Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v1.djvu/363

 very uneven land, on the left bank of the Rio Negro, and contained in 1850, about 3000 inhabitants. There was originally a small fort here, erected by the Portuguese to protect their slave-hunting expeditions amongst the numerous tribes of Indians which peopled the banks of the river. The most distinguished and warlike of these were the Manáos, who had many traits in common with the Omaguas, or Cambevas, of the Upper Amazons, the Mundurucús of the Tapajos, the Jurúnas of the Xingú, and other sections of the Tupí nation. The Manaós were continually at war with the neighbouring tribes, and had the custom of enslaving the prisoners made during their predatory expeditions. The Portuguese disguised their slave-dealing motives under the pretext of ransoming (resgatando), these captives; indeed, the term resgatar (to ransom) is still applied by the traders on the Upper Amazons to the very general, but illegal, practice of purchasing Indian children of the wild tribes. The older inhabitants of the place remember the time when many hundreds of these captives were brought down by a single expedition. In 1809, Barra became the chief town of the Rio Negro district; many Portuguese and Brazilians from other provinces then settled here; spacious houses and warehouses were built, and it grew, in the course of thirty or forty years, to be, next to Santarem, the principal settlement on the banks of the Amazons. At the time of my visit it was on the decline, in consequence of the growing distrust, or increased cunning, of the Indians, who once formed a numerous and the sole labouring class, but having got to know that the laws