Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon

sied in the arrangement of the out-buildings, comprising the kitchen, a

ropical countries. The root, very much like a long black radish, grows in clumps like potatoes. If it is not poisonous in Africa, it is certain that in South America it contains a more noxious juice, which it

huge pile of this useful product

ly to be no lack of game on the islands and in the forests bordering on the stream. The river was expected to furnish its daily quota; prawns, which ought rather to be called crawfish; "tambagus," the finest fish in the district, of a flavor superior to that of salmon, to which it is often compared; "pirarucus" with red scales, as large as sturgeons, which when salted are used

g and fishing were to b

root of the sweet manioc; "beiju," from Brazil, a sort of national brandy, the "chica" of Peru; the "mazato" of the Ucayali, extracted from the boiled fruits of the banana-tree, pressed and fermented; "guarana," a ki

the aromatic flavor of this "assais" is greatly appreciated by the Brazilans, and of it there were on board a respectable nu

ort, and letubal recalled names dear to the earlier conquerors of South America. In addition, the young butler had stored away certain dem

s the natives of the Amazonian basin. It all came direct from Villa Bella da Imperatriz-o

ars-was placed in the rear-or, let us say, stern of the craft-and for

he staff were thus placed under the same conditions as at the fazenda of

the appearance of a small village got adrift, and, to tell the truth, it was a

liage. The air circulated freely throughout these open constructions and swung the hammock suspended in the interior, and t

which only one gave access to the interior. The Indians, accustomed to live in the open air, free and untrammeled, wer

ng the goods which Joam Garral was carrying to Bel

o, the rich cargo had been placed with as much order as

important branch of foreign trade throughout the Amazon districts, and is getting rarer and rarer along the banks of the river, so that the natives are very careful to spare the stems when they gather them. Tonquin bans, known in Brazil under the name of "cumarus," and used

barked were only sufficient to work the raft, and that a larger nu

ibes, and the fiercest of them have retired before the advancing civilization, and drawn further and further away from the river and its tributaries. Negro deserters, escaped from the penal colonies of Brazil, England, Holland, or France,

ons. The immense stream no longer traverses a desert, but a basin which is being colonized da

ve only to speak of one or two erections of diffe

of long boathooks or props thrust against the bed of the stream, that the jangada was kept in the current, and had its direction altered when going astray. By this means they could range alongside either bank, if they wished for any reason to come to a halt. Three or four ubas, and two pirogues, with the nece

n we not justly call it so?-another personage was its spiritual direc

l's, had availed themselves enthusiasticall

ries where the representatives of religion are not always examples of the virtues, he stood out as the accomplished type o

arral family held him in great esteem; it was he who had married the daughter of Farmer Magalha?s to the clerk who had been received at th

for him had sounded; he was about to be replaced at Iquitos by a younger missionary, and he was preparing

amily which was as his own? They had proposed it to him, and he had accepted,

l desired to build for him a dwelling apart, and heaven knows what care Yaquita and her daughter took t

ugh for Padre Passanha; h

the center of the jangada, an

but it was richly decorated, and if Joam Garral found his own house on the raft

the bank waiting till the flood came to carry it away. From the observation and c

to date, the

n, but rather fond of drink. Such as he was, Joam Garral in large matters at different t

en he had imbibed a few glasses of tafia; and he never did any work at all

nute the level of the river rose, and during the twenty-four hours which preceded the m

were seized with no little excitement. For if through some inexplicable cause the waters of the Amazon did not rise sufficiently to flood the jangada,

angada were collected on a plateau which was about a hundred feet abov

dre Passanha, Benito, Lina, Fragoso, Cybele, and so

ran down the bank and ran up the plateau, he noted the points

ich is to take us to Belem! It will float if all the c

all the necessary measures at the critical moment. The jangada was moored to the bank wi

ed Indians, without counting the population of the vi

watch, and silence reigned o

higher than that of the night before-by more than a foot-and the

us structure, but there was still wanting a few inches

n all sides. A struggle was going on in which little by

river, but, in obedience to the cables, it quietly took up its position near the bank at the moment that Padre Passan