CHAPTER XIX.

FROM THE MADEIRA TO THE RIO NEGRO.--OTHER TRIBUTARIES OF THE AMAZON.--NOTES ON THE GREAT RIVER.--MANAOS.--DOWN THE AMAZON TO PARA.

Entering the Amazon from the Madeira, the steamer turned her prow to the westward and ascended the great river for sixty miles, to the mouth of the Rio Negro. The yellow waters of the Amazon and Madeira had reminded Frank and Fred of the Mississippi; there was some dispute between them as to which of the two streams was dirtier in color, but they finally agreed that the Madeira was the worse of the two.

"We will compare the Madeira to the Missouri," said Fred, "and the united stream to the Mississippi as we see it below the mouth of the Ohio." Frank agreed to this distinction, and there the discussion ended.

The Amazon brings down a vast amount of alluvial matter which it receives from its tributaries, in addition to what it breaks away from the banks on its own account below the mouth of the Madeira. The sediment is carried far into the sea, and there is no proper delta at its mouth, as with the other great rivers of the world.

Frank made some notes concerning the great river, which we will now introduce.

"The Amazon," said he, "is undoubtedly the largest river on the globe, but it is not the longest. Lieutenant Herndon estimates its length, considering the Huallaga as the head-stream, at three thousand nine hundred and forty-four miles; another authority makes it three thousand miles; another two thousand seven hundred and fifty, and other travellers give various figures up to three thousand six hundred miles. The differences arise from disputes as to which of the tributaries should be called the head-stream.

"The Amazon is rather a vast system of rivers than a river by itself. More than three hundred and fifty branches and tributaries unite to form the Amazon; all the rivers flowing from the eastern slope of the Andes from three degrees north latitude to nineteen degrees south latitude, a distance of two thousand miles, as we follow the windings of the mountain chain, pour into the Amazon and contribute to its immense volume. It is three hundred and twelve feet deep at its mouth, and where it crosses the Brazilian frontier at Tabatinga it is sixty-six feet deep! The _Great Eastern_ steamship might navigate it for more than a thousand miles from the sea.

"Half a million cubic feet of water flow out of the Amazon every second, or thirty million cubic feet in a minute. The ordinary current is three miles an hour. Two thousand three hundred miles from the sea it is three fourths of a mile wide, at the mouth of the Madeira it is three miles wide, and below Santarem it is ten miles from side to side. Its mouth is said to be one hundred and eighty miles wide, but this is hardly a fair statement of the case, as the island of Marajo occupies a large portion of the mouth, and the river reaches the ocean through many channels.

"The tide is perceptible five hundred miles from the sea; it does not carry the salt water up with it, but there is simply a rise and fall of the fresh water. So great is the volume of the Amazon where it enters the sea that ships can dip up fresh water while yet out of sight of land."

"In speaking of the tide," said the Doctor, "don't forget to mention the _piroroco_ or 'bore' of the Amazon."

"I was just coming to it," replied the youth, "and cannot do better than quote a description by La Condamine, written more than a hundred years ago. Here it is:

"'During three days before the new and full moons, the period of the highest tides, the sea, instead of occupying six hours to reach its flood, swells to its highest limits in one or two minutes. The noise of this terrible flood is heard five or six miles, and increases as it approaches. Presently you see a liquid promontory, twelve or fifteen feet high, followed by another and another, and sometimes by a fourth. These watery mountains spread across the whole channel, and advance with a prodigious rapidity, rending and crushing everything in their way. Immense trees are instantly uprooted by it, and sometimes whole tracts of land are swept away.'"

"It must be a terrible thing for boats to encounter, especially the small ones," Fred remarked, as Frank concluded the above description.

"It is," Dr. Bronson answered, "and many of them are lost every year. But those engaged in navigating the river know when to expect the bore, and take precautions against it. They have _esperas_, or resting-places, where they are sheltered from its force, and wait until it has passed.

