Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v1.djvu/311

 rents. The incidence of this endemic is somewhat remarkable, for it exists on one side of the Andirá-mirim, where the land is high and rocky, and not on the other which is low and swampy. The old historians relate that the island of Tupinambarána was colonised by a portion of the great Tupí or Tupinámba nation, who were driven from the sea-coast near Pernambuco, by the early Portuguese settlers in the 16th century. I think, however, there is reason to conclude, that different tribes, having more or less affinity with the Tupís, originally existed in many places on the banks of the Amazons, and that they had frequent communication with each other, before the time of the Portuguese. Much partial migration probably occurred when the aborigines had the navigation of the main Amazons all to themselves. It seems to me very unlikely, that a compact body of Indians wandered at once from the sea-coast near Pernambuco to the central parts of the Amazons. However this may be, no trace of the aboriginal Tupís now exists in this quarter. The district is thinly populated, and the Indians who now reside here, are scattered hordes of the Mundurucú, Múra, and Mauhés tribes: semi-civilised families of the two latter live in or near the town.

I found some very friendly and intelligent people amongst the white and mameluco families residing at Villa Nova. The vicar. Father Torquato de Souza, is not quite unknown to the European public, having been the guide of Prince Adalbert of Prussia when he visited the Jurúna Indians on the Xingú, and mentioned in the published narrative of the journey. He is