NATIVES ON THE MIDDLE AMAZON.
"Half a million cubic feet of water flow out of the Amazon every second, or thirty million cubic feet in a minute. The ordinary current is three miles an hour. Two thousand three hundred miles from the sea it is three fourths of a mile wide, at the mouth of the Madeira it is three miles wide, and below Santarem it is ten miles from side to side. Its mouth is said to be one hundred and eighty miles wide, but this is hardly a fair statement of the case, as the island of Marajo occupies a large portion of the mouth, and the river reaches the ocean through many channels.
"The tide is perceptible five hundred miles from the sea; it does not carry the salt water up with it, but there is simply a rise and fall of the fresh water. So great is the volume of the Amazon where it enters the sea that ships can dip up fresh water while yet out of sight of land."
"In speaking of the tide," said the Doctor, "don't forget to mention thepirorócoor 'bore' of the Amazon."
"I was just coming to it," replied the youth, "and cannot do better than quote a description by La Condamine, written more than a hundred years ago. Here it is:
"'During three days before the new and full moons, the period of the highest tides, the sea, instead of occupying six hours to reach its flood, swells to its highest limits in one or two minutes. The noise of this terrible flood is heard five or six miles, and increases as it approaches. Presently you see a liquid promontory, twelve or fifteen feet high, followed by another and another, and sometimes by a fourth. These watery mountains spread across the whole channel, and advance with a prodigious rapidity, rending and crushing everything in their way. Immense trees are instantly uprooted by it, and sometimes whole tracts of land are swept away.'"
"It must be a terrible thing for boats to encounter, especially the small ones," Fred remarked, as Frank concluded the above description.
"It is," Dr. Bronson answered, "and many of them are lost every year. But those engaged in navigating the river know when to expect the bore, and take precautions against it. They haveesperas, or resting-places, where they are sheltered from its force, and wait until it has passed.
"The bore is not confined to the Amazon," continued the Doctor; "it is known in other rivers, especially in the Hoogly, below Calcutta, but the bore of the Amazon is undoubtedly the largest."
IN AN IGARIPÉ.
"Another curious feature of the Amazon," said Frank, resuming, "is the great number of lateral channels, which are technically calledigaripés, or canoe-paths. Boats may go for hundreds of miles along the lower Amazon in theigaripéswithout once entering the main stream. They remind us of the bayous of the lower part of the Mississippi Valley."
"Don't forget," said Fred, "that the Amazon rises within sixty miles of the Pacific Ocean, and touches every country of South America except Chili and Patagonia. The Madeira rises close to the sources of the La Plata, while the Negro, the great northern tributary of the Amazon, is connected with the Orinoco by a navigable canal called the Cassiquari. The navigation of this network of waters is favored by nature; the current is eastward, while the trade wind blows west from the Atlantic, so that ships going either way have the stream or the wind to help them along."
"And another thing," said the Doctor, "that should be mentioned, is the annual rise and fall. There is a succession of freshets in the tributaries of the Amazon, so that the main stream can never run low. Most of its affluents are in the southern hemisphere, and consequentlythe river has its greatest flood when the sun is south of the equator. The rise is gradual, beginning in September or October, and increasing not more than one foot daily, and often less than that. The difference between the highest and lowest levels is about forty-five feet, and at the time of the flood vast areas of land are covered with water. Once in every six years the flood is greater than usual."
"The Amazon is too large to be content with one name," said Frank. "From its mouth to the junction with the Negro it is called the Amazon, or the Amazons; from the Negro to the Peruvian frontier it is the Solimoens; and the part in Peru is the Marañon. But these distinctions are passing away since the river was opened to universal navigation; the Solimoens is now generally called the Middle Amazon and the Marañon the Upper Amazon. Probably another twenty years will see the old names disappear altogether."
Manaos is on the Rio Negro, ten miles above the junction of the latter stream with the Amazon. Frank and Fred observed with interest the change from one river to the other, which was as marked as that from the Mississippi to the Missouri, near Alton, Illinois. The Amazon is yellow, while the Negro, as its name indicates, is black. For miles the line between the two waters is sharply defined; they hold apart from each other, as if unwilling to mingle, but the greater river at length absorbs the smaller, and henceforth, to the sea, the yellow color is retained.
