Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/30

 settlement indeed has spread to Portugal, where Santarem is known as the "Cidade dos Lazaros," or City of Lepers.

When the Portuguese first ascended the Amazons towards the middle of the 17th century, they found the banks of the Tapajos in the neighbourhood of Santarem, peopled by a warlike tribe of Indians, called the Tapajócos. From these, the river and the settlement (Santarem in the Indian language is called Tapajós), derive their name. The Tapajos, however, amongst the Brazilian settlers in this part, is most generally known by the Portuguese name of Rio Preto, or the Black River. According to Acunna, the historian of the Teixeira expedition (in 1637–9), the Tapajócos were very numerous, one village alone having contained more than 500 families. Their weapons were poisoned darts. Notwithstanding their numbers and courage, they quickly gave way before the encroaching Portuguese settlers, who are said to have treated them with great barbarity. The name of the tribe is no longer known in the neighbourhood, but it is probable their descendants still linger on the banks of the Lower Tapajos, a traditional hatred towards the Portuguese having been preserved amongst the semi-civilised inhabitants to the present day. The fact of the Urarí poison having been in use amongst the Tapajócos is curious, inasmuch as it shows there was at that time communication between distant tribes along the course of the main Amazons. The Indians now living on the banks of the Tapajos are ignorant of the Urarí, the drug being prepared only