled, and a man comes around with a large jar in which the juice is collected.
"The liquid is about the consistency of milk, and contains from ten to twenty per cent. of gum. It is poured into shallow basins, very often into empty turtle-shells, and allowed to stand in the sun, by which a good deal of the liquid is evaporated. When it is about the thickness of ordinary cream it is poured into a turtle-shell, and an Indian sits down to convert the liquid into rubber.
INDIA-RUBBER MAKING ON THE MADEIRA.
"He has a small fire made of palm nuts, and over the fire is an inverted jar with a hole in the bottom, through which the smoke ascends. He dips a paddle into the cream, and then holds it over the hole in the jar until it is dried by the heat, which must always be gentle, through fearof spoiling the rubber. When the gum is hardened he dips the paddle again, and again dries it; he repeats the process until the desired thickness is secured.
"When the rubber is thick enough it is cut off and is ready for market. Instead of a paddle he sometimes uses a mould of clay; formerly they made moulds resembling the human foot, and thus fashioned the rubber shoes that were worn in America forty or fifty years ago. Fantastic figures were traced on the shoes with the end of a hot wire, and the mould was generally soaked in water till it fell to pieces, and the clay could be washed out. The modern processes of working rubber have driven these shoes from the market, and very few of them are made at present.
"A good day's work for one man is six pounds of rubber. Another way of hardening the gum is to place it in a kettle and suspend it over a smallfire, taking care not to burn the material. When it is sufficiently reduced, and is still warm and plastic, it is shaped into balls or bricks, weighing several pounds each; the buyers prefer to have it dried on the paddle, as the natives occasionally commit frauds by putting sand or lumps of clay inside the masses while shaping them. The deception can only be detected by cutting carefully through the mass, and dividing it into small pieces. Frank suggests that the natives have probably heard of some of the tricks attributed to Connecticut Yankees, but I think he must be mistaken.
"The rubber of the Amazon valley is considered the best in the world, and the amount of the product is rapidly increasing. I am told it is not far from six thousand tons a year, and will be increased to ten thousand tons as soon as the means of transportation from Bolivia are made more practicable. This does not include the rubber sent from the northern part of the continent, from the country not drained by the Amazon.
"We call this substance 'India-rubber,' because it was first brought from the Indies, but, properly speaking, the name does not belong to it at the present day. The greater part of the rubber of commerce is from South America, which produces more than all other countries together."
"And why is it calledrubber?" Frank asked.
"Because," replied Fred, "it was first used in England for rubbing out pencil-marks. It was imported into England for that purpose about the end of the last century, and was greatly esteemed by artists, who paid high prices for it; it was popularly called 'lead-eater,' and in some parts of England it is yet known by that name. It was not until 1820 that its use extended much beyond the erasure of pencil-marks; its first important use was in the manufacture of water-proof clothing, and about the same time it was employed for the formation of flexible tubes, and for other purposes.
"It is a curious fact that the uses of rubber which have been discovered in England and America in the present century were known in South America nearly three hundred years ago. In a book published in Madrid in 1615, Juan de Torquemada describes a tree in Mexico yielding a gum from which the natives make shoes and other things, and he also says that the Spaniards used this gum for waxing their canvas cloaks to make them resist water. Herrara's account of the second voyage of Columbus mentions balls which the natives of Hayti use in their amusements; he says they are made from the gum of a tree, and are lighter and bouncebetter than the wind-balls of Castile."
When the above notes were read over to the Doctor he suggested an addition, which was made at once.
"By far the most extensive uses of this material at present are in its vulcanized form, as the pure India-rubber can only be employed to a limited extent. The process of vulcanizing was discovered by anAmerican, Charles Goodyear, in 1843, and consists in mixing rubber with sulphur and heating it to a high degree. There are two kinds of vulcanized rubber, one hard and horny, and the other soft and elastic; for the first the rubber is cut into small shreds, mixed with a third of its weight of sulphur, and heated for several hours, the final heat being not less than 300° Fahrenheit. For the elastic rubber the proportion of sulphur and the degree of heat are much less. An endless variety of articles is made from the two kinds of vulcanized rubber."