The youths dipped some water from the two rivers and placed it in glasses side by side. That of the Amazon was like milk, as sometimes seen in boarding-houses or cheap restaurants, while the water of the Negro was clear, with a tinge of red. The difference in the banks of the rivers was as marked as that of their waters, those of the Amazon being low and broken, as on the Mississippi. The banks of the Negro gave no indication of alluvial washings, but presented many sandy beaches, backed by low hills covered with dark forests, in which few palms or similar trees were visible.
The steamer anchored in front of Manaos, and the little party went on shore. They found a town resembling some of the river-landings in Arkansas or Missouri, with the addition of tropical surroundings. It straggled along the shore and back over the undulating hills for a considerable distance, and at first glance resembled a city of no small importance. It had about four thousand inhabitants, but there is room for many times that number when all the "lots" are occupied with well-filled dwellings. On an elevation in the centre is the cathedral, which was unfinished at the time of Dr. Bronson's visit, and has been a work of very slow growth since its foundation.
Facing the river is a large open square with a few palm-trees on its borders, and near the water there are several buildings variously occupied as custom-house, hotel, and steamboat offices. A long avenue known as Brazil Street runs through the town, with its ends on twoigaripés, or canals; these canals run back from the river, so that Manaos is surrounded on three sides by water. The houses are by no means crowded, as in most European cities, but each has a comfortable area of ground around it, affording good ventilation and plenty of moving space.
FRUIT-PEDLERS.
Manaos is destined to be the St. Louis of the Amazon Valley, as it is the diverging and converging point for a great deal of commerce. Freight up or down the Amazon and its tributaries is generally transshipped here, and at some seasons of the year the river front is a scene of much activity. The population is a mixed one, and includes negroes, Indians, Brazilians, Portuguese, Italians, and half a dozen nationalities of Europe, together with a few Chinese and East Indians, and occasionally Englishmen and North Americans. As the commerce of the Amazon Valley develops, Manaos will grow in population and wealth, and the day may notbe far distant when ocean steamers will receive their cargoes at its docks instead of at Para.
ARRIVAL AT MANAOS.
Frank and Fred wished to make some purchases, and sallied out for that purpose. They returned with the declaration that Manaos was like home in one respect, according to the old song, as it was "The dearest spot on earth." Hardly anything they saw was the product of the country; everything was imported, and the importers held their goods at high prices. An American whom they met said there was little agriculture in the surrounding region; beef came up the Madeira; sheep, and other meat-supplying animals were imported, and so were hams and all other preserved edibles; while manufactured articles were from New York, Liverpool, or other Atlantic ports.
GIANT FIG-TREE.
Fred asked what were the industries of Manaos, and was told there were none at all.
"Brazilians and Indians will not work," said his informant. "The immigrants from Europe live by trading. Since their emancipation, the negroes prefer fishing to any other mode of existence, and the Americans that came here as colonists have mostly gone back disappointed. There is really no laboring class here, and until there is we can have no agriculture. The land would produce abundantly, but there is nobody to cultivate it. I doubt if there are five hundred acres of tilled land on the Amazon, between this point and the foot of the Andes."
The exports of Manaos are rubber, coffee, sarsaparilla, Brazil nuts, pissaba, chinchona, fish, and turtles. The imports are cotton cloth, beads, and other "Indian goods" for the natives, and various articles ofnecessity or luxury for the European inhabitants. The surrounding country is diversified with valleys, hills, and ravines, and not far from the place is a pretty cascade ten feet high and fifty feet wide, falling over a precipice of red sandstone. The sheet of water resembles Minnehaha in its general outline, but its peculiarity is in its deeporange color, obtained from the soil through which the streams flows.
The youths wished to ascend the Rio Negro, but circumstances did not permit the excursion. The Negro rises in Colombia, and is twelve hundred miles in length; at one place it is ten or twelve miles in width, and at Manaos not less than two miles. During the flood of the Amazon the dark waters of the Negro are dammed and held back, for hundreds of miles, by the rise of the giant stream. The natural canal, the Cassiquari, which connects the Negro with the Orinoco, is half a mile wide, and drains off the superfluous waters which go to swell the lower part of the last-named river.
NATIVES OF THE BANKS OF THE UCAYALI.
Other great tributaries of the Amazon are the Huallaga and the Ucayali; both rise on the Peruvian Andes, the latter near ancient Cuzco. Either can be compared to the Ohio, and both are navigable for long distances. Like the other streams that flow into the Amazon, they run through regions with few inhabitants, and consequently there is little commerce along their banks. There are many rivers as large as the Hudson or the Connecticut, that are unknown to geographers, and not named on the maps.
