Alfred Russel Wallace
Travels on the Amazon
We had hung up our rédés and waited about half an hour, when three Indians of our party made their appearance, staggering under the weight of a fine hog they had killed, and had slung on a strong pole. I then found the boys had mistaken our station, which was some distance further on, at the very foot of the Serra, and close to a running stream of water, where was a large roomy cave formed by an immense overhanging rock. Over our heads was growing a forest, and the roots again hung down over the edge, forming a sort of screen to our cave, and the stronger ones serving for posts to hang our rédés. Our luggage was soon unpacked, our rédés hung, a fire lighted, and the pig taken down to the brook, which ran at the lower end of the cave, to be skinned and prepared for cooking.
The animal was very like a domestic pig, but with a higher back, coarser and longer bristles, and a most penetrating odour. This I found proceeded from a gland situated on the back, about six inches above the root of the tail: it was a swelling, with a large pore in the centre, from which exuded an oily matter, producing a most intense and unbearable pigsty smell, of which the domestic animal can convey but a faint idea. The first operation of the Indians was to cut out this part completely, and the skin and flesh for some inches all round it, and throw the piece away. If this were not done, they say, the "pitiú" (catinga, Port.), or bad smell, would render all the meat uneatable. The animal was then skinned, cut up into pieces, some of which were put into an earthen pot to stew, while the legs and shoulders were kept to smoke over the fire till they were thoroughly dry, as they can thus be preserved several weeks without salt.
The greater number of the party had not yet arrived, so we ate our suppers, expecting to see them soon after sunset. However, as they did not appear, we made up our fires, put the meat on the "moqueen," or smoking stage, and turned comfortably into our rédés. The next morning, while we were preparing breakfast, they all arrived, with the produce of their hunting expedition. They had killed three hogs, but as it was late and they were a long way off, they encamped for the night, cut up the animals, and partially smoked all the prime pieces, which they now brought with them carefully packed up in palm-leaves. The party had no bows and arrows, but had killed the game with their blow-pipes, and little poisoned arrows about ten inches long.
After breakfast was over we prepared for an attack upon the "Gallos." We divided into three parties, going in different directions. The party which I accompanied went to ascend the Serra itself as far as practicable. We started out at the back of our cave, which was, as I have stated, formed by the base of the mountain itself. We immediately commenced the ascent up rocky gorges, over huge fragments, and through gloomy caverns, all mixed together in the most extraordinary confusion. Sometimes we had to climb up precipices by roots and creepers, then to crawl over a surface formed by angular rocks, varying from the size of a wheelbarrow to that of a house. I could not have imagined that what at a distance appeared so insignificant, could have presented such a gigantic and rugged scene. All the time we kept a sharp look-out, but saw no birds. At length, however, an old Indian caught hold of my arm, and whispering gently, "Gallo!" pointed into a dense thicket. After looking intently a little while, I caught a glimpse of the magnificent bird sitting amidst the gloom, shining out like a mass of brilliant flame. I took a step to get a clear view of it, and raised my gun, when it took alarm and flew off before I had time to fire. We followed, and soon it was again pointed out to me. This time I had better luck, fired with a steady aim, and brought it down. The Indians rushed forward, but it had fallen into a deep gully between steep rocks, and a considerable circuit had to be made to get it. In a few minutes, however, it was brought to me, and I was lost in admiration of the dazzling brilliancy of its soft downy feathers. Not a spot of blood was visible, not a feather was ruffled, and the soft, warm, flexible body set off the fresh swelling plumage in a manner which no stuffed specimen can approach. After some time, not finding any more gallos, most of the party set off on an excursion up a more impracticable portion of the rock, leaving two boys with me till they returned. We soon got tired of waiting, and as the boys made me understand that they knew the path back to our cave, I determined to return. We descended deep chasms in the rocks, climbed up steep precipices, descended again and again, and passed through caverns with huge masses of rocks piled above our heads. Still we seemed not to get out of the mountain, but fresh ridges rose before us, and more fearful fissures were to be passed. We toiled on, now climbing by roots and creepers up perpendicular walls, now creeping along a narrow ledge, with a yawning chasm on each side of us. I could not have imagined such serrated rocks to exist. It appeared as if a steep mountain-side had been cut and hacked by some gigantic force into fissures and ravines, from fifty to a hundred feet deep. My gun was a most inconvenient load when climbing up these steep and slippery places, and I did it much damage by striking its muzzle against the hard granite rock. At length we appeared to have got into the very heart of the mountain: no outlet was visible, and through the dense forest and matted underwood, with which every part of these rocks were covered, we could only see an interminable succession of ridges, and chasms, and gigantic blocks of stone, with no visible termination. As it was evident the boys had lost their way, I resolved to turn back. It was a weary task. I was already fatigued enough, and the prospect of another climb over these fearful ridges, and hazardous descent into those gloomy chasms, was by no means agreeable. However, we persevered, one boy taking my gun; and after about an hour's hard work we got back to the place whence we had started, and found the rest of the party expecting us. We then went down by the proper path, which they told me was the only known way of ascending and descending the mountain, and by which we soon arrived at our cave.