"While we are on this subject," said Frank, "I wonder if there is a cow-tree in this region. The cow-tree is a South American production, is it not?"
"Yes," answered the Doctor, "but it is not in this part of the continent, or, at any rate, the most famous of the family does not growin the lowlands. There are several trees known by that name, but thePalo do Vacais found principally in Venezuela and the northern part of the continent, generally at an elevation of three or four thousand feet."
"Please tell us what it is like."
LEAVES, FRUIT, AND FLOWERS OF THE COW-TREE.
"It is a tall, slender tree, with leaves resembling the laurel in shape, but ten or twelve inches long. It grows in rocky places where there is very little moisture, and during the dry season its leaves are withered and the branches appear dead. But as soon as the trunk is pierced it gives forth a rich, nourishing juice that resembles milk in appearance, taste, and qualities, though it differs materially from the milk of animals. It contains a good deal of wax and fibrin, a little sugar and a salt of magnesia, the rest being water."
MILKING THE COW-TREE.
"And does it make cream like the milk of a living cow?"
"Yes; after standing a short time it becomes yellow and forms a sort of cream on the surface; this cream will gradually thicken into a semblance of cheese before it begins to putrefy. And the tree further resembles the cow in having its best milking-time in the morning; it yields more juice at sunrise than at any other time, and before daylight the natives gather at the trees to fill their bowls with the milk. The negroes and Indians drink freely of this milk, but the white inhabitants generally care little for it."
Frank fell to meditating upon the feasibility of introducing the cow-tree into his father's orchard, and having a supply of milk where it did not need to be driven up at night. His calculations were suddenly interrupted by the announcement that dinner was ready, and his practical nature, backed by a good appetite, put an immediate end to hisenterprise.
DRAGGING A BOAT AROUND TEOTONIO.
The garitea was placed on rollers, and dragged along the ground, over a road that was by no means smooth. It was hard work for the Indians, particularly as the day was warm, but they toiled steadily, and did not once pause till they had launched the boat into the river below Guajara-Merim. Then they returned for the baggage, which was distributed among them, under the watchful eyes of Dr. Bronson and Frank. Fred and Manuel had preceded the baggage, and were ready to superintend its reception and stowage in the boat.
In spite of the difficulties of this rude mode of transportation there is a considerable traffic between Bolivia and the lower Amazon, around the falls of the Madeira. Colonel Church says it amounts to more than a thousand tons a year, and many bulky and heavy articles are carried through safely. Pianos have even been sent from Brazil to the interior of Bolivia by this route, and, what is strangest of all, they have arrived in perfect order, and were ready for use after a littleattention from the tuner.
The same gentleman, in speaking of the Mojos Indians of the department of the Beni, says their imitative powers are wonderful. The law requires that all voters shall be able to write. On the day of election an Indian comes to the polls to vote for a president or a deputy to congress; without knowing a letter of the alphabet he copies in a clear and legible hand the name of the one for whom he votes. He will also copy an entire manuscript in any language, without knowing a word of it.
When everything was ready the boat was pushed off, and the voyage continued to the next rapid, where the same process was repeated. As before stated, some of the rapids were passed without the necessity of unloading, while at others the cargo, and sometimes both cargo and boat, required to be carried overland. Once the boat was run upon a rock and considerably injured, but happily none of the cargo was damaged, andneither passengers nor crew suffered harm.
INSCRIPTIONS ON THE ROCKS AT RIBEIRAO.
During one of their halts, while passing the falls, Frank and Fred amused themselves by copying some curious inscriptions on the rocks. These were more numerous at the falls known as the Ribeirao than at any other place, and were evidently the result of long and patient work.
CUTTINGS ON STONES NEAR THE RAPIDS.
The inscriptions are nearly all in regular lines, and were made with great care. They are certainly not the work of the people now occupying this region, and their signification is unknown. They were made ages and ages ago, judging by the appearance of the stones, and it is supposed that the cutting was done with chisels of flint or quartz. The stones bearing the inscriptions are very hard and smooth, and not far from the edge of the river at the low stage of water. In the season of floods they are covered, and the action of the water has worn away some of the lines so that they are barely visible.