Glad enough were our friends to leave Manaos, after a day's detention, and descend the Amazon. The heat was severe, the thermometer mounting to ninety-two degrees Fahrenheit, with a damp atmosphere, which made the temperature very oppressive. Manaos has the reputation of being the warmest spot on the Amazon; the mercury mounts very often to the nineties, and can touch ninety-eight without apparent effort. There are few amusements, and the most comfortable occupation is to do nothing. The European residents indulge in balls and parties, but more as a matter of form than for the sake of enjoyment.
Aided by the current, the steamer made the sixty miles between Manaos and the mouth of the Madeira in a trifle over four hours. The boat resembled the one on which they had descended the Madeira, but was more than twice as large; the arrangement of the cabins and decks was the same, and each traveller hung his hammock between the decks, and took advantage of the cooling trade wind that blew up the river.
A BRAZILIAN LANDING-PLACE.
Frank's inquiring mind led him among the boxes, bales, and bags which comprised the freight of the steamer; he was accompanied by Manuel, who answered the youth's questions to the best of his ability. Where he did not know the correct answer he followed the custom of the country in giving the first that his imagination suggested.
Frank's first question related to pissaba.
"Pissaba comes from the Pissaba palm," said the guide, "and is a fibrewhich is manufactured into cables and ropes, and is exported to Europe and America to be made into brushes and brooms. It is stronger than hemp, and more elastic, and if the people were enterprising it could drive hemp out of the market for many uses."
"Please tell me about Brazil nuts," was the next suggestion.
"Brazil nuts grow on one of the tallest trees of the forest," was the reply. "There are eighteen or twenty nuts in a hard shell like a cannon ball, and they are packed in so wonderfully that when once taken out no man is ingenious enough to put them all back again. I have seen Brazil-nut trees two hundred feet high, and fourteen feet through at the base, and not a branch within a hundred feet of the ground."
Frank asked how the nuts were gathered.
"They are allowed to ripen and fall to the ground," answered the guide, "partly because they will not keep if picked from the tree, and partly because it is difficult and dangerous to climb for them."
"It must be equally dangerous to stand under the tree, and risk being hit by one of the falling nuts."
"It is," was the reply. "The large shells or cases are five inches in diameter, and weigh two or three pounds; in their descent they attain a momentum resembling that of a cannon-ball, and often bury themselves out of sight in the ground. A nut falling on a man's head will certainly break the shell, and this has happened in many instances.
"The nut-gatherers build their huts among the trees, or more often a little distance from them; if under the trees, they give the roof a sharp incline, so that nuts falling upon it will slide off and do no harm. The wind blows in the morning, and at that time the gatherers stay at home, employing their time in breaking open the shells of the previous day's collection, and getting the nuts ready for packing in sacks. When the wind ceases they go out and collect what have been shaken off by the breeze.
"It is a hard life," continued the guide, "and many of the people die in consequence of the fatigue and exposure. They must tramp through the forest, and bring in heavy loads of nuts; they have scanty food; and the swamps and forests are full of malaria. They suffer from fevers and rheumatism, and are without medicines; they receive very low wages, and are constantly in debt to their employers; they lose their way, and starve to death; and sometimes their canoes laden with nuts are overturned, and the occupants drowned. But all these dangers combined are less than the peril from the falling nuts, and not a year passes without the death of nut-gatherers from this cause.
"The trade is conducted on the credit system, very much like that of the rubber-collecting industry. The annual shipment of Brazil nuts from Para is about eleven million pounds; and the nut trade is the third in importance among foreign exports, rubber and cacao being the first and second."
"Who eats the nuts?" was the next interrogatory.
"I don't exactly know," answered Manuel, "but am told that more than half of the nuts sent from Brazil are eaten by schoolboys in England, France, and the United States."
"Yes, I remember now," said Frank, "but had forgotten for the moment the hard, black, triangular nuts we used to buy in our school-days. They are favorites with boys, but the taste for them seems to disappear as wegrow older. Now, please tell me about cacao."
"Cacao is cultivated in Brazil and other lowland countries of South America," replied Manuel, "but I can't tell you much about it. You must ask Dr. Bronson."
At this moment the Doctor happened along, and Frank repeated his question.
