Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v1.djvu/178

 lowered by means of a rope attached to the top. The same material serves for many purposes; partitions and even the external walls of houses of the poorer classes are often made of it. It fell to my charge to manage the sail during our voyage, whilst Bean steered, but when in the middle of the broad river the halyard broke, and in endeavouring to mend it we nearly upset the boat, for the wind blew strongly and the waves ran high. We fortunately met, soon afterwards, a negro who was descending in a similar boat to ours, and who, seeing our distress, steered towards us and kindly supplied us with a new rope. We stayed a day and night on the island. The house was of a similar description to those I have already described as common on the low islands of the Tocantins. The cacaoal which surrounded it consisted of about 10,000 trees, which I was astonished to hear produced altogether only 100 arrobas or 3200 pounds of the chocolate nut per annum. I had seen trees on the main land, which having been properly attended to, produced yearly thirty-two pounds each, or 100 times as much as those of Dona Paulina's cacaoal; the average yield in plantations on the Amazons near Santarem is 700 arrobas to 10,000 trees. Agriculture was evidently in a very low condition hereabout; the value of a cacao estate was very trifling, each tree being worth only forty reis or one penny, this including the land on which the plantation stands. A square league of country planted with cacao could thus be bought for 40l. or 50l. sterling. The selling price of cacao is very fluctuating; 3,500 reis, or about eight shillings