THE

NATURALIST ON THE AMAZONS.

CHAPTER I.

PARÁ.

Arrival-Aspect of the Country-The Pará River-First walk in the Suburbs of Pará-Free Negroes-Birds, Lizards, and Insects of the Suburbs-Leaf-carrying Ant-Sketch of the climate, history, and present condition of Pará.

I EMBARKED at Liverpool, with Mr. Wallace, in a small trading vessel, on the 26th of April, 1848; and, after a swift passage from the Irish Channel to the equator, arrived, on the 26th of May, off Salinas. This is the pilot-station for vessels bound to Pará, the only port of entry to the vast region watered by the Amazons. It is a small village, formerly a missionary settlement of the Jesuits, situated a few miles to the eastward of the Pará river. Here the ship anchored in the open sea, at a distance of six miles from the shore, the shallowness of the water far out around the mouth of the great river not permitting in safety a nearer approach; and the signal was hoisted for a pilot. It was with deep interest that my

VOL. I.

B

companion and myself, both now about to see and examine the beauties of a tropical country for the first time, gazed on the land, where I, at least, eventually spent eleven of the best years of my life. To the eastward the country was not remarkable in appearance, being slightly undulating, with bare sand-hills and scattered trees; but to the westward, stretching towards the mouth of the river, we could see through the captain's glass a long line of forest, rising apparently out of the water; a densely-packed mass of tall trees, broken into groups, and finally into single trees, as it dwindled away in the distance. This was the frontier, in this direction, of the great primæval forest characteristic of this region, which contains so many wonders in its recesses, and clothes the whole surface of the country for two thousand miles from this point to the foot of the Andes.

On the following day and night we sailed, with a light wind, partly aided by the tide, up the Pará river. Towards evening we passed Vigia and Colares, two fishing villages, and saw many native canoes, which seemed like toys beneath the lofty walls of dark forest. The air was excessively close, the sky overcast, and sheet lightning played almost incessantly around the horizon, an appropriate greeting on the threshold of a country lying close under the equator! The evening was calm, this being the season when the winds are not strong, so we glided along in a noiseless manner, which contrasted pleasantly with the unceasing turmoil to which we had been lately accustomed on the Atlantic. The immensity of the river struck us greatly, for

СНАР. І.

THE PARÁ RIVER.

3

although sailing sometimes at a distance of eight or nine miles from the eastern bank, the opposite shore was at no time visible. Indeed, the Pará river is 36 miles in breadth at its mouth; and at the city of Pará, nearly 70 miles from the sea, it is 20 miles wide ; but at that point a series of islands commences which contracts the river view in front of the city.

It will be well to explain here that the Pará river is not, strictly speaking, one of the mouths of the Amazons. It is made to appear so on many of the maps in common use, because the channels which connect it with the main river are there given much broader than they are in reality, conveying the impression that a large body of water finds an outlet from the main river into the Pará. It is doubtful, however, if there be any considerable stream of water flowing constantly downward through these channels. The whole of the district traversed by them consists of a complex group of low islands formed of river deposit, between which is an intricate net-work of deep and narrow channels. The land probably lies somewhat lower here than it does on the sea coast, and the tides meet about the middle of the channels; but the ebb and flow are so complicated that it is difficult to ascertain whether there is a constant line of current in one direction. A flow down one of the channels is in some cases diverted into an ebb through other ramifications. In travelling from the Pará to the main Amazons, I have always followed the most easterly channel, and there the flow of the tide always causes a strong upward current; it is said that this is not so perceptible in other channels, and

that the flow never overpowers the stream of water coming from the main river; this would seem to favour the opinion of those geographers who believe the Pará to be one of the mouths of the King of Rivers.

The channels of which we are speaking, at least those straighter ones which trading vessels follow in the voyage from Pará to the Amazons, are about 80 miles in length; but for many miles of their course they are not more than 100 yards in breadth. They are of great depth, and in many places are so straight and regular that they appear like artificial canals. The great river steamers which now run regularly to the interior, in some places brush the overhanging trees with their paddle-boxes on each side as they pass. The whole of the region is one vast wilderness of the most luxuriant tropical vegetation, the strangest forms of palm trees of some score of different species forming a great proportion of the mass. I shall, however, have to allude again to the wonderful beauty of these romantic channels, when I arrive at that part of my narrative.

The Pará river, on this view, may be looked upon as the common fresh-water estuary of the numerous rivers which flow into it from the south; the chief of which is the Tocantins, a stream 1600 miles in length, and about 10 miles in breadth at its mouth. The estuary forms, then, a magnificent body of water 160 miles in length, and eight miles in breadth at its abrupt commencement, where it receives the channels just described. There is a great contrast in general appearance between the Pará and the main Amazons. In the former the flow of the tide always creates a strong current upwards,