Near another fall there are some deep lines cut in one of the granite rocks; they are nearly half an inch in depth, and cross each other at different angles. Whether they were made at the same time and by the same people as the others it is impossible to ascertain.
On the eighth day the passage around Teotonio, the last of the falls, was safely accomplished, and the garitea floated in front of San Antonio. This is a small town, which was founded when the surveys of the railway were begun, and has had a somewhat checkered existence. The boatmen were paid off and discharged; the baggage of the party was stored in a little house temporarily hired for its reception, and forthe accommodation of the travellers.
San Antonio owes its existence to the railway enterprise. At one time several hundred men were gathered there, principally laborers from Spain and the West Indies, and it was expected that the work of opening the railway line would be vigorously prosecuted. But the men died off so rapidly as to seriously impede the undertaking; those that survived became alarmed and deserted the spot, and down to the visit of our friends all attempts to make a permanent settlement at San Antonio had failed.
There was but one white man in the place—a Brazilian, in charge of the property that belonged to the railway company. His haggard features and sallow complexion told that he was suffering from fever, and he promptly confirmed what had been said of the unhealthiness of the region.
"The obstacle which has prevented the construction of the railway," said he, in answer to Dr. Bronson's question, "was one not easy to foresee. The engineers who visited the place, and made a preliminary examination of the route, did not remain long enough to suffer from the pestilential atmosphere, and consequently they did not know of it. But when the labor actually began the case was different, the men died off very fast, and it soon took all the time of those who could get about to care for the sufferers and bury the dead.
"There are no engineering difficulties to prevent the construction of the line, as the country is only slightly undulating, and there are but few rivers to cross. But it appears that there are terrible fevers lurking wherever cataracts in tropical countries fall over granite rocks. There are hollows between the rocks that retain the waters when the rivers fall from their highest levels, and these waters become stagnant pools. Vegetation decays in these pools, and they give off miasmatic vapors under the heat of the tropical sun. Europeans die rapidly in consequence, and even the negroes and natives cannot long endure the poisonous atmosphere.
BURIED IN THE TROPICAL FOREST.
"Mr. Davis, the English engineer who came here to superintend the work, endeavored to improve the place by blowing up the rocks at the pools, and where this could not be done he set his men to pumping out the water in order to drain off the surplus and arrest the decay. He accomplished a good deal in this way, but fell a victim to the fevers, and died in spite of all the efforts of the doctor to save him. His grave is in the forest, just behind the village.
"The loss of the chief disheartened his subordinates, and all who could leave made haste to do so. The Mojos Indians and the Caripunas do not appear to be affected by the climate, but they cannot be induced to work at railway building, preferring employment in transporting goods andboats around the falls."
The information thus obtained made the little party of strangers desirous of leaving San Antonio as soon as possible. The Indians took advantage of their desire by demanding a high price for carrying them down the river. A steamer was expected to arrive in a few days, but they were unwilling to wait there, wisely preferring to spend the time in a less unhealthy locality. Dr. Bronson told Manuel to engage a boat at any price, on the condition that it would leave at once, and the negotiation was speedily made.
Three hours after the conversation with the Brazilian the boat with our friends and their baggage pushed off from shore, and floated on the current of the Madeira. The fever-stricken residents of San Antonio gazed sadly after them, and mourned the fortune that detained them in that deadly place.
Night came an hour or two after their departure, but the boat did not stop, as it had been agreed that the rowers would not rest until reaching the mouth of the January River, about fifty miles below San Antonio. The January joins the Madeira from the east, and at the point of junction there is a large house occupied by the Bolivian consul, who has charge of the Madeira district, extending from the mouth of that river to the falls. It was about nine in the forenoon when the boat reached this point and drew up to the bank.
Dr. Bronson had no official letters from the Bolivian authorities, as he had not visited the capital of the country, or any of its important towns, but he was cordially received by the consul, and invited to remain until the return of the steamboat, which was expected to pass up the river the same day on its way to San Antonio. His family was away, and he had an abundance of room, and after repeated assurances of welcome the invitation was accepted.