The accompanying sketch gives a section of this mountain, as near as I can make it out. The extraordinary jaggedness of the rocks is not at all exaggerated, and is the more surprising when you get into it, because from a distance it appears one smooth forest-covered hill, of very inconsiderable height, and of a gradual slope. Besides the great caverns and ridges shown above, the surfaces of each precipice are serrated in a most extraordinary manner, forming deep sloping gutters, cut out of the smooth face of the rock, or sometimes vertical channels, with angular edges, such as might be supposed to be formed were the granite in a plastic state forced up against hard angular masses.
On reaching the cave I immediately skinned my prize before it was dark, and we then got our supper. No more "gallos" were brought in that day. The fires were made up, the pork put to smoke over them, and around me were thirteen naked Indians, talking in unknown tongues. Two only could speak a little Portuguese, and with them I conversed, answering their various questions about where iron came from, and how calico was made, and if paper grew in my country, and if we had much mandiocca and plantains; and they were greatly astonished to hear that all were white men there, and could not imagine how white men could work, or how there could be a country without forest. They would ask strange questions about where the wind came from, and the rain, and how the sun and moon got back to their places again after disappearing from us; and when I had tried to satisfy them on these points, they would tell me forest tales of jaguars and pumas, and of the fierce wild hogs, and of the dreadful curupurí, the demon of the woods, and of the wild man with a long tail, found far in the centre of the forest. They told me also a curious tale about the tapir, which, however, others have assured me is not true.
The tapir, they say, has a peculiar fancy for dropping his dung only in the water, and they never find it except in brooks and springs, though it is so large and abundant that it could not be overlooked in the forest. If there is no water to be found, the animal makes a rough basket of leaves and carries it to the nearest stream, and there deposits it. The Indians' tale goes, that one tapir met another in the forest with a basket in his mouth. "What have you in your basket?" said the one. "Fruit," answered the other. "Let me have some," said the first. "I won't," said the other; upon which the first tapir pulled the basket from the other's mouth, broke it open, and on seeing the contents both turned tail, quite ashamed of themselves, ran away in opposite directions, and never came near the spot again all their lives.
With such conversation we passed the time till we fell asleep. We rose with the earliest dawn, for the naked Indian feels the chill morning air, and gets up early to renew his fire, and make some mingau to warm himself. Having no coffee, I had to put up also with "mingau" (farinha gruel), and we then all started off again in search of game. This time I took the forest, having had enough of the Serra, and the two boys came with me for guides and companions. After wandering about a good way we found some fine curassow-birds high up in lofty trees, and succeeded in shooting one. This, with a large jacamar, was all we could find, so we returned to the cave, skinned the jacamar, and put the "mutun" (curassow-bird) on the fire for breakfast.
In the afternoon the other parties returned unsuccessful, one only bringing in a gallo. The next day nothing at all was met with, and it was therefore agreed to move our camp to a spot some miles off on the other side of the Serra, where was a feeding-place of the gallos. We accordingly started; and if our former path was bad enough, this was detestable. It was principally through second-growth woods, which are much thicker than the virgin forest, full of prickly plants, entangled creepers, and alternations of soft mud and quartz pebbles under foot. As our farinha was getting low, we had sent half our party home, to bring such a supply as would enable us to remain a week in our new camp.