"The bore is not confined to the Amazon," continued the Doctor; "it is known in other rivers, especially in the Hoogly, below Calcutta, but the bore of the Amazon is undoubtedly the largest."

"Another curious feature of the Amazon," said Frank, resuming, "is the great number of lateral channels, which are technically called _igaripes_, or canoe-paths. Boats may go for hundreds of miles along the lower Amazon in the _igaripes_ without once entering the main stream. They remind us of the bayous of the lower part of the Mississippi Valley."

"Don't forget," said Fred, "that the Amazon rises within sixty miles of the Pacific Ocean, and touches every country of South America except Chili and Patagonia. The Madeira rises close to the sources of the La Plata, while the Negro, the great northern tributary of the Amazon, is connected with the Orinoco by a navigable canal called the Cassiquari. The navigation of this network of waters is favored by nature; the current is eastward, while the trade wind blows west from the Atlantic, so that ships going either way have the stream or the wind to help them along."

"And another thing," said the Doctor, "that should be mentioned, is the annual rise and fall. There is a succession of freshets in the tributaries of the Amazon, so that the main stream can never run low. Most of its affluents are in the southern hemisphere, and consequently the river has its greatest flood when the sun is south of the equator. The rise is gradual, beginning in September or October, and increasing not more than one foot daily, and often less than that. The difference between the highest and lowest levels is about forty-five feet, and at the time of the flood vast areas of land are covered with water. Once in every six years the flood is greater than usual."

"The Amazon is too large to be content with one name," said Frank. "From its mouth to the junction with the Negro it is called the Amazon, or the Amazons; from the Negro to the Peruvian frontier it is the Solimoens; and the part in Peru is the Maranon. But these distinctions are passing away since the river was opened to universal navigation; the Solimoens is now generally called the Middle Amazon and the Maranon the Upper Amazon. Probably another twenty years will see the old names disappear altogether."

Manaos is on the Rio Negro, ten miles above the junction of the latter stream with the Amazon. Frank and Fred observed with interest the change from one river to the other, which was as marked as that from the Mississippi to the Missouri, near Alton, Illinois. The Amazon is yellow, while the Negro, as its name indicates, is black. For miles the line between the two waters is sharply defined; they hold apart from each other, as if unwilling to mingle, but the greater river at length absorbs the smaller, and henceforth, to the sea, the yellow color is retained.

The youths dipped some water from the two rivers and placed it in glasses side by side. That of the Amazon was like milk, as sometimes seen in boarding-houses or cheap restaurants, while the water of the Negro was clear, with a tinge of red. The difference in the banks of the rivers was as marked as that of their waters, those of the Amazon being low and broken, as on the Mississippi. The banks of the Negro gave no indication of alluvial washings, but presented many sandy beaches, backed by low hills covered with dark forests, in which few palms or similar trees were visible.

The steamer anchored in front of Manaos, and the little party went on shore. They found a town resembling some of the river-landings in Arkansas or Missouri, with the addition of tropical surroundings. It straggled along the shore and back over the undulating hills for a considerable distance, and at first glance resembled a city of no small importance. It had about four thousand inhabitants, but there is room for many times that number when all the "lots" are occupied with well-filled dwellings. On an elevation in the centre is the cathedral, which was unfinished at the time of Dr. Bronson's visit, and has been a work of very slow growth since its foundation.

Facing the river is a large open square with a few palm-trees on its borders, and near the water there are several buildings variously occupied as custom-house, hotel, and steamboat offices. A long avenue known as Brazil Street runs through the town, with its ends on two _igaripes_, or canals; these canals run back from the river, so that Manaos is surrounded on three sides by water. The houses are by no means crowded, as in most European cities, but each has a comfortable area of ground around it, affording good ventilation and plenty of moving space.