"Cacao is the substance from which chocolate is made," he explained, "and it is the same as the French 'chocolat' or 'coco.' It is cultivated in tropical countries, twenty-five degrees each way from the equator, and sometimes the forests of cacao are miles and miles in extent. It grows to a height of twenty-five or thirty feet, and resembles a black-heart cherry-tree in size and shape. It is an evergreen, and has a smooth, oblong leaf, terminating in a sharp point. The fruit resembles a short, thick cucumber; it is from five to nine inches long, and contains from twenty to forty, or even fifty, beans which resemble the pit of an almond. From these beans the chocolate of commerce is made."
"Do they make it here or export the bean to other countries?" Frank inquired.
"The beans are separated from the pulp that surrounds them, and when dried are ready for market. Sometimes they undergo a fermentation to remove certain acrid qualities, but, except for local use, no attempt is made to manufacture the chocolate here. The manufacturing is done in England, France, and other countries, by means of delicate but powerful machinery. The shells of the seeds are of a dark-brown color, quite thin and brittle; they are the cocoa-shells which are sold in American grocery-stores to be used in making 'cocoa' for our tables.
"A rich oil is made from the seeds, but its manufacture is less profitable than the sale of the seeds for making chocolate or cocoa. The trees begin to bear when four years old, and the harvest season is in July and August; the industry is said to be profitable when properly managed, as the expense of maintaining a plantation is not great, and the harvest season occurs when other industries are at a standstill. The pulp that surrounds the seeds is made into a refreshing drink for immediate use, and some of the planters make from it a jelly which is said to equal the famous guava jelly. The outer shell is burned, and its ashes are the basis of a strong brown soap, like the home-made soap of New England."
THE ANT-EATER ASLEEP.
Fred interrupted the conversation by calling attention to an ant-eater, the property of one of the passengers, which was secured in a cage containing an upright branch of a tree for its accommodation. Manuel said the beast made his home in the trees, and lived on the tree-ants, which were numerous in Brazil. He sleeps by day, and roams at night,and when he sleeps he gives his whole mind to it. He has strong claws and a prehensile tail; by the use of these, and by placing his head in the fork of a limb, he can slumber without any fear of falling out of bed.
The fellow was taking his afternoon nap, and the youths did not disturb him. Fred make a sketch of the ant-eater in repose, and pronounced him a model drawing-model, as he did not move a muscle during the time required for taking his portrait.
The first stopping-place of the steamer was at Serpa, thirty miles below the mouth of the Madeira; it was a town of about one hundred houses, with as mixed a population as that of Manaos, though not as numerous. The proportion of negroes seemed larger than at Manaos, and Manuel said they would find this the case in each of the river towns as they approached Para. They took on board a considerable quantity of rubber,and then steamed onward.
THE MOUTHS OF THE AMAZON.
One hundred and fifty miles farther on they stopped at Villa Nova, the twin brother of Serpa in size and general appearance. Here the Amazon began to contract its banks, and the current increased in strength until, at Obidos, one hundred miles beyond Villa Nova, they found it narrowed to about a mile in width. The river is here two hundred and fifty feet deep, and its velocity, according to Professor Orton, is 2.4 feet per second. All the water of the Amazon does not go through this passage, as there are lateral channels which carry off a considerable quantity. Obidos is on a high bank of hard clay, and presents a bold front to the river. There are many cacao plantations in the vicinity; from Villa Nova to Para these plantations are numerous, and the industry is more important than anything else.
The river widened again as they moved on to Santarem, which is fifty miles below Obidos, and occupies a healthy position at the mouth of the Rio Tapajos, five hundred miles from the ocean. This river sends to market rubber, sarsaparilla, Brazil nuts, farina, and copaiba, and there are several cattle estates along its banks. Colonists from the southern states of North America settled here after our civil war; some of them established a prosperous business, but the greater number went away disappointed. Those who remain cultivate the sugar-cane and make sugar; some are engaged in commerce, and others have gone to rearing cattle andmaking butter. The latter industry was formerly unknown here, all butter used in Para, and elsewhere on the Amazon, being imported from Europe or the United States.
Below Santarem the river increased in width so greatly that at times both banks were not visible from the steamer. Several unimportant points were visited; rubber, cacao, and other products were received at the landings; and the horizon of tropical forest along the banks retained its luxuriance and monotony. There were few signs of animal life beyond an occasional hut of a rubber-maker, or a group of natives gazing idly at the steamer.