On reaching the place we found a pleasant open glade and low woods, where there had formerly been a small Indian settlement. It was much more airy and agreeable than our cave, so closely surrounded by the tall dense forest that scarcely a straggling ray of sunshine could enter. Here were numerous trees of a species of Melastoma, bearing purple berries, of which the gallos and many other birds are very fond. There was a little shed, just large enough to hang my hammock under; this we repaired and thatched, and made our head-quarters, where I soon established myself comfortably. We had not been here long before we heard the shrill cry of a gallo near us. All immediately started off, and I soon had the pleasure of again seeing this living flame darting among the foliage. My gun, however, had been wetted in walking so far through the dripping underwood, and missed fire. In the evening two fine birds were brought in,—a very satisfactory commencement. The next evening the party who had gone to the village returned with farinha, salt, and a few mammee apples, which were very refreshing.
We stayed here four days longer, with various success: some days we had not a bird; others, plenty of game, and one or two gallos. What with monkeys, guans, and mutuns, we had pretty good fare in the meat way. One day I went out alone, and by patiently watching under a fruit-tree, in a drenching shower, was rewarded by obtaining another beautiful gallo. Two were brought in alive: one of them I killed and skinned at once, knowing the great risk of attempting to keep them alive; the other was kept by the Indian who caught it, but a few weeks afterwards it died. They are caught by snares at certain places, where the males assemble to play. These places are on rocks, or roots of trees, and are worn quite smooth and clean. Two or three males meet and perform a kind of dance, walking and jigging up and down. The females and young are never seen at these places, so that you are sure of catching only full-grown fine-plumaged males. I am not aware of any other bird that has this singular habit. On the last day of our stay, we were rather short of provisions. The Indians supped well off a young alligator they had caught in a brook near; but the musky odour was so strong that I could not stomach it, and, after getting down a bit of the tail, finished my supper with mingau.
The next day we returned home to the little village. With twelve hunters, nine days in the forest, I had obtained twelve gallos, two of which I had shot myself; I had, besides, two fine trogons, several little blue-capped manakins, and some curious barbets, and ant-thrushes.
At the village I spent nearly a fortnight more, getting together a good many small birds, but nothing very rare. I shot a specimen of the curious bald-headed brown crow (Gymnocephalus calvus), which, though common in Cayenne, is very rare in the Rio Negro district; nobody, in fact, but the Indians, had ever seen the bird, and they regarded it as my greatest curiosity. I also skinned a black agouti, and made drawings of many curious fish.
The Padre having come to Guía, most of the Indians returned with me to attend the festa, and get their children baptized. When we arrived, however, we found that he had left for the villages higher up, and was to call on his return. I now wished to set off as soon as possible for the Upper Rio Negro, in Venezuela; but of course no Indian could be got to go with me till the Padre returned, and I was obliged to wait patiently and idly at Guia. For days I would go out into the forest, and not get a bird worth skinning; insects were equally scarce. The forest was gloomy, damp, and silent as death. Every other day was wet, and almost every afternoon there was a thunderstorm: and on these dull days and weary evenings, I had no resource but the oft-told tales of Senhor L., and the hackneyed conversation on buying and selling calico, on digging salsa, and cutting piassaba.
At length, however, the Padré, Frei Jozé, arrived with Senhor Tenente Filisberto, the Commandante of Marabitanas. Frei Jozé dos Santos Innocentos was a tall, thin, prematurely old man, thoroughly worn out by every kind of debauchery, his hands crippled, and his body ulcerated; yet he still delighted in recounting the feats of his youth, and was celebrated as the most original and amusing story-teller in the province of Pará. He was carried up the hill, from the river-side, in a hammock; and took a couple of days to rest, before he commenced his ecclesiastical operations. I often went with Senhor L. to visit him, and was always much amused with his inexhaustible fund of anecdotes: he seemed to know everybody and everything in the Province, and had always something humorous to tell about them. His stories were, most of them, disgustingly coarse; but so cleverly told, in such quaint and expressive language, and with such amusing imitations of voice and manner, that they were irresistibly ludicrous. There is always, too, a particular charm in hearing good anecdotes in a foreign language. The point is the more interesting, from the obscure method of arriving at it; and the knowledge you acquire of the various modes of using the peculiar idioms of the language, causes a pleasure quite distinct from that of the story itself. Frei Jozé never repeated a story twice in the week he was with us; and Senhor L., who has known him for years, says he had never before heard many of the anecdotes he now related. He had been a soldier, then a friar in a convent, and afterwards a parish priest: he told tales of his convent life, just like what we read in Chaucer of their doings in his time. Don Juan was an innocent compared with Frei Jozé; but he told us he had a great respect for his cloth, and never did anything disreputable—during the day!