Manaos is destined to be the St. Louis of the Amazon Valley, as it is the diverging and converging point for a great deal of commerce. Freight up or down the Amazon and its tributaries is generally transshipped here, and at some seasons of the year the river front is a scene of much activity. The population is a mixed one, and includes negroes, Indians, Brazilians, Portuguese, Italians, and half a dozen nationalities of Europe, together with a few Chinese and East Indians, and occasionally Englishmen and North Americans. As the commerce of the Amazon Valley develops, Manaos will grow in population and wealth, and the day may not be far distant when ocean steamers will receive their cargoes at its docks instead of at Para.

Frank and Fred wished to make some purchases, and sallied out for that purpose. They returned with the declaration that Manaos was like home in one respect, according to the old song, as it was "The dearest spot on earth." Hardly anything they saw was the product of the country; everything was imported, and the importers held their goods at high prices. An American whom they met said there was little agriculture in the surrounding region; beef came up the Madeira; sheep, and other meat-supplying animals were imported, and so were hams and all other preserved edibles; while manufactured articles were from New York, Liverpool, or other Atlantic ports.

Fred asked what were the industries of Manaos, and was told there were none at all.

"Brazilians and Indians will not work," said his informant. "The immigrants from Europe live by trading. Since their emancipation, the negroes prefer fishing to any other mode of existence, and the Americans that came here as colonists have mostly gone back disappointed. There is really no laboring class here, and until there is we can have no agriculture. The land would produce abundantly, but there is nobody to cultivate it. I doubt if there are five hundred acres of tilled land on the Amazon, between this point and the foot of the Andes."

The exports of Manaos are rubber, coffee, sarsaparilla, Brazil nuts, pissaba, chinchona, fish, and turtles. The imports are cotton cloth, beads, and other "Indian goods" for the natives, and various articles of necessity or luxury for the European inhabitants. The surrounding country is diversified with valleys, hills, and ravines, and not far from the place is a pretty cascade ten feet high and fifty feet wide, falling over a precipice of red sandstone. The sheet of water resembles Minnehaha in its general outline, but its peculiarity is in its deep orange color, obtained from the soil through which the streams flows.

The youths wished to ascend the Rio Negro, but circumstances did not permit the excursion. The Negro rises in Colombia, and is twelve hundred miles in length; at one place it is ten or twelve miles in width, and at Manaos not less than two miles. During the flood of the Amazon the dark waters of the Negro are dammed and held back, for hundreds of miles, by the rise of the giant stream. The natural canal, the Cassiquari, which connects the Negro with the Orinoco, is half a mile wide, and drains off the superfluous waters which go to swell the lower part of the last-named river.

Other great tributaries of the Amazon are the Huallaga and the Ucayali; both rise on the Peruvian Andes, the latter near ancient Cuzco. Either can be compared to the Ohio, and both are navigable for long distances. Like the other streams that flow into the Amazon, they run through regions with few inhabitants, and consequently there is little commerce along their banks. There are many rivers as large as the Hudson or the Connecticut, that are unknown to geographers, and not named on the maps.

Glad enough were our friends to leave Manaos, after a day's detention, and descend the Amazon. The heat was severe, the thermometer mounting to ninety-two degrees Fahrenheit, with a damp atmosphere, which made the temperature very oppressive. Manaos has the reputation of being the warmest spot on the Amazon; the mercury mounts very often to the nineties, and can touch ninety-eight without apparent effort. There are few amusements, and the most comfortable occupation is to do nothing. The European residents indulge in balls and parties, but more as a matter of form than for the sake of enjoyment.

Aided by the current, the steamer made the sixty miles between Manaos and the mouth of the Madeira in a trifle over four hours. The boat resembled the one on which they had descended the Madeira, but was more than twice as large; the arrangement of the cabins and decks was the same, and each traveller hung his hammock between the decks, and took advantage of the cooling trade wind that blew up the river.

Frank's inquiring mind led him among the boxes, bales, and bags which comprised the freight of the steamer; he was accompanied by Manuel, who answered the youth's questions to the best of his ability. Where he did not know the correct answer he followed the custom of the country in giving the first that his imagination suggested.