After stopping a little while at Breves, on the southwest corner of the island of Marajo, the steamer next entered the part of the Amazon known as the Para River. Eighteen hours after her departure from Breves she dropped her anchor in the harbor of Para, and ended the journey of our friends across the South American continent.
PARA, FROM THE RIVER.
ENVIRONS OF PARA.
Para is an important seaport, and has regular communication with Europe and America by several lines of steamers. Naturally, the trade of the Amazon Valley centres here; Para is nearer to Europe and North America than is Rio Janeiro, and therefore it possesses great commercial advantages over the capital. It has a population of little less than fifty thousand, and but for the political troubles which have fallen upon it at different times, and the laws which hamper commerce, it wouldhave more than double that number of inhabitants.
A TROPICAL PLANT.
We will read what Frank and Fred had to say of their visit to thisentrepotof the Amazon.
"It was a great pleasure to us to reach this place, the first real city we had seen since we left Lima months ago, and thousands of miles away. Here we find gas and street railways; theatres and hotels; paved streets, and markets with roofs; houses elegantly furnished, and built as though intended for something more enduring than the thatched huts of the interior; public and private carriages, though not many of the latter; well-dressed men and women; churches and schools; prosperous merchants and extensive commercial houses, together with many other attributes of a permanent city. Several visitors have remarked that it was founded in the year that saw the death of Shakespeare, and we will follow their example. Its history dates from 1616, when Francesco Caldeira laid the foundations of a fort which was intended to close the Amazon River to foreigners who had begun trading with the Indians. Its full name is Santa Maria do Belem do Gram Pará, but nobody in this busy nineteenth century thinks of stopping to pronounce it; it is called simply 'Pará,' with the accent on the last syllable.
"It has had several insurrections, which have retarded its prosperity and caused the death of many of its citizens. In one of these insurrections two hundred and fifty of the most prominent participants were carried on board a ship in the harbor, and confined in the hold. There was no ventilation, and the prisoners struggled and fought for air; those who came near the hatches were shot, and finally the hatches were nailed up. They remained closed until the next morning, when only four persons were found alive! It was the Black Hole of Calcutta of the western hemisphere!
"In a later revolt, thirteen war-ships that had been sent from Rio Janeiro were sunk by the guns of the fort, but a land force of soldiers succeeded in restoring the national authority and suppressing the insurrection. Since that time the city treasury has been plundered by successive 'rings,' resembling the Tweed organization in New York, and altogether Para has had a hard experience. At present it is said to be in honest hands, and we hope it may always remain so.
A DEALER IN MONKEYS.
"Our first walk was through the commercial quarter, where we found most of the buildings solidly constructed, and generally two stories high; they are of brick or stone, plastered on the outside, and either painted or whitewashed so that the exact nature of their material is not readily ascertained. Formerly most of the merchants lived above their offices, but of late years they have established residences in other parts of the city, and the old fashion of living is generally abandoned.
"We entered the first tram or street-railway car that we saw, and rode out nearly five miles along the beautiful Rua de Nazareth, or Nazareth Avenue, to Marco da Legua, the terminus of the line. Here we found the public wells of the city, and a great crowd of negro laundresses, besides the water-carriers, with their water-hogsheads mounted on wheels. They were as noisy as they were numerous, and so loud and animated was the conversation that we looked around every moment, expecting a fight with a free use of knives. Happily they confined themselves to words and gesticulations, and we have no scene of bloodshed to record.
"The water-carriers are generally known asGallegos; the term is a contemptuous one, applied by the Portuguese to the Spanish emigrants from Galicia, who go to the cities of Portugal and embrace the occupation of carrying water. The Brazilians have adopted the word, and apply it to the Portuguese; a good deal of enmity is kept alive by its use, which is as offensive to an inhabitant of Para as the term 'Paddy'applied to an emigrant from the Emerald Isle, in an American city.
"For the first two miles of its course the Rua de Nazareth is lined with pretty dwelling-houses, and every year there is an addition to the number. Few avenues that we have seen are more picturesque than this. The sidewalks are shaded with tropical trees, and the air is filled with the odor of lemon and orange blossoms, together with similar floral perfumes. In our morning's ride we saw, on this avenue, and on some of the streets leading from it, not less than a dozen varieties of trees peculiar to the region of the equator, and we needed to shut our eyes only for a moment to imagine ourselves again in Singapore or beneath the tropical sky of Ceylon.
STREET IN PARA WITH SILK-COTTON TREES.