At length the baptisms took place: there were some fifteen or twenty Indian children of all ages, to undergo the operation at once. There are seven or eight distinct processes in the Roman Catholic baptism, well calculated to attract the attention of the Indians: there is water and holy oil,—and spittle rubbed on the eyes,—and crosses on the eyes, nose, mouth, and body,—and kneeling and prayers in between, which all bear sufficient resemblance to the complicated operations of their own "pagés" (conjurors), to make them think they have got something very good, in return for the shilling they pay for the ceremony.
The next day there were a few weddings, the ceremony of which is very like our own. After it was over, Frei Jozé gave the newly married people a very good and practical homily on the duties of the married state, which might have done some good, had the parties to whom it was addressed understood it; which, as it was in Portuguese, they did not. He at all times strenuously exhorted the Indians to get married, and thus save their souls,—and fill his pocket. The only two white men, besides myself, were, however, bad examples,—for they were not, nor would be married, though they both had large families; which the Padré got over by saying, "Never mind what these white people do, they will all go to purgatory, but don't you be such fools as to go too!" at which Senhor L. and the Commandante laughed heartily, and the poor Indians looked much astonished.
CHAPTER IX
JAVITA
Leave Guía—Marabitánas—Serra de Cocof—Enter Venezuela—Sáo Carlos—Pass the Cassiquiare—Antonio Dias—Indian Shipbuilders—Feather-work—Maróa and Pimichín—A Black Jaguar—Poisonous Serpents—Fishing—Walk to Javíta—Residence there—Indian Road-makers—Language and Customs—A Description of Javíta—Runaway Indians—Collections at Javíta—Return to Tómo—A Domestic Broil—Marabitánas, and its Inhabitants—Reach Guía.
When at length our visitors were gone, I commenced arrangements for my voyage further up the country.
Senhor L. lent me a canoe, and I had four Indians to go with me, only one of whom, an old man named Augustinho, could speak a little broken Portuguese. I took with me my watch, sextant, and compass, insect-and bird-boxes, gun and ammunition, with salt, beads, fish-hooks, calico, and coarse cotton cloth for the Indians. My men all had their gravatánas and quivers of poisoned arrows, a pair of trousers, shirt, paddle, knife, tinder-box, and rédé, which comprise the whole assortment of an Indian's baggage.
On the 27th of January, 1851, we left Guía, paddling up against the stream. The canoe had been fresh caulked, but still I found it leaking so much, as to keep me constantly baling; and in the afternoon, when we stayed for dinner, I made an examination, and found out the cause of the leakage. The cargo was heavy and was supported on a little stage, or floor, resting upon cross-bearers in the bottom of the canoe; the ends of these bearers had been carelessly placed just on a seam, so that the whole weight of the cargo tended to force out the plank, and thus produce the leak. I was accordingly obliged to unload the boat entirely, and replace the bearers in a better position, after which I was glad to find the leak much diminished.
On the 28th, in the afternoon, we arrived at the little village of Mabé which we reached in very good time, for the inhabitants had just returned from a fishing expedition: they had procured a great quantity of fish by poisoning an igaripé near, and I purchased enough for our supper and breakfast. I found several which I had not seen before; among them, a most curious little species allied to Centrarcus, called the butterfly fish, from the extraordinary development of its fins, and pretty banded markings.
On the 29th, about noon, we passed the mouth of the river Xié, a black-water stream of moderate size and no great length. There is little trade up it, and the Indians inhabiting it are uncivilised and almost unknown.
