“To this end, the accomplishment of which I cannot longer defer, I invite all to join me in offering to Professor Agassiz and to his wife, in the name of the Province of the Amazonas, a modest rural breakfast (almoço campestre) in the Casa dos Educandos, on Sunday, the 18th of this month, at 11 o’clock in the morning. I hereby invite you and your family to be present, in order that this festival, great in the earnestness of our intentions, however small as compared with the importance of those to whom it is offered, should be gay and brilliant.
“Antonio Epaminondas de Mello.
“Palace of the Government at Manaos, 13 November, 1865.”
[83]. As I do not wish to mislead, and this narrative may perhaps influence some one to make a journey in this region, I should add, that, while the above is strictly true, there are many things essential to the comfort of the traveller not to be had. There is not a decent hotel throughout the whole length of the Amazons, and any one who thinks of travelling there must provide himself with such letters as will secure accommodation in private houses. So recommended, he may safely depend upon hospitality, or upon such assistance from individuals as will enable him to find a private lodging.
[84]. Much of what follows upon social abuses, tyranny of the local police, prison discipline, &c., though not quoted in his own words, has been gathered from conversations with Mr. Agassiz, or from discussions between him and his Brazilian friends. The way in which this volume has grown up, being as it were the result of a double experience, makes it occasionally difficult to draw the exact line marking the boundaries of authorship; the division being indeed somewhat vague in the minds of the writers themselves. But since criticisms of this sort would have little value, except as based upon larger opportunities for observation than fell to my share, I am the more anxious to refer them, wherever I can, to their right source.
[85]. Let any one who doubts the evil of this mixture of races, and is inclined, from a mistaken philanthropy, to break down all barriers between them, come to Brazil. He cannot deny the deterioration consequent upon an amalgamation of races, more wide-spread here than in any other country in the world, and which is rapidly effacing the best qualities of the white man, the negro, and the Indian, leaving a mongrel nondescript type, deficient in physical and mental energy. At a time when the new social status of the negro is a subject of vital importance in our statesmanship, we should profit by the experience of a country where, though slavery exists, there is far more liberality toward the free negro than he has ever enjoyed in the United States. Let us learn the double lesson: open all the advantages of education to the negro, and give him every chance of success which culture gives to the man who knows how to use it; but respect the laws of nature, and let all our dealings with the black man tend to preserve, as far as possible, the distinctness of his national characteristics, and the integrity of our own.—L. A.
[86]. For some remarks concerning the structural peculiarities of the Indians and Negroes, see Appendix No. [V].
[87]. I did not succeed in getting good likenesses of this Mundurucu pair. The above wood-cuts do no justice to their features and expression, though they give a faithful record of the peculiar mode of tattooing.—L. A.
[88]. During my short stay in the neighborhood of Villa Bella and Obydos I was indebted to several residents of these towns for assistance in collecting; especially to Padre Torquato and to Padre Antonio Mattos. My friend, Mr. Honorio, who accompanied me to this point, with the assistance of the Delegado, at Villa Bella, made also a very excellent collection of fishes in this vicinity. At Obydos Colonel Bentos contributed a very large collection of fishes from the Rio Trombetas.—L. A.
[89]. See Chapter XIII., on the Physical History of the Amazons.