"Orange and lemon trees alternated with traveller's palms and silk-cotton trees, and these again with the producers of the almond and cocoa-nut. One of the most attractive of the arboreal ornaments is the silk-cotton tree; it has a broad base, tapering rapidly towards the top, where it spreads out into a leafy tuft like that of the palm. It is an evergreen, and the changes of the seasons make no difference in its foliage. The product that gives the name to the tree is a species of cotton, as soft as silk; it can be spun and woven, and is used by the Indians for wrapping the arrows of their blow-guns to prevent the escape of air when the weapon is discharged.
NAZARETH SQUARE, PARA.
"We came to the Largo de Nazareth, or Nazareth Square, which must have been named by a Hibernian, as it is round, and not rectangular. It contains the church and chapel where Our Lady of Nazareth isworshipped; on our return from the end of the railway we stopped at the square and visited the revered place. What struck us particularly was the great number of votive offerings on the walls of the church and chapel; they represent heads and limbs of the faithful who have been cured of diseases through the interposition of the patron saint of the edifice. We had seen the same sort of things in European churches, but the large number at Para seems to indicate that the cures have been as numerous as they are miraculous.
"The festival of Our Lady of Nazareth occurs in October, and the event draws great numbers of people to Para from all the provinces of the Amazon. It lasts for two weeks, and during that time the square is crowded, especially at night, and many of the scenes that are witnessedat that period are anything but pious. There are many festivals during the course of the year, somewhat to the inconvenience of visitors, as it is the rule to close the government offices on these days, and no business of an official character can be transacted. Many of the laboring classes refuse to work on saints' days, and only those who are in debt to their employers can be required to do so.
"It is proper to remark here that our street-car was drawn by a mule, this animal being generally preferred to the horse. He is said to endure the heat better than the nobler beast, and certainly he has a good deal of it to endure. The average temperature of Para is not far from eighty degrees, and there is very little variation. Overcoats, except for rain, are of no use here, and thick clothing is at a discount. We find ourselves entirely comfortable in blue serge by day, and do not require blankets at night.
"It is hottest about two o'clock in the afternoon, but the heat is always tempered by the breeze from the ocean. Five days out of six there is an afternoon shower, and as the air is laden with moisture taken up from the sea the streets of Para are never dry and dusty. The paved ones are not the best in the world; they are full of ruts and hollows, and any one who rides in a carriage is pretty certain to be shaken violently in every joint before reaching his journey's end. As for the unpaved streets, they are often deep with sandy mud which makes very disagreeable walking.
A PARA BELLE.
"We have voted unanimously that most of the ladies of Para that we have seen are pretty, but unfortunately they are not many. The women of the upper classes are quite secluded; they rarely appear on the street except on their way to or from church, and they do not often receive company. Their features are Portuguese, with black hair, and a decidedly brunette tinge to their complexions. We have bought a photograph of oneof the belles of Para and enclose it in this letter.
"But though we have seen few of the ladies of Para, we have not been deprived of a sight of the people of the lower classes. The wealthy and commercial population includes Portuguese and native Brazilians, together with English, German, French, Italians, and a few North Americans from the United States. The great mass of the inhabitants are Indians, negroes, Chinese, and some others who cannot be readily classified.
THE MARKET AT PARA.
"The best place to study the lower classes is at the market, which is an active place in the early hours of the day. We went there on our second morning, and our attention was at once drawn to the piles of bananas, pineapples, oranges, lemons, and all other tropical fruits you could think of, besides a great number you could not possibly name. Then there were garden vegetables and tobacco, baskets of flowers, heaps of fish, cages of chickens and other fowls, and a lot of monkeys and parrots that made noise enough for a menagerie. We have a suspicion that the parrots are disposed of as chickens to the restaurants, while the monkeys are useful as a substitute for spring lamb.
"The Indian and negro women sat or stood in the vicinity of their stalls, and chatted freely with each other in the intervals of waiting on their customers. Most of the chatting was done by the negresses; the Indian women manifested a good deal of the taciturnity for which Indiansare famous through both North and South America. Two or three priests wandered through the market, occasionally stopping to say a word to the peasant women, whose bright garments made a marked contrast to the ecclesiastical black robes. The market is held in a large building which surrounds an open square; the centre of the square is devoted to the sale of meat and fish, while the roofed portion contains the stalls where other edibles are displayed.
THEATRE OF OUR LADY OF THE PEACE.
