CHAPTER II.Bay of Marajo—Lighthouses—Rule of the road for steamers—Vegetation on the Amazon—Rubber trees—Boa Vista—Corralinha—Breves—Parainha—Gurupá—Mont Alegre—Cattle-feeding grounds—River Tapajoz—Santarem—American settlers—Obidos—Manufacture of charqui—Villa Bella—Serpa—Navigation of the Amazon.
Bay of Marajo—Lighthouses—Rule of the road for steamers—Vegetation on the Amazon—Rubber trees—Boa Vista—Corralinha—Breves—Parainha—Gurupá—Mont Alegre—Cattle-feeding grounds—River Tapajoz—Santarem—American settlers—Obidos—Manufacture of charqui—Villa Bella—Serpa—Navigation of the Amazon.
The start up river is generally made from Pará soon after midnight, in order that the wide estuary termed the Bay of Marajo may be passed before noon of the following day, as the trade wind that sets in towards the afternoon raises too high a sea for the steamers built with overhanging main decks.
In the immediate neighbourhood of Pará there are some sugar plantations and brick and tile factories, which have a pretty appearance on the river banks, but as soon as the steamer passes the bay and gets into the narrow channels which are at the junction of the river Pará and the main stream of the Amazon, the scenery becomes flat and monotonous. There are several well-kept lighthouses on the banks of the bay and on the islands therein, but more will be required as the navigation increases. Some of the channels through which the steamers work their way are so narrow, that there is hardly room for two steamers to pass each other in them; some are therefore used for the ascending journey only, while others servefor the downward passage; and so well is this “rule of the road” kept by the Brazilian pilots and captains, that collisions are of very rare occurrence. On the main river the rule is that ascending steamers should keep to either bank, by preference the right, whilst descending steamers have the centre of the river and the full force of the current let free for them.
The islands and the mainland in the lower part of the Amazon are covered with a dense vegetation, almost impassable by any living being but the tapir, or “anta” as it is there called, the lianas and water plants being closely intertwined and growing amongst the lofty trees of the forest. In these low-lying lands a considerable population of Brazilian, Portuguese, negroes and half-castes live, their occupation being entirely confined to the collecting of the rubber for which the city of Pará is famous. This tree (Siphonia elastica) grows in groups, small paths called “estradas” being cut through the localities where it most abounds. The lands being mostly subject to flooding at high water, all the houses are built upon piles; and as no cultivation can be carried on, the dwellers therein are entirely dependent on the steamers for their supplies of provisions. Nearly every house has a small wharf projecting out into the river, to which the steamers can haul up and receive the firewood prepared for them, or take in the rubber, on their return journeys to Pará. In consequence of the daily flooding of these lands, it is not strange that the people have a washed-out and sallow look, and appear to suffer greatly from fever and ague.
Leaving Pará behind us, the first places passedon the upward journey are Boa Vista and Corralinha, the latter a little town that, from the steamer, looks very pretty with its white church and houses. On the second day, Breves, a small town on a very narrow channel of the Amazon, is arrived at. It is a small, unimportant, and very unhealthy place, being built on land that cannot be a couple of feet above high water. Then Parainha and Gurupá, small villages, are passed, and Mont Alegre is reached on the third day. Here there are large pampas, on which cattle are reared in great numbers.
These “fazendas de ganado,” or cattle-runs, are very valuable properties, especially those that have hilly lands on them, where the cattle can take refuge during the periodical inundations. The fourth day brings the steamer to Santarem, on the Tapajoz River, a short distance from its junction with the Amazon. The Tapajoz is a fine river of clear darkish-coloured water, very different in appearance to the whitish water of the great river, which always contains a certain amount of sediment.
Santarem is a very pretty town of about 3000 or 4000 inhabitants, and is built upon rising ground on the right bank, its fine church showing to great advantage. The climate of this place appears to be delightful and the lands of very good quality. On a range of hills a few leagues from the town, some American settlers have established themselves, and seem to be well satisfied with their location. They grow sugar-cane largely, selling their sugar and rum to great advantage in Santarem.
Obidos, about a day’s steaming from Santarem, is the next town on the Amazon, and has more inhabitantsthan any of the places yet passed. Here there is a small fort, and a few artillerymen keep up a show of barring the passage of the river to any possibly hostile craft. Large stores of firewood are kept on the river-side for the steamers, most of which call here to embark bullocks or their necessary supply of fuel. In Obidos a great trade in “charqui,” or jerked beef, is carried on, it being the emporium to which the owners of the estancias send their stocks. Obidos charqui appears to enjoy a special fame throughout Brazil, and is preferred to that made in the southern provinces of the empire. To acquire a taste for it takes considerable time, although, “faute de mieux,” I have managed to make many a good hearty meal from it. It is curious to note the clever manner in which the fresh meat is cut out into great sheets, called “mantas,” or blankets. These sheets of meat are rubbed with salt, and after being dried in the sun and wind, are rolled up into bundles, which are tied up with lianas and are then ready for sale. The price of a Brazilian arroba of charqui, weighing thirty-three pounds, varies from six to ten milreis, say from fourpence to sevenpence per pound. Obidos is about the highest place on the Amazon at which the daily influence of the tides is felt, the river rising and falling about two feet at this place; against a tide of about twenty feet at Pará.
Above Obidos, high lands on the right bank of the Amazon mark where the provinces of Pará and Amazonas meet: these hills are known as the Serra dos Parentins. The small town of Villa Bella on the right or southern bank of the river being passed, Serpa, opposite the river Madeira, is reached onthe sixth day’s navigation from Pará. Here, in view of the opening up of trade with Boliviaviâthe Madeira River and the Railway of the Rapids, the Brazilian Government has lately established a custom-house; and the town, though but small now, will doubtless become of importance in the course of a few years. Unless the steamer in which one is voyaging is on a special trip up the Madeira, a visit will have to be paid to Manáos, the capital of the province of Amazonas, for it is there that the larger steamers remain, and passengers for the upper waters of the Amazon, the Purus, or the Madeira, have to take the smaller but still comfortable steamers that ascend these rivers.
The navigation of the river Amazon is free all the year round, between Pará and Manáos, for vessels of any tonnage or draught, if we except the alleged existence, in September or October of very dry years, of a sandbank near Villa Bella, on which it is said that vessels drawing more than eight feet have grounded; but if they have, it has, in my belief, been owing to faulty pilotage, for I think there must be good water always throughout the whole of the course.