Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/302

 270 TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. [July,

where do they get the fire from ? " I asked. " Oh ! God prepares it for them," said she ; and on my hinting that fires were not often found in the forest unless lit by human hands, she at once silenced my objections by triumphantly asking me, " if anything was impossible with God ? " at the same time observing that perhaps I was a Protestant, and did not believe in God or the Virgin. So I was obliged to give up the point ; and though I assured her that Protestants did generally believe in God and went to church, she replied that she did not know, but had always heard to the contrary.

At length, on the 2nd of July, we reached Para, where I was kindly received by my friend Mr. C., and was glad to learn that there was a vessel in port that would probably sail for London in about a, week. Several times on the voyage down I had had fits of ague, and was still very weak and quite unable to make any exertion. The yellow fever, which the year before had cut off thousands of the inhabitants, still attacked new-comers, and scarcely a ship was in port but had a considerable portion of her crew in the hospital. The weather was beautiful ; the summer or dry season was just commencing, vegetation was luxuriantly verdant, and the bright sky and clear fresh atmosphere seemed as if they could not harbour the fatal miasma which had crowded the cemetery with funeral crosses, and made every dwelling in the city a house of mourning. Once or twice I attempted to walk out into the forest, but the exertion generally brought on shiverings and sickness, so I thought it best to remain as quiet as possible till the time of my departure.

Since I had left the city it had been much improved. Avenues of almond and other trees had been formed along the road to Nazar£ and round the Largo de Palacio; new roads and drives had been made, and some new buildings erected : in other respects the city was the same. The dirty, straggling, uncovered market, the carts of hacked beef, the loud chanting of the Negro porters, and the good-humoured smiling faces of the Indian and Negro girls selling their fruits and " doces," greeted me as of old. Fowls had risen in price from about 2s. to 35-. 6d., and fruits and vegetables in about the same proportion ; while in changing English money for Brazilian I now got about ten per cent, less than I used, and yet everybody complained of trade being very bad, and prices