"It is an easy step from the market to the theatre, and it may surprise you to know that this city of fifty thousand inhabitants has one of the finest theatres on the American continent. The interior reminds us of the Scala at Milan, or the San Carlo at Naples; it has five tiers of boxes, and each box has a little anteroom where the occupants receiveand entertain their friends between the acts. And if no friends are calling, the ladies and gentlemen promenade in the corridors and through a large ball-room which fills the front of the building. Everybody likes this part of the entertainment better than the performance on the stage, and in order to accommodate them the waits between the acts are very long.
"The outside of the theatre has deep alcoves on three sides supported by massive pillars, affording shelter from the rain and furnishing a delightful promenade. When performances are given the square in front of the theatre is crowded with people and carriages, and the lights flashing from the interior illumine the scene with a brilliant glow. The building was erected just after the close of the war with Paraguay; to commemorate that event it was named "The Theatre of Our Lady of The Peace." That the city can afford such a theatre and support it is an indication of the commercial prosperity of Para.
THE GOVERNMENT PALACE AT PARA.
"There are six large churches in Para, and there are a post-office and a custom-house, together with the other public buildings of a first-class seaport. The government palace would do honor to any city in the world, and it has a marble staircase which is the perfection of architectural beauty. Then comes the Portuguese Hospital, which has few superiors anywhere; Dr. Bronson says it is a model of neatness and order, and bears every indication that it is admirably managed. A student of skindiseases would find a good field for observation in Para. The hot and damp air of the Amazon causes numerous sores, and they are very difficult to heal; the hospital is full of cases of this kind, and they tax to the utmost the skill of the physicians in charge.
"So much for Para, and now for its environs.
"Para is at the edge of a swamp, and so luxuriant is the vegetation in the rear of the city that it is said to be necessary to keep a sergeant and a squad of police constantly on guard to prevent encroachments. We are seventy-five miles from the sea, and the way thither is through the great estuary, or Para River, which is so wide that both banks are not visible at the same time.
"Para is on the southern side of this estuary; opposite is the island of Marajo, one hundred and fifty miles in length, and about one hundred miles wide in its broadest part. Half of it is covered with forest, and the other, the northeastern half, with an extensivecamposor prairie, dotted here and there with clumps of trees. The forests are the haunt of rubber collectors, as the rubber-trees are abundant; the campos is an immense grazing land, with a curious history, which is told in this wise:
"The advantages of the island for raising cattle and horses were recognized by the early settlers, who foundedestancias, or ranches, there, some of them of immense extent. At the end of the last century there were a million horses, and half as many oxen and cows, on the island; the horses were nearly or quite wild, and drove the cattle to the swamps where many of them died. About the year 1825, the settlers complained so much about the ravages of the horses that the government gave licenses permitting enterprising men to slaughter these animals for their hides, and the work of destruction went on rapidly. In a few years hundreds of thousands of horses had been killed off; the bodies were left to rot on the ground, and bred a pestilence which destroyed most of the remaining horses and cattle. Its effects still continue, and the farmers have sought the assistance of government to protect the remaining animals, and stop the ravages of the disease.
SOURRÉ AND SALVATERRA.
"We were not able to visit any of the estancias, but confined our inspection of Marajo to the villages of Sourré and Salvaterra, on the southern side of the island, at the entrance of the Igarapé Grande. They are picturesquely situated on opposite banks of the igarapé, Sourré being a little farther inland than its sister place with the longer name. We crossed the Para River on a steamer that rolled viciously under the effect of the wind blowing in from the Atlantic, and long before we reached the other shore more than half the passengers were overcome withsea-sickness and unable to move.
"The accommodations were not of the best, but we were accustomed to rough life, and had no reason to complain. Both these places are filled from August to January by many people from Para, to whom Sourré and Salvaterra are as Newport or Long Branch to New-Yorkers. The tide brings in a fine flow of sea-water, and the breezes are stronger and cooler than at the capital city. There is a good beach for bathing, and when it is not occupied by the fashionables it is the scene of a great deal of activity on the part of the natives. We hired a boat and a couple of Indians to paddle us two or three miles up the igarapé and back again. The banks are lined with gardens, from which many vegetables are sent to the market of Para.
"In the interior of the island there are farms and plantations where sugar-cane, cacao, cotton, rice, and mandioca are grown, but the greatest industry of Marajo is in the exportation of cattle. The trade is said to reach about ten thousand head every year; horses are scarce, and a good riding animal brings a high price.