On the 30th we came in sight of the Serras of the Cababurís, and the long row of hills called Pirapucó (the long fish): they consist of lofty and isolated granite peaks, like those generally found in this district. The next day we reached Marabitánas, the frontier fort of Brazil: there is now only the remnant of a mud entrenchment, and a small detachment of soldiers. As the Commandante was not there, we did not stay, except to purchase a few plantains.
On the 1st of February we reached the Serra of Cocoí, which marks the boundary between Brazil and Venezuela. This is a granite rock, very precipitous and forming nearly a square frustum of a prism, about a thousand feet high. It rises at once out of the forest plain, and is itself, on the summit and the less precipitous portions, covered with thick wood. Here the pium͂s, or little biting flies, swarm and made us very uncomfortable for the rest of the day. We had now beautiful weather, and in the evening slept on a fine granite beach very comfortably. The next night we stayed at a rock on which we found some curious figures engraven below high-water mark. Here having a clear horizon up the river to the north, I saw my old friend the pole-star, though I was only in 1° 20´ north latitude. We had now every day fine rocky beaches, along which I often walked, while young Luiz would shoot fish for us with his bow and arrow. He was very skilful, and always had his bow by his side, and as we approached a rock or shallow would fit his arrow and send it into some glittering acarrá or bright-coloured tucunaré.
At length, on the afternoon of the 4th of February, we arrived at São Carlos, the principal Venezuelan village on the Rio Negro. This was the furthest point reached by Humboldt from an opposite direction, and I was therefore now entering upon ground gone over fifty years before by that illustrious traveller. At the landing-place I was agreeably surprised to see a young Portuguese I had met at Guia, and as he was going up the river to Tomo in a day or two, I agreed to wait and take him with me. I went with him to the house of the Commissario, got introduced, and commenced my acquaintance with the Spanish language. I was civilly received, and found myself in the midst of a party of loosely-dressed gentlemen, holding a conversation on things in general. I found some difficulty in making out anything, both from the peculiarity of accent and the number of new words constantly occurring; for though Spanish is very similar to Portuguese in the verbs, pronouns, and adjectives, the nouns are mostly different, and the accent and pronunciation peculiar.
We took our meals at the Commissario's table, and with every meal had coffee, which custom I rather liked. The next day I walked into the forest along the road to Soláno, a village on the Cassiquiare. I found a dry, sandy soil, but with very few insects. The village of São Carlos is laid out with a large square, and parallel streets. The principal house, called the Convento, where the priests used to reside, is now occupied by the Commissario. The square is kept clean, the houses whitewashed, and altogether the village is much neater than those of Brazil. Every morning the bell rings for matins, and the young girls and boys assemble in the church and sing a few hymns; the same takes place in the evening; and on Sundays the church is always opened, and service performed by the Commissario and the Indians.
Soon after leaving the village we passed the mouth of the Cassiquiare, that singular stream which connects the Rio Negro with the Orinooko near the sources of both. It is a mixture of white and black water, and swarms with pium͂s, which are abundant down to São Carlos; but on passing the mouth of the Cassiquiare they cease immediately, and up to the sources of the Rio Negro there is a freedom at least from this pest. In the evening we stayed at an Indian cottage, and bought a fine cabeçudo, or big-headed turtle, for a basin of salt: it furnished us with an excellent supper for eight persons, and even the next day we did not finish it all. The weather was now hot, and brilliantly fine, contrasting much with the constant rains of Guía; and, marvellous to relate, the people here told us they had not had any rain for three months past. The effects were seen in the river, which was very low and still falling, and so full of rocks and shallows as to render it sometimes difficult for us to find a passage for our canoes.
After passing the village of São Miguel these difficulties increased, till we came to a place where the whole channel, a mile wide, appeared but one bed of rocks, with nowhere water enough for our canoe to pass, though eighteen inches would have sufficed. We went wandering about over this rocky plain in search of some opening, and after much difficulty succeeded in pushing and dragging our boat over the rocks. We passed by two or three "Caños," or channels leading to the Cassiquiare, up which many of the inhabitants were now going, to lay in a stock of fish and cabeçudos against the "tiempo del faminto" (time of famine), as the wet season is called, when but little fish and game are to be obtained.