Frank's first question related to pissaba.

"Pissaba comes from the Pissaba palm," said the guide, "and is a fibre which is manufactured into cables and ropes, and is exported to Europe and America to be made into brushes and brooms. It is stronger than hemp, and more elastic, and if the people were enterprising it could drive hemp out of the market for many uses."

"Please tell me about Brazil nuts," was the next suggestion.

"Brazil nuts grow on one of the tallest trees of the forest," was the reply. "There are eighteen or twenty nuts in a hard shell like a cannon ball, and they are packed in so wonderfully that when once taken out no man is ingenious enough to put them all back again. I have seen Brazil-nut trees two hundred feet high, and fourteen feet through at the base, and not a branch within a hundred feet of the ground."

Frank asked how the nuts were gathered.

"They are allowed to ripen and fall to the ground," answered the guide, "partly because they will not keep if picked from the tree, and partly because it is difficult and dangerous to climb for them."

"It must be equally dangerous to stand under the tree, and risk being hit by one of the falling nuts."

"It is," was the reply. "The large shells or cases are five inches in diameter, and weigh two or three pounds; in their descent they attain a momentum resembling that of a cannon-ball, and often bury themselves out of sight in the ground. A nut falling on a man's head will certainly break the shell, and this has happened in many instances.

"The nut-gatherers build their huts among the trees, or more often a little distance from them; if under the trees, they give the roof a sharp incline, so that nuts falling upon it will slide off and do no harm. The wind blows in the morning, and at that time the gatherers stay at home, employing their time in breaking open the shells of the previous day's collection, and getting the nuts ready for packing in sacks. When the wind ceases they go out and collect what have been shaken off by the breeze.

"It is a hard life," continued the guide, "and many of the people die in consequence of the fatigue and exposure. They must tramp through the forest, and bring in heavy loads of nuts; they have scanty food; and the swamps and forests are full of malaria. They suffer from fevers and rheumatism, and are without medicines; they receive very low wages, and are constantly in debt to their employers; they lose their way, and starve to death; and sometimes their canoes laden with nuts are overturned, and the occupants drowned. But all these dangers combined are less than the peril from the falling nuts, and not a year passes without the death of nut-gatherers from this cause.

"The trade is conducted on the credit system, very much like that of the rubber-collecting industry. The annual shipment of Brazil nuts from Para is about eleven million pounds; and the nut trade is the third in importance among foreign exports, rubber and cacao being the first and second."

"Who eats the nuts?" was the next interrogatory.

"I don't exactly know," answered Manuel, "but am told that more than half of the nuts sent from Brazil are eaten by schoolboys in England, France, and the United States."

"Yes, I remember now," said Frank, "but had forgotten for the moment the hard, black, triangular nuts we used to buy in our school-days. They are favorites with boys, but the taste for them seems to disappear as we grow older. Now, please tell me about cacao."

"Cacao is cultivated in Brazil and other lowland countries of South America," replied Manuel, "but I can't tell you much about it. You must ask Dr. Bronson."

At this moment the Doctor happened along, and Frank repeated his question.

"Cacao is the substance from which chocolate is made," he explained, "and it is the same as the French '_chocolat_' or '_coco_.' It is cultivated in tropical countries, twenty-five degrees each way from the equator, and sometimes the forests of cacao are miles and miles in extent. It grows to a height of twenty-five or thirty feet, and resembles a black-heart cherry-tree in size and shape. It is an evergreen, and has a smooth, oblong leaf, terminating in a sharp point. The fruit resembles a short, thick cucumber; it is from five to nine inches long, and contains from twenty to forty, or even fifty, beans which resemble the pit of an almond. From these beans the chocolate of commerce is made."

"Do they make it here or export the bean to other countries?" Frank inquired.

