Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/299

 1852.] SARSAPARILLA. 267

of sugar, vinegar, oil, biscuits, and fresh bread and meat, we proceeded on our journey, which we were anxious to complete as soon as possible.

On the 1 8th we passed Gurupa; and on the 19th entered the narrow channels which form the communication with the Para river, — bidding adieu to the turbid mighty flood of the never-to-be-forgotten Amazon.

We here met a vessel from Para, fifty days out, having made a much shorter distance than we, descending the river, had come in five.

On the 22nd we reached Breves, a neat little village with well-supplied shops, where I bought half a dozen of the pretty painted basins, for the manufacture of which the place is cele- brated ; we here also got some oranges, at six for a halfpenny.

The next day we stayed at a sitio built upon piles, for the whole country about here is covered at spring-tides. The master of the canoe had a lot of sarsaparilla to put up properly for the Para market, and stayed a day to do it. The sarsa- parilla is the root of a prickly, climbing plant, allied to our common black bryony ; the roots are dug by the Indians, and tied up in bundles of various lengths and sizes ; but, as it is a very light cargo, it is necessary to form it into packages of a convenient and uniform size and length, for closer stowage ; — these are cylindrical, generally of sixteen pounds each, and are about three and a half feet long and five or six inches in diameter, cut square and even at the ends, and wound round closely from end to end with the long flexible roots of a species of Pothos, which, growing on the tops of lofty trees, hang down often a hundred feet or more, and, when the outer bark is scraped off, are universally used for this purpose. It was to do this binding we stayed here, the sarsa having been already done up in proper packages; and while the crew were busy about it, I occupied myself making some sketches of palms, which were yet wanting to complete my collection.

In two days more we reached the mouth of the Tocantins, where there is a great bay, — so wide, that the further shore is not visible. As there are some dangerous sandbanks here, there is a pilot who takes canoes over, and we waited all day in order to start with the morning's tide, which is considered the most favourable for the passage. While here I got a few shells, and amused myself by talking with the pilot, his wife,