The boatmen were retained for an excursion up the January, and the baggage of the party was carried to the rooms they were to occupyduring their stay. The rest of the day was spent in the society of the consul, who told them many things of interest concerning the Madeira and its tributaries. The steamboat passed in the afternoon, making a brief stop at the landing, and it was arranged that she should return to take them away in a week or ten days at farthest.
BANANA IN BLOSSOM.
The consul's house was a large two-story building, and the upper floor commanded fine views of the two rivers; his reception-room on this floor was open on three sides, but could be closed by curtains whenever required. A fine breeze blew during the afternoon, and both Frank and Fred declared they had not, in months, found such an agreeable lounging-place. All the sleeping-rooms were provided with mosquito-nettings; mosquitoes are abundant and persistent throughout the year, and every precaution must be taken against them.
The next morning the party went up the January with their boat, and were absent three days. They visited a camp of rubber collectors, which was controlled by a Bolivian who had obtained a grant of land, with the exclusive right of gathering rubber thereon for a term of years. He had some forty or fifty men in his employ, all Indians from Bolivia. Frank learned something about the business which he had not ascertained in their previous visit to the rubber collectors, and we are permitted tocopy it from his note-book.
"The whole rubber trade of the Amazon is run upon the credit system. The employer keeps his men constantly in debt, and as long as they are owing him for goods he can claim their work. They are engaged for a term of years, but in consequence of their debts are practically never released from their contract.
"Next, the employer is in debt to the small traders in the river towns, to whom he sells his rubber; he pays very dear for his goods, and gets a low price for the products of his enterprise. Then the small trader is in debt to the wholesale dealer at Para, and the wholesalers are in debt to London and New York, where the rubber goes for a market. Heavy profits are made in every transaction, and the result of it is that the Indian who collects the gum and prepares the crude rubber works for very low wages, and is paid in goods at very high prices. The annual exportation from Para is said to be twenty million pounds of rubber, worth from six to eight million dollars.
RUBBER TREE AND PARASITES.
"Rubber trees begin to yield when they are fifteen years old, and it hasbeen proposed to cultivate rubber by planting large areas with trees, and conducting the business like that of a coffee or sugar plantation. But the necessity of waiting fifteen years before any return can be obtained for the outlay will naturally deter capitalists from making investments."
STATION OF A RUBBER COLLECTOR.
While on the January our friends saw a new way of catching turtles. An Indian stood on the bow of his canoe, watching the water, with bow and arrow ready.
Suddenly he aimed the arrow at the sky, drew it to the head, and fired. It rose to a great height, then made a graceful curve, and descended. It struck the water within twenty feet of the Indian, pierced the shell of a turtle, and the creature was secured in the manner already described. Manuel explained that this was the only way in which the shells of the large turtles could be pierced, the arrow obtaining great penetrative force through the momentum it acquires in descending. The Indians are so expert in this difficult mode of shooting that they rarely miss their mark.
The January is not an important river, and the only settlements along its banks are those of the rubber collectors. Some of them have made clearings, and established banana and mandioca groves, but none of these groves rise to the dignity of plantations.
The return to the consul's house was safely made, and the rest of the time of waiting for the steamer was passed in writing up the story of the journey and preparing letters for home. They did not expect to make any delay in their journey down the Amazon, and if the boat kept to her schedule she would reach Para just in time for the outward mail for New York.
The steamers leave Manaos, on the Amazon, for San Antonio on the 27th of every month, and in the busy seasons of the year there is generally an extra steamer about the middle of the month. Between Manaos and Para there is always a fortnightly and generally a weekly service each way,and from Manaos most of the tributaries of the Amazon have a monthly service as far as they are navigable. Steam navigation on the Amazon had its beginning in 1852, but its growth has not been rapid, owing to the slow development of commerce.