"The beans are separated from the pulp that surrounds them, and when dried are ready for market. Sometimes they undergo a fermentation to remove certain acrid qualities, but, except for local use, no attempt is made to manufacture the chocolate here. The manufacturing is done in England, France, and other countries, by means of delicate but powerful machinery. The shells of the seeds are of a dark-brown color, quite thin and brittle; they are the cocoa-shells which are sold in American grocery-stores to be used in making 'cocoa' for our tables.

"A rich oil is made from the seeds, but its manufacture is less profitable than the sale of the seeds for making chocolate or cocoa. The trees begin to bear when four years old, and the harvest season is in July and August; the industry is said to be profitable when properly managed, as the expense of maintaining a plantation is not great, and the harvest season occurs when other industries are at a standstill. The pulp that surrounds the seeds is made into a refreshing drink for immediate use, and some of the planters make from it a jelly which is said to equal the famous guava jelly. The outer shell is burned, and its ashes are the basis of a strong brown soap, like the home-made soap of New England."

Fred interrupted the conversation by calling attention to an ant-eater, the property of one of the passengers, which was secured in a cage containing an upright branch of a tree for its accommodation. Manuel said the beast made his home in the trees, and lived on the tree-ants, which were numerous in Brazil. He sleeps by day, and roams at night, and when he sleeps he gives his whole mind to it. He has strong claws and a prehensile tail; by the use of these, and by placing his head in the fork of a limb, he can slumber without any fear of falling out of bed.

The fellow was taking his afternoon nap, and the youths did not disturb him. Fred make a sketch of the ant-eater in repose, and pronounced him a model drawing-model, as he did not move a muscle during the time required for taking his portrait.

The first stopping-place of the steamer was at Serpa, thirty miles below the mouth of the Madeira; it was a town of about one hundred houses, with as mixed a population as that of Manaos, though not as numerous. The proportion of negroes seemed larger than at Manaos, and Manuel said they would find this the case in each of the river towns as they approached Para. They took on board a considerable quantity of rubber, and then steamed onward.

One hundred and fifty miles farther on they stopped at Villa Nova, the twin brother of Serpa in size and general appearance. Here the Amazon began to contract its banks, and the current increased in strength until, at Obidos, one hundred miles beyond Villa Nova, they found it narrowed to about a mile in width. The river is here two hundred and fifty feet deep, and its velocity, according to Professor Orton, is 2.4 feet per second. All the water of the Amazon does not go through this passage, as there are lateral channels which carry off a considerable quantity. Obidos is on a high bank of hard clay, and presents a bold front to the river. There are many cacao plantations in the vicinity; from Villa Nova to Para these plantations are numerous, and the industry is more important than anything else.

The river widened again as they moved on to Santarem, which is fifty miles below Obidos, and occupies a healthy position at the mouth of the Rio Tapajos, five hundred miles from the ocean. This river sends to market rubber, sarsaparilla, Brazil nuts, farina, and copaiba, and there are several cattle estates along its banks. Colonists from the southern states of North America settled here after our civil war; some of them established a prosperous business, but the greater number went away disappointed. Those who remain cultivate the sugar-cane and make sugar; some are engaged in commerce, and others have gone to rearing cattle and making butter. The latter industry was formerly unknown here, all butter used in Para, and elsewhere on the Amazon, being imported from Europe or the United States.

Below Santarem the river increased in width so greatly that at times both banks were not visible from the steamer. Several unimportant points were visited; rubber, cacao, and other products were received at the landings; and the horizon of tropical forest along the banks retained its luxuriance and monotony. There were few signs of animal life beyond an occasional hut of a rubber-maker, or a group of natives gazing idly at the steamer.

After stopping a little while at Breves, on the southwest corner of the island of Marajo, the steamer next entered the part of the Amazon known as the Para River. Eighteen hours after her departure from Breves she dropped her anchor in the harbor of Para, and ended the journey of our friends across the South American continent.