Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/202

 days. The trade and population, however, did not increase with these changes. The people became more "civilised," that is, they began to dress according to the latest Parisian fashions, instead of going about in stockingless feet, wooden clogs and shirt sleeves; acquired a taste for money getting and office holding; became divided into parties, and lost part of their former simplicity of manners. But the place remained, when I left it in 1859, pretty nearly what it was when I first arrived in 1850—a semi-Indian village, with much in the ways and notions of its people, more like those of a small country town in Northern Europe than a South American settlement. The place is healthy, and almost free from insect pests; perpetual verdure surrounds it; the soil is of marvellous fertility, even for Brazil; the endless rivers and labyrinths of channels teem with fish and turtle; a fleet of steamers might anchor at any season of the year in the lake, which has uninterrupted water communication straight to the Atlantic. What a future is in store for the sleepy little tropical village!

After speaking of Ega as a city, it will have a ludicrous effect to mention that the total number of its inhabitants is only about 1200. It contains just 107 houses, about half of which are miserably built mud-walled cottages, thatched with palm-leaves. A fourth of the population are almost always absent, trading or collecting produce on the rivers. The neighbourhood within a radius of thirty miles, and including two other small villages, contains probably 2000 more people. The settlement is one of the oldest in the country,