In 1867 Brazil declared the Amazon open to the ships of all nations, but practically the navigation of the river is under the Brazilian flag. Steamers of any nationality may ascend to Manaos, one thousand miles above Para; from that point Brazilian steamers run to the frontier of Peru, where they connect with Peruvian steamers navigating almost to the base of the great Andean chain. At present the entire service is performed by about fifty steamers, some of large size and others light enough for the fancy of the western captain who desired a craft that could run where a heavy dew had fallen. The smallest of the steamers is less than twenty tons' burden, while the largest exceeds a thousand tons.
The following note by Colonel Church will give an idea of the extent of the navigable waters of the Amazon:
"South America contains seven millions of square miles. The Amazon River drains over one third of this vast area. Its basin is more than twice the size of the valley of the Mississippi. It would hold forty-nine countries the size of England. Only by floating on the majestic tide of the Amazon does one get an idea of its mass of waters. The Mississippi River, poured into it near its mouth, would not raise it six inches. In Bolivia, on the Beni branch of its Madeira affluent, two thousand miles from its outlet, it is one hundred and seventy feet deep! It presents still more astonishing soundings the same distance up the main stream. With its branches it offers not less than fifteen thousand miles of waters suitable for steamboat navigation. The Bolivian affluents of its main branch alone count three thousand miles of river navigation. One half of this is suitable for steamers drawing six feet of water, and the other half for craft drawing three feet."
The great lack of the Amazon Valley is in population; until it is peopled it will be impossible to develop commerce to any great extent. There are not fifty thousand inhabitants on the banks of the great river from a point one hundred miles above Para to the base of the Andes; Professor Orton says the Amazon Valley is the most thinly peopled region on the surface of the globe, with the exception of the great deserts and the polar zones. Even including the savage Indians who dwell away from the rivers, the number of inhabitants is not great.
Raimondi, who is considered an excellent authority, gives the Peruvian province of Loreto, which stretches from Ecuador to Cuzco, and from thecrest of the Andes to the Brazilian frontier, a population of less than seventy thousand. He puts the wild Indians at forty thousand, and allows thirty thousand for all other races and kinds of men!
A RIVER TOWN.
In their voyage down the river, Frank and Fred found that many of the towns marked on the map had no existence whatever, and some of the most pretentious could not boast half a dozen huts. Several towns had each but a single dwelling, and one was only to be recognized by a post set in the bank to uphold a sign-board bearing the name of the place. Dr. Bronson said he was reminded of the days of land speculations in the West, when elaborate maps were printed of so-called "cities," which never had any existence beyond the paper one of the speculative founders.
Back from the river the population is as scattered and scanty as upon its banks; there is room for millions of people in the valley of the Amazon, and but for the great density of the forests, the fevers and other diseases, and the pestiferous insects that fill the air from beginning to end of the year, the country would doubtless attract emigration from the overcrowded cities and rural districts of Europe. Brazil has made repeated efforts to attract emigration, but thus far they have amounted to very little; a few thousand Germans and others have gone there, but their experience has not been such as to encouragethe coming of others. It will doubtless be a long time before the Amazon Valley can honestly claim half a dozen inhabitants to the square mile.
In due time the steamer returned from San Antonio, and our friends continued their journey.
They were the only passengers, and had things their own way. The steamer had a large upper saloon, open on all sides, but capable of being closed in by curtains in bad weather. There was a long table in the centre at which meals were served, and at each corner of the saloon stood an earthen jar filled with drinking water which had been carefully filtered. The water of the Amazon and its tributaries contains many vegetable impurities; it should not be drank without filtering, and the prudent traveller will also have it boiled.
Between the table and the sides of the saloon there were hooks for suspending hammocks; Manuel explained that they could hang their hammocks in any unoccupied places, sleeping there by night and reclining during the day. They could have private cabins on the main-deck if they preferred, but the private rooms were less airy, and not to be desired. By a party just from the trip over the Andes and down the Beni such a proposal was naturally laughed at; the youths and their mentor swung their hammocks where they liked, and enjoyed the beautiful panorama that was unfolded to their eyes as the steamer moved on her course.
