Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/195

 was half Indian himself, but was a far worse master to the red-skins than the whites usually are. We finished our rounds by paying our respects to a venerable native merchant, Senor Romaõ de Oliveira, a tall, corpulent, fine-looking old man, who received us with a naïve courtesy quite original in its way. He had been an industrious, enterprising man in his younger days, and had built a substantial range of houses and warehouses. The shrewd and able old gentleman knew nothing of the world beyond the wilderness of the Solimoens and its few thousands of isolated inhabitants; yet he could converse well and sensibly, making observations on men and things as sagaciously as though he had drawn them from long experience of life in a European capital. The semi-civilised Indians respected old Romaõ, and he had, consequently, a great number in his employ in different parts of the river: his vessels were always filled quicker with produce than those of his neighbours. On our leaving, he placed his house and store at my disposal. This was not a piece of empty politeness, for some time afterwards, when I wished to settle for the goods I had had of him, he refused to take any payment.

I made Ega my head-quarters during the whole of the time I remained on the Upper Amazons (four years and a half). My excursions into the neighbouring region extended sometimes as far as 300 and 400 miles from the place. An account of these excursions will be given in subsequent chapters; in the intervals between them I led a quiet, uneventful life in the settlement;