On the 10th of February we reached Tómo, a village at the mouth of a stream of the same name. The inhabitants are all Indians, except one white man, a Portuguese, named Antonio Dias, of whom I had heard much at Barra. I found him in his shirt and trousers, covered with dust and perspiration, having just been assisting his men at their work at some canoes he was building. He received me kindly, with a strange mixture of Portuguese and Spanish, and got the "casa de nação," or stranger's house, a mere dirty shed, swept out for my accommodation for a few days. Like most of the white men in this neighbourhood, he is occupied entirely in building large canoes and schooners for the Rio Negro and Amazon trade. When finished, the hulls alone are taken down to Barra or to Pará, generally with a cargo of piassába or farinha, and there sold. He had now one on the stocks, of near two hundred tons burden; but most of them are from thirty to a hundred tons. These large vessels have to be taken down the cataracts of the Rio Negro, which can only be done in the wet season, when the water is deep.
It seems astonishing how such large vessels can be constructed by persons entirely ignorant of the principles of naval architecture. They are altogether made by the Indians without drawing or design. During the time when Brazil and Venezuela were under the Portuguese and Spanish governments, building-yards were established in several places where good timber was to be found, and the Indians were employed, under naval architects from Spain and Portugal, in the construction of vessels for the coast and inland trade. When the independence of these countries took place, all such establishments were broken up, and a long succession of revolutions and disturbances occurred. The Indians employed had, however, learnt an art they did not forget, but taught it to their children and countrymen. By eye and hand alone they will form the framework and fit on the planks of fine little vessels of a hundred tons or more, with no other tools than axe, adze, and hammer. Many a Portuguese, who has scarcely ever seen a boat except during his passage to Brazil, gets together half-a-dozen Indians with some old Indian carpenter at their head, buys a dozen axes and a few thousands of nails, and sets up as a shipbuilder. The products of the Upper Rio Negro, principally piassába, pitch, and farinha, are bulky, and require large vessels to take them down, but their value in iron and cotton goods can be brought up again in a very small canoe. Large vessels, too, cannot possibly return up the cataracts. Those made on the Upper Rio Negro, therefore, never return there, and the small traders require a new one annually. They are used below in the navigation of the Amazon, and of all its branches not obstructed by falls or rapids. The vessels are made very cheaply and roughly, and seldom of the best timbers, which are difficult to obtain in sufficient quantity. On an average these canoes do not last more than six or eight years,—many not more than two or three, though there are woods which will stand for thirty years perfectly sound. Owing to these peculiar circumstances, there is a constant demand for these Spanish vessels, as they are called; and the villages of São Carlos, Tiriquím, São Miguel, Tómo, and Maróa are entirely inhabited by builders of canoes.
While I was at Tómo the village was being cleaned, by scraping off the turf and weeds wherever they appeared within the limits of the houses. The people show an instance of their peculiar delicacy in this work: they will not touch any spot on which there lies a piece of dung of a dog or any animal, or the body of any dead bird or reptile, but hoe carefully around it, and leave a little circular tuft of grass marking the spot where all such impurities exist. This is partly owing to a kind of superstition; but in many other ways they show a dislike to touch, however remotely, any offensive animal substance. This idea is carried so far as to lead them sometimes to neglect the sick in any offensive disease. It seems to be a kind of feeling very similar to that which exists in many animals, with regard to the sick and the dying.
Senhor Antonio Dias was rather notorious, even in this country of loose morals, for his patriarchal propensities, his harem consisting of a mother and daughter and two Indian girls, all of whom he keeps employed at feather-work, which they do with great skill,—Senhor Antonio himself, who has some taste in design, making out the patterns. The cocks of the rock, white herons, roseate spoonbills, golden jacamars, metallic trogons, and exquisite little seven-coloured tanagers, with many gay parrots, and other beautiful birds, offer an assortment of colours capable of producing the most exquisite effects. The work is principally applied to the borders or fringes of hammocks. The hammocks themselves are of finely netted palm-fibre string, dyed of red, yellow, green, and other brilliant colours. The fringes are about a foot deep, also finely netted, of the same material, and on these are stuck, with the milk of the cow-tree, sprays and stars and flowers of feather-work. In the best he puts in the centre the arms of Portugal or Brazil beautifully executed; and the whole, on a ground of the snowy white heron's feathers, has a very pleasing effect.
