Travels on the Amazon

by Alfred Russel Wallace

After four days' delay, we at length started, with a comparatively small complement of Indians, but with some extra men to assist us in passing several caxoeiras, which occur near at hand. These are the "Piréwa" (Wound), "Uacorouá" (Goat-sucker), "Maniwára" (White Ant), "Matapí" (Fish-trap), "Amána" (Rain), "Tapíracúnga" (Tapir's head), "Tapíra eura" (Tapir's mouth), and "Jacaré" (Alligator). Three of these were very bad, the canoe having to be unloaded entirely, and pulled over the dry and uneven rocks. The last was the highest; the river rushing furiously about twenty feet down a rugged slope of rock. The loading and unloading of the canoe three or four times in the course of as many hours, is a great annoyance. Baskets of farinha and salt, of mandiocca-cakes and pacovas, are strewn about. Panellas are often broken; and when there comes a shower of rain, everything has to be heaped together in a hurry,—palm-leaves cut, and the more perishable articles covered; but boxes, rédés, and numerous other articles are sure to be wetted, rendering us very uncomfortable when again hastily tumbled into the overcrowded canoe. If I had birds or insects out drying, they were sure to be overturned, or blown by the wind, or wetted by the rain, and the same fate was shared by my note-books and papers. Articles in boxes, unless packed tight, were shaken and rumpled by not being carried evenly; so that it was an excellent lesson in patience, to bear all with philosophical serenity. We had passed all these falls by midday; and at night slept on a rock, where there was a small rapid and a house without inhabitants.

On the 8th we had tolerably quiet water, with only two small rapids, the "Taiéna" (Child), and "Paroquet" caxoeiras. On the 9th, in the morning, we reached the "Pacu" fall, and then had a quiet stream, though full of rocks, till the afternoon, when we passed the "Macucú" (a tree), "Anacás" (Pineapple), and "Uacú" (a fruit) caxoeiras; all very bad and difficult ones. We had left Carurú with very little farinha, as none was to be had there, and we had seen no inhabited sitios where any could be purchased; so our Indians were now on short allowance of "beijú," which they had brought with them. Of a passing Indian I bought a basket of Ocokí, and some fish. The Ocokí is a large pear-shaped fruit, with a hard thick outer skin of almost a woody texture, then a small quantity of very sweet pulpy matter, and within a large black oval stone. The pulp is very luscious, but is so acrid as to make the mouth and throat sore, if more than two or three are eaten. When, however, the juice is boiled it loses this property; and when made into mingau with tapioca, is exceedingly palatable and very highly esteemed in the Upper Rio Negro, where it is abundant. It takes at least a peck of fruit to give one small panella of mingau.

On the next day, the 10th, in the afternoon, the Indians all suddenly sprang like otters into the water, swam to the shore, and disappeared in the forest. "Ocokí," was the answer to my inquiries as to the cause of their sudden disappearance; and I soon found they had discovered an ocokí-tree, and were loading themselves with the fruit to satisfy the cravings of hunger, for an Indian's throat and mouth seem invulnerable to all those scarifying substances which act upon civilised man. The tree is one of the loftiest in the forest, but the fruit falls as soon as ripe, and its hard woody coating preserves it from injury. Baskets, shirts, trousers, etc., were soon filled with the fruit and emptied into the canoe; and I made each of the Indians bring a small basketful for me; so that we had "mingau de ocokí" for three succeeding mornings.

The rocks from Carurú often present a scoriaceous appearance, as if the granite had been remelted. Sometimes they are a mass of burnt fragments, sometimes a honeycombed rock with a shining surface. In some places there are enclosed fragments of a finer-grained rock, apparently sandstone, and numerous veins and dykes, which often cross each other in three or four sets. The rocks are, in many places, so broken and cleft vertically, as to appear stratified and thrown up on end. The rounded form and concentric arrangement, observed in the Rio Negro, is here also constantly met with. The interstices of the rounded and angular masses of rock are often filled with a curious volcanic substance, which outwardly resembles pitch, but consists of scoriae, sand, clays, etc., variously cemented together.

