Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/190

 upper river; there are several settled at Santarern, Cametá, and Pará, where, on account of their dealings being fairer than those of Portuguese traders, they do a good trade, and live on friendly terms with the Brazilians.

Our object here was to purchase a supply of fresh farinha and anything else we could find in the way of provisions, as our farinha had become rotten and unfit to eat, and we had been on short rations for several days. We got all we wanted except sugar; not a pound of this article of luxury was to be had, and we were obliged henceforward to sweeten our coffee with treacle, as is the general custom in this part of Brazil.

We left Quarý before sunrise on the 20th. On the 22nd we threaded the Paraná-mirím of Arauána-í, one of the numerous narrow by-waters which lie conveniently for canoes away from the main river, and often save a considerable circuit round a promontory or island. We rowed for half a mile through a magnificent bed of Victoria water-lilies; the flower-buds of which were just beginning to expand. Beyond the mouth of the Catuá, a channel leading to another great lake which we passed on the 25th, the river appeared greatly increased in breadth. We travelled for three days along a broad reach which both up and down river presented a blank horizon of water and sky: this clear view was owing to the absence of islands, but it renewed one's impressions of the magnitude of the stream, which here, 1200 miles from its mouth, showed so little diminution of width. Further westward a series of large islands commences, which divides the river into two and sometimes three