A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro; With an Account of the Native Tribes, and Observations on the Climate, Geology, and Natural ... with a Biographical Introd. by the Editor - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1895. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VIII. THE UPPER RIO NEGRO. Quit Barra for the Upper Rio Negro--Canoe and Cixgo--Great Width of the River--Carvoeiro and Barcellos--Granite Rocks--Castanheiro --APoliteOld Gentleman--S. Joze--ANew Language--TheCataracts --S. Gabriel--Nossa Senhora da Gufa--Senhor L. and his Family-- 'Visit to the River Cobati--An Indian Village--The Serra--Cocks of the Rock--Return to Guia--Frei Joze dos Santos Innocentos. It was on the last day of August, 1850, at about two o'clock on a fine bright afternoon, that I bade adieu to Barra, looking forward with hope and expectation to the distant and littleknown regions I was now going to visit. I found our canoe a tolerably roomy one, it being about thirty-five feet long and seven broad. The after-part had a rough deck, made of split palm-stems, covered with a tolda, or semicircular roof, high enough to sit up comfortably within it, and well thatched with palm-leaves. A part of the front opening was stopped up on each side, leaving a doorway about three feet wide. The forepart was covered with a similar tolda, but much lower, and above it was a fiat deck, formed like the other, and supported by upright poles along the sides. This is called the jangada, or raft, and serves for the Indians to stand on, while rowing with oars formed of paddle-blades fixed to long poles. The canoe was well loaded with all the articles most desired by the semi-civilised and savage inhabitants of the Upper Rio Negro. There were bales of coarse cotton cloth and of the commonest calico, of flimsy but brilliantlycoloured prints, of checked and striped cottons, and of blue or red handkerchiefs. Then there were axes and cutlasses, and coarse pointed knives in great profusion, fish-hooks by thousands, flints and steels, gunpowder, shot, quanti...