Frank declared it the perfection of travelling comfort to lie in a hammock and study the scenery with hardly the motion of a muscle; it surpassed the indolence of a chair on the deck of a transatlantic steamship, or the fauteuil of a Pullman car from New York to San Francisco. But it is proper to add that neither of the young gentlemen adhered closely to his hammock during the daytime, in spite of any theories in that direction. They were here, there, and everywhere on the steamboat; now studying the magnificent forest that passed before their eyes, or gazing into the dark waters through which they ploughed their way. Turtles and great fishes were their delight, and of the former at least there was no lack. When a sand-bar was approached they eagerly scanned it with their glasses in search of alligators, and as these products of the river were abundant and sand-bars were numerous, they had plenty of amusement in this line.
The ordinary life on the steamboat, so far as meals were concerned, was as follows: coffee was served as soon as the passengers were out of their hammocks, and if they were specially inclined to laziness they had it before they rose. Breakfast was served at ten o'clock, dinner at five, and tea at eight. At breakfast and dinner there was a plentifulsupply of meat, sometimes half a dozen courses being served of meats alone. Live turtles and fowls were kept on board for the wants of the table; on the large steamers on the lower Amazon there are always a few bullocks carried along and slaughtered when wanted, in addition to chickens and turtles. Rice and farina are abundantly supplied at every meal, and the cook (a Chinaman) brought back recollections of Java and India in his skill in making curries andpilaufs. The captain of a steamer on the Amazon has an allowance for feeding the passengers and crew; sometimes he delegates the purchases to the cook, but quite as often he takes the matter into his own hands and does his buying in person. By so doing he avoids extravagance, and escapes the inevitable "squeezes" of the cook.
PIRA-RUCÛ, A FISH OF THE AMAZON.
The captains are usually paid a salary, and commissions on the freight and passengers; in a prosperous season the commissions will amount to more than the salary, and if the captain has an inclination to dishonesty his opportunities are excellent. Most of the steamboats receive a subsidy from the government, which guarantees them against loss, and altogether their business shows a very good profit.
With stoppages at the various landings where real or imaginary villages existed, the voyage from the mouth of the January River to the junction of the Madeira and the Amazon occupied four days. It was enlivened by several incidents of an amusing character, and one or two that threatened to be serious.
DEPOSITS IN THE AMAZON VALLEY.
Once the boat ran hard aground on a sand-bar, and for some time it wasfeared that the whole cargo would need to be removed to lighten the craft sufficiently to get her off. But by pulling hard upon ropes fastened to anchors placed in the rear of the boat, and a vigorous backing of the engines at the same time, they managed to get afloat. One morning, while crawling along through a fog, they crashed into the bank, but happily with no great force; some of the lighter work of the boat was broken, but the hull remained uninjured.
When near the Amazon the boat struck hard against something that was supposed to be a log. The engines were stopped, and an examination showed that instead of a log it was a huge turtle, that had evidently been taking a nap on the surface, and was unconscious of the steamer's approach.
One afternoon, as they were turning a point under the overhanging branches of an immense tree, the upper works of the boat brushed against a wasps' nest; the disturbed insects came on board without invitation, and for some minutes they made things very lively. Frank was stung on the nose, and that ornament of his face began to swell almost immediately; it was assuming gigantic proportions when the Doctor made an application of ammonia that soon neutralized the effect of the poison, though not until the youth had suffered considerable pain.
WASP-NEST, SHOWING INTERIOR CONSTRUCTION.
Manuel explained that the particular kind of wasp which had caused the trouble was known as the "Yessi Marabunta," a large black wasp with a powerful sting. His nest in the limbs of a tree resembles a Dutch cheese, and it is generally inhabited by a large family. There are several varieties of wasp on the Amazon; all of them are troublesome, and some are actually dangerous to life. Away from the rivers they are numerous in the neighborhood of springs, and cause great annoyance to cattle going to drink; in the towns and villages they take possession of the upper part of the houses, building their nests under the eaves and beneath the roof. Woe betide the individual who disturbs them in their occupations, unless he is protected by coverings their lances cannotpenetrate.
While they were passing under another tree a snake dropped on board, close to where the captain was standing on the upper deck, engaged in giving directions to the man at the wheel. It was a member of the boa family, about six feet in length; though he was classed as "harmless," there was a manifest desire of the captain to get out of the reptile's way, and both Frank and Fred, who were in the vicinity, showed similar inclinations. The intruder was equally frightened, and wriggled towards the edge of the deck, whence a push with a pole sent him spinning overboard.
