Back from the river the population is as scattered and scanty as upon its banks; there is room for millions of people in the valley of the Amazon, and but for the great density of the forests, the fevers and other diseases, and the pestiferous insects that fill the air from beginning to end of the year, the country would doubtless attract emigration from the overcrowded cities and rural districts of Europe. Brazil has made repeated efforts to attract emigration, but thus far they have amounted to very little; a few thousand Germans and others have gone there, but their experience has not been such as to encourage the coming of others. It will doubtless be a long time before the Amazon Valley can honestly claim half a dozen inhabitants to the square mile.
In due time the steamer returned from San Antonio, and our friends continued their journey.
They were the only passengers, and had things their own way. The steamer had a large upper saloon, open on all sides, but capable of being closed in by curtains in bad weather. There was a long table in the centre at which meals were served, and at each corner of the saloon stood an earthen jar filled with drinking water which had been carefully filtered. The water of the Amazon and its tributaries contains many vegetable impurities; it should not be drank without filtering, and the prudent traveller will also have it boiled.
Between the table and the sides of the saloon there were hooks for suspending hammocks; Manuel explained that they could hang their hammocks in any unoccupied places, sleeping there by night and reclining during the day. They could have private cabins on the main-deck if they preferred, but the private rooms were less airy, and not to be desired. By a party just from the trip over the Andes and down the Beni such a proposal was naturally laughed at; the youths and their mentor swung their hammocks where they liked, and enjoyed the beautiful panorama that was unfolded to their eyes as the steamer moved on her course.
Frank declared it the perfection of travelling comfort to lie in a hammock and study the scenery with hardly the motion of a muscle; it surpassed the indolence of a chair on the deck of a transatlantic steamship, or the fauteuil of a Pullman car from New York to San Francisco. But it is proper to add that neither of the young gentlemen adhered closely to his hammock during the daytime, in spite of any theories in that direction. They were here, there, and everywhere on the steamboat; now studying the magnificent forest that passed before their eyes, or gazing into the dark waters through which they ploughed their way. Turtles and great fishes were their delight, and of the former at least there was no lack. When a sand-bar was approached they eagerly scanned it with their glasses in search of alligators, and as these products of the river were abundant and sand-bars were numerous, they had plenty of amusement in this line.
The ordinary life on the steamboat, so far as meals were concerned, was as follows: coffee was served as soon as the passengers were out of their hammocks, and if they were specially inclined to laziness they had it before they rose. Breakfast was served at ten o'clock, dinner at five, and tea at eight. At breakfast and dinner there was a plentiful supply of meat, sometimes half a dozen courses being served of meats alone. Live turtles and fowls were kept on board for the wants of the table; on the large steamers on the lower Amazon there are always a few bullocks carried along and slaughtered when wanted, in addition to chickens and turtles. Rice and farina are abundantly supplied at every meal, and the cook (a Chinaman) brought back recollections of Java and India in his skill in making curries and pilaufs. The captain of a steamer on the Amazon has an allowance for feeding the passengers and crew; sometimes he delegates the purchases to the cook, but quite as often he takes the matter into his own hands and does his buying in person. By so doing he avoids extravagance, and escapes the inevitable "squeezes" of the cook.
PIRA-RUCÛ, A FISH OF THE AMAZON.
The captains are usually paid a salary, and commissions on the freight and passengers; in a prosperous season the commissions will amount to more than the salary, and if the captain has an inclination to dishonesty his opportunities are excellent. Most of the steamboats receive a subsidy from the government, which guarantees them against loss, and altogether their business shows a very good profit.