"We returned from Sourré by the way we went, and reached Para one day before the steamer was due which would carry us down the coast. This letter will go to New York by the next steamer, and so for the present we will say good-bye.
"Frank and Fred.
"P. S.—Our account of Para would be incomplete without an allusion to snakes. In many houses they have snakes of the boa-constrictor family—of the kind we saw on the Amazon—to keep the place clear of rats and mice. They do their work very well, and live on terms of quiet friendship with the biped inhabitants. At Sourré we saw the household snake coiled up in a corner very much as we might see a cat in a New England dwelling; when we manifested a curiosity to look at it one of the servants took the reptile by the neck and held it up to full view until we declared ourselves satisfied with the inspection. The creature did not seem at all angry at his treatment, for as soon as he was released he returned to his corner and resumed his nap.
A SNAKE MERCHANT.
"We have just visited Monkey Joe's establishment, which is devoted to the sale of monkeys, parrots, snakes, and other Amazonian live-stock. We made no purchases, in spite of the tempting offers at low prices, as we have found one monkey quite as much as we wish to carry in our travels. Outside of the shop a man was standing with a barrel by his side; when we left the place he followed us a short distance and emptied his barrel on the ground. He was a snake-merchant, with a choice selection of rat-killers that he vainly urged us to buy. We left him and his wares; as he was perfectly at home among the wriggling serpents, and had no fear of them, he was unable to understand why we departed so suddenly.
"F. and F."
Before leaving Para our friends had an experience at the custom-house which was the reverse of pleasing. They had bought some curiosities they wished to send to New York; the formalities of the tariff required them to pay an export duty of seventeen per cent. on the cost of the goods at Para prices, and they learned that on some articles the dutieswere much larger. This is particularly the case with fine cabinet woods, which are abundant in Brazil, but are very little in demand for shipment to foreign countries, in consequence of the high export tariff.
"Foreign trade can never be prosperous in Brazil," said Dr. Bronson, "until these export duties are removed. In addition to the custom-house tariff at Para, there is a duty on goods carried from one province to another, so that all articles of Brazilian manufacture or production are heavily burdened before they get out of the country. Brazil may become enlightened one of these days, and adopt the practices of other nations in this respect, but for the present she ranks with Turkey and other semi-barbarous countries in keeping a burden upon her home industries."
Frank asked about the import duties on foreign goods.
"They are from five to eighty per cent. on the valuation," replied the Doctor, "and a general average of the duties on importations is about forty per cent. They vary according to the caprice of the official through whose hands the articles may pass, so that one importer may pay twice as much as another on the same kind of goods. Bribery is said to be practised with very little effort at concealment, and an importer may be highly favored in his business by an 'arrangement' with an officer. As long as this state of things continues there will be no great increase in business.
"The Brazilian plan of collecting the revenues is full of absurdities. For example, shoes pay according to the length of the sole, and ready-made clothing is taxed by its weight. The people who came here from the United States to settle in Brazil were required to pay enormous duties on their wagons, farming implements, and other personal property, and in some cases the duties amounted to more than the original cost of thearticles they brought. Many of them had invested all their means in farming implements, and found on arrival that they could not remove their property from the custom-house until every cent of the heavy duty had been paid. This was one cause of the discouragements of the emigrants at the beginning, and has deterred others from coming."
From the latest reports at hand Frank ascertained that, of the import trade into the whole of Brazil, England had forty-five per cent., France seventeen per cent., Buenos Ayres seven per cent., the United States five per cent., and Portugal three and one half per cent. Of all the exports from Brazil the United States took forty-five per cent. and Great Britain nine per cent., the rest going principally to France, Germany, and Portugal. England and the United States each take about two thousand five hundred tons of rubber annually, France has most of the cacao, and the other products are about equally divided among the various nations, the United States having probably the largest share. Brazil supplies more than half of the coffee consumed by the rest of the world; itis well known that thousands of tons of Brazilian coffee are sold every year as "Government Java," while Java coffee in its turn is sold as "best Mocha."
In due time the little party embarked on one of the English steamers bound to the southward; in a few hours they had passed out of the estuary of the Para River and were floating on the broad Atlantic. Their first stopping-place was Pernambuco, a distance of fifteen hundred miles, and for much of the way there they were in sight of the coast. A few towns were visible with the aid of glasses, but for the most part there were no more signs of human activity than on the banks of the Amazon.