Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/285

 iSS2.] VOYAGE TO JAUARITE. 253

we went on, — drifting down the stream after Senhor Jesuino, who, no doubt, rejoiced in the idea that I should probably lose my canoes, if not my life, in the caxoeiras, and thought himself well revenged on the stranger who had dared to buy the canoe he had wanted to purchase.

In the afternoon we passed a caxoeira with considerable danger, and then, luckily, persuaded some Indians at a sitio to come with us to Jauarite. In the afternoon I stayed at several houses, purchasing fowls, parrots, bows and arrows and feathers ; and at one of them I found my runaway pilot, and made him give me two baskets of farinha, instead of the pay- ment he had received for the voyage from Caruru to Jauarite. At the last caxoeira, close to Jauarite, we were very near losing our canoe, which was let down by a rope, I remaining in it ; but just in passing, it got twisted broadside, and the water rushing up from the bottom, had the curious effect of pushing it up against the fall, where it remained a considerable time completely on one side, and appearing as if every minute it would turn over. However, at last it was got out, and we reached the village, much to the surprise of Senhor Jesuino, who had arrived there but a few hours before us. My friend Senhor Augustinho, of Sao Jeronymo, was also there, and I spent the evening pleasantly with them.

I found that we differed in our calculations of the date, there being a day's difference in our reckonings of the day of the week and the day of the month. As I had been three months up the river, it was to be supposed I was wrong ; yet as I had kept a regular diary all the voyage, I could not at all make out how I had erred. This, however, is a common thing in these remote districts. When two parties meet, one going up and the other coming down the river, the first inquiry of the latter, after the usual compliments, is, " What day is it with you ? " and it not unfrequently happens, that there are three parties present, all of whom make it different days ; and then there is a comparison of authorities, and a determination of past Saints' days, in order to settle the correction of the disputed calendar. When at Caturu caxoeira, we had found that Messrs. Jesuino and Chagas differed from us on this important particular ; but as they had been some time out, we thought they might have erred as well as ourselves. Now, however, that Senhor Augustinho, who had recently come from