The beauty of the forest that bordered the river was a never-ending source of attraction to our friends. Giant trees and trees of lower stature covered the banks, and extended back from the shore as far as the eye could reach. Their trunks were almost concealed by the profusion of climbing plants, and their foliage was intermingled with bright orchids, some of immense size, and with colors rivalling those of the rainbow. The variety of the trees and plants was bewildering, and as our friends gazed hour by hour upon the ever-changing panorama, with itsever-sameness, they realized that it would be a labor of years for a botanist, to number and classify the vegetable growths comprised in the limits of a single day's travel.
LEAVES, NUT, AND FLOWERS OF SAPUCAYA, AN AMAZON TREE.
Fred copied into his note-book the following, from Professor Orton's narrative:
"No spot on the globe contains so much vegetable matter as the valley of the Amazon. In it we may draw a circle a thousand miles in diameter, which will include an evergreen forest broken only by the rivers and a few grassycampos. There is a most bewildering diversity of grand and beautiful trees—a wild, unconquered race of vegetable giants—draped, festooned, corded, matted, and ribboned with creeping and climbing plants, woody and succulent, in endless variety.
FERNS, TREES, AND CREEPERS.
"The flowers are on the top. On many of the trees not a single blossom is to be found at a height less than one hundred feet. The glory of the forest can be seen only by sailing in a balloon over the undulating flowery surface above. There, too, in that green cloud, are the insects and birds and monkeys. You are in 'the empty nave of the cathedral, andthe service is being celebrated aloft in the blazing roof.' In place of mosses and lichens, the trunks and boughs are bearded with orchids, ferns, tillandsias, and cactuses, frequently forming hanging gardens of great beauty. The branches are so thoroughly interwoven, and so densely veiled with twiners and epiphytes, that one sees little more than a green wall. He might roam a hundred years in the Amazon thicket, and at the end find it impossible to classify the myriad crowded, competing shapes of vegetation. The exuberance of nature, displayed in these million square miles of tangled, impenetrable forest, offers a bar tocivilization nearly as great as its sterility in the African deserts."
Entering the Amazon from the Madeira, the steamer turned her prow to the westward and ascended the great river for sixty miles, to the mouth of the Rio Negro. The yellow waters of the Amazon and Madeira had reminded Frank and Fred of the Mississippi; there was some dispute between them as to which of the two streams was dirtier in color, but they finally agreed that the Madeira was the worse of the two.
"We will compare the Madeira to the Missouri," said Fred, "and the united stream to the Mississippi as we see it below the mouth of the Ohio." Frank agreed to this distinction, and there the discussion ended.
The Amazon brings down a vast amount of alluvial matter which it receives from its tributaries, in addition to what it breaks away from the banks on its own account below the mouth of the Madeira. The sediment is carried far into the sea, and there is no proper delta at its mouth, as with the other great rivers of the world.
Frank made some notes concerning the great river, which we will now introduce.
"The Amazon," said he, "is undoubtedly the largest river on the globe, but it is not the longest. Lieutenant Herndon estimates its length, considering the Huallaga as the head-stream, at three thousand nine hundred and forty-four miles; another authority makes it three thousand miles; another two thousand seven hundred and fifty, and other travellers give various figures up to three thousand six hundred miles. The differences arise from disputes as to which of the tributaries should be called the head-stream.
"The Amazon is rather a vast system of rivers than a river by itself. More than three hundred and fifty branches and tributaries unite to form the Amazon; all the rivers flowing from the eastern slope of the Andes from three degrees north latitude to nineteen degrees south latitude, a distance of two thousand miles, as we follow the windings of the mountain chain, pour into the Amazon and contribute to its immensevolume. It is three hundred and twelve feet deep at its mouth, and where it crosses the Brazilian frontier at Tabatinga it is sixty-six feet deep! TheGreat Easternsteamship might navigate it for more than a thousand miles from the sea.