The next day we left the land of the blue macaw without a single specimen. From this place to the Falls we had seen them every day, morning and evening, flying high over the river. At almost every house feathers were on the ground, showing that this splendid bird is often shot for food. Alexander once had a chance at them, but his gun missed fire, and they immediately flew off. Lower down the river they are scarcely ever seen, and never below Baião, while from this place up they are very abundant. What can be the causes which so exactly limit the range of such a strongly-flying bird? It appears with the rock, and with this there is no doubt a corresponding change in the fruits on which the birds feed.
Our Indians seeing a likely place on the beach for turtles' eggs, went on shore in the montaria, and were fortunate enough to find a hundred and twenty-three buried in the sand. They are oily and very savoury, and we had an immense omelet for dinner. The shell is leathery, and the white never coagulates, but is thrown away, and the yolk only eaten. The Indians eat them also raw, mixed with farinha. We dined on the beach, where there was abundance of a plant much resembling chamomile. The sands were very hot, so that it was almost impossible to walk over them barefooted. The Indians, in crossing extensive beaches, stop and dig holes in the sand to cool their feet in. We now got on very slowly, having to tack across and across the river, the wind blowing up it, as it always does at this season.
Where we stopped for breakfast on the 21st, I shot a very prettily-marked small hawk. Insects were also rather abundant, and we captured some fine Papilios, and two or three new species of clear-winged Heliconia. Alexander found a bees'-nest in a hole in a tree, and got about two quarts of honey, which when strained was very sweet, but with a hot waxy taste. The comb consists of oval cells of black wax, very irregular in shape and size, and displaying little of the skill of our bees at home. The next night, rather late, we arrived at Jambouassu, the sitio of Senhor Seixus, where we were kindly received, and, about nine o'clock, turned into our rédés in his verandah.
The next morning I walked out to examine the premises. The whole of the forest, for some miles round the house, is a cacao plantation, there being about sixty thousand trees, which have all been planted; the small trees and brush having been cleared from the forest, but all the seringa and other large forest-trees left for shade, which the cacao requires. The milk from the seringa-trees is collected every morning in large univalve shells, which are stuck with clay to the tree, and a small incision made in the bark above. It is formed into shoes or bottles, on moulds of clay, or into flat cakes. It hardens in a few hours, and is blackened with a smoke produced by burning the nuts of the Urucurí palm, and is then india-rubber. Just before leaving this place I met with an accident, which might have been very serious. My gun was lying loaded on the top of the canoe, and wishing to shoot some small birds near the house, I drew it towards me by the muzzle, which, standing on the steps of the landing-place, was the only part I could reach. The hammer, however, lay in a joint of the boards, and as I drew the gun towards me it was raised up, and let fall on the cap, firing off the gun, the charge carrying off a small piece of the under-side of my hand near the wrist, and, passing under my arm within a few inches of my body luckily missed a number of people who were behind me. I felt my hand violently blown away, and looking at it, saw a stream of blood, but felt no pain for some minutes. As we had nothing to put to it, I tied it up with a quantity of cotton; and about twelve o'clock, the tide serving, we bade adieu to Senhor Seixus, who had treated us very kindly both here and at Baião.
On the 24th we stayed for the tide, at a house on an island abounding in cacao and seringa. The water of the river had become muddy, but not ill-tasted. On the 25th we stayed at a sugar estate, where there was a tree full of the hanging nests of the japims, or yellow troupials. Seeing a number of the large frigate-bird pelican over the river, I went out with Alexander in the montaria to try and shoot one, and, after a few ineffectual shots, Alexander succeeded in doing so. It measured seven feet from wing to wing; the feet were very small and webbed, and the bill long and hooked at the end. They appear almost to live upon the wing, going in small flocks over the river, and darting down to seize any fish which may appear near the surface. The neck is partly bare, and very extensible, like that of the true pelicans. There are two kinds, which fly together, one with the body entirely black, the other with the head and neck white, which are said to be the male and female of the same species.
On the 26th we stayed for the tide at a low island covered with palms and underwood. Just as we were going to step on shore we saw a large snake twisted on a branch overhead, so we hung back a little till Mr. Leavens shot it. It was about ten feet long, and very handsomely marked with yellow and black slanting lines. In the wood we got some assai, and made a quantity of the drink so much liked by the people here, and which is very good when you are used to it. The fruit grows in large bunches on the summit of a graceful palm, and is about the size and colour of a sloe. On examining it, a person would think that it contained nothing eatable, as immediately under the skin is a hard stone. The very thin, hardly perceptible pulp, between the skin and the stone, is what is used. To prepare it, the fruit is soaked half an hour in water, just warm enough to bear the hand in. It is next rubbed and kneaded with the hands, till all the skin and pulp is worn off the stones. The liquid is then poured off, and strained, and is of the consistence of cream, and of a fine purple colour. It is eaten with sugar and farinha; with use it becomes very agreeable to the taste, something resembling nuts and cream, and is no doubt very nourishing; it is much used in Pará, where it is constantly sold in the streets, and, owing to the fruit ripening at different seasons, according to the locality, is to be had there all the year round.
On the east side of the river, along which we had kept in our descent, there was more cultivation than on the side we went up. A short distance from the shore the land rises, and most of the houses are situated on the slope, with the ground cleared down to the river. Some of the places are kept in tolerable order, but there are numbers of houses and cottages unoccupied and in ruins, with land once cultivated, overgrown with weeds and brushwood. Rubber-making and gathering cacao and Brazil-nuts are better liked than the regular cultivation of the soil.
In the districts we passed through, sugar, cotton, coffee, and rice might be grown in any quantity and of the finest quality. The navigation is always safe and uninterrupted, and the whole country is so intersected by igaripés and rivers that every estate has water-carriage for its productions. But the indolent disposition of the people, and the scarcity of labour, will prevent the capabilities of this fine country from being developed till European or North American colonies are formed. There is no country in the world where people can produce for themselves so many of the necessaries and luxuries of life. Indian corn, rice, mandiocca, sugar, coffee, and cotton, beef, poultry, and pork, with oranges, bananas, and abundance of other fruits and vegetables, thrive with little care. With these articles in abundance, a house of wood, calabashes, cups and pottery of the country, they may live in plenty without a single exotic production. And then what advantages there are in a country where there is no stoppage of agricultural operations during winter, but where crops may be had, and poultry be reared, all the year round; where the least possible amount of clothing is the most comfortable, and where a hundred little necessaries of a cold region are altogether superfluous. With regard to the climate I have said enough already; and I repeat, that a man can work as well here as in the hot summer months in England, and that if he will only work three hours in the morning and three in the evening, he will produce more of the necessaries and comforts of life than by twelve hours' daily labour at home.
Nothing more of importance occurred, and we arrived safely at Pará on the 30th of September, just five weeks from the day we left. We had not had a wet day the whole voyage, yet found to our surprise that it had been there the same as usual—a shower and a thunderstorm every second or third day.
CHAPTER IV
Visit to Olería—Habits of Birds—Voyage to Mexiana—Arrival—Birds—Description