On the 10th we passed the "Tapioca," "Tucáno" (Toucan), "Tucunaré" (a fish), "Uaracú piními" (a fish), and "Tyeassú" (Pig) caxoeiras. The first was very bad, and both difficult and dangerous to pass; it consisted of many distinct falls among huge masses of rock. At one place the canoe remained stuck fast, amidst foaming waters, on the very edge of a fall, for nearly an hour; all the efforts of the Indians could not move it forward. They heaved it over from one side to the other, but with no effect; till I began to despair of getting out of the difficulty before night. At last the canoe suddenly moved on, with apparently not so much force as had been before applied to it; but my Indians, being of several nations, did not understand any common language, and it was impossible to get them to act in concert, or obey any leader. It was probably some chance combination of forces, that at last extricated us from our unpleasant situation. At this fall, on the rocks, were very numerous figures, or picture-writings, and I stopped to make drawings of them; of which I had by this time a rather extensive collection.

The next three falls were small rapids; but the last, which we reached late in the evening, was fearful. The river makes a sudden bend, and is confined in a very narrow channel, which is one confused mass of rocks of every size and shape, piled on one another, and heaped up in the greatest possible confusion. Every stone which rises above high-water mark is covered with vegetation; and among the whole the river rushes and foams, so as to make the task of pilot one of no ordinary difficulty. Just as it was getting dark, we passed out of these gloomy narrows into a wider and more cheerful part of the river, and stayed at a rock to sup and sleep.

On the 11th, early, we reached Uarucapurí, where are a village and several maloccas. The first which we entered was inhabited by people of the Cobeu nation. There were about a dozen handsome men, all clean-limbed and well painted, with armlets and necklaces of white beads, and with the ears plugged with a piece of wood the size of a common bottle-cork, to the end of which was glued a piece of porcelain presenting a white shining surface. We agreed with these men to help to pass our canoe up the falls, and then proceeded on our walk through the village. My old friend Senhor Chagas was here, and with him I breakfasted off a fine pirahíba which his men had caught that morning, and which was the first I had eaten since my illness.

With some difficulty I succeeded in buying two or three baskets of farinha; and being anxious to get to my journey's end, which was now near at hand, about midday we proceeded. Our pilot and his son left us, and we had now only six paddles; but four or five additional men came with us to pass the remaining caxoeiras, which were near. Close to the village we passed the "Cururú" (a toad), and "Murucututú" (an owl) falls, both rather bad; and, soon after, arrived at the "Uacoroúa" (Goatsucker), the last great fall on the river below the "Juruparí," which is many days further up. Here the river is precipitated over a nearly vertical rock, about ten feet high, and much broken in places. The canoe had to be entirely unloaded, and then pulled up over the rocks on the margin of the fall, a matter of considerable difficulty. To add to our discomfort, a shower of rain came on while the canoe was passing; and the Indians, as usual, having scattered the cargo about in great confusion, it had to be huddled together and covered with mats and palm-leaves, till the shower, which was luckily a short one, passed over. Loading again and proceeding onwards, we passed three small rapids, the "Tatu" (Armadillo), "Ocokí" (a fruit), and "Piranterá" (a fish) caxoeiras; and our additional Indians here left us, with their payment of fish-hooks and arrow-heads, as we now had only smooth water before us. In the afternoon we passed a malocca, where one of the Indians wished to land to see his friends; and as we did not stay, at night he took his departure, and we saw no more of him.

Early the next morning we reached Mucúra, where two young Brazilians, whom I had met with below, were residing, trading for salsa. I was now in the country of the painted turtle and the white umbrella-bird, and I determined to make a stay of at least a fortnight, to try and obtain these much-desired rarities.

Messrs. Nicoláu and Bellarmine were both out, and their little palm-leaf huts were evidently quite inadequate to my accommodation. The only other house was a small Indian malocca, also made entirely of "palha;" and I agreed with the owner to let me have half of it, giving him a small knife and mirror in payment, with which he was well contented. We accordingly cleared and swept out our part of the house, unloaded and arranged our things, and I then sent my guardas to a malocca, in which there were said to be plenty of Indians, to see if they had any farinha or pacovas to dispose of; and also to let them know that I would purchase birds, or fish, or any other animals they could obtain for me. The men were all out; but the same afternoon they came in great force to see the "Branco," and make an attack on my fish-hooks and beads, bringing me fish, pacovas, farinha, and mandiocca-cake, for all of which one of these two articles was asked in exchange.