Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon, Part 1 (of 2)

by William Lewis Herndon; Lardner Gibbon

January 5.—At 3 a. m. we passed a rock in the stream called Calderon, or Big Pot, from the bubbling and boiling of the water over it when the river is full. At this time the rock is said to be six or eight feet above the surface of the water. We could hear the rush of the water against it, but could not see it on account of the darkness of the night.

We stopped two hours to breakfast, and then drifted with the current broadside to the wind, (our six men being unable to keep the boat "head to it,") until four, when the wind went down. At five we entered the Rio Negro. We were made aware of our approach to it before getting into the mouth. The right bank at the mouth is broken into islands, and the black water of the Negro runs through the channels between these islands and alternates, in patches, (refusing to mingle,) with the muddy waters of the Amazon. The entrance is broad and superb. It is far the largest tributary of the Amazon I have yet seen; and I estimate its width at the mouth at two miles. There has been no exaggeration in the description of travellers regarding the blackness of its water. Lieut. Maw describes it perfectly when he says it looks like black marble. It well deserves the name of "Rio Negro." When taken up in a tumbler, the water is a light-red color, like a pale juniper water; and I should think it colored by some such berry. A body immersed in it has the color, though wanting the brilliancy, of red Bohemian glass.

It may have been fancy, but I thought the light cumuli that hung over the river were darker here than elsewhere. These dark, though peaceful-looking clouds, the setting sun, the glitter of the rising moon upon the sparkling ripples of the black water, with its noble expanse, gave us one of the fairest scenes upon our entrance into this river that I ever recollect to have looked upon.

The mouth of the river is about fifty miles below Pesquera. I found one hundred and five feet of depth in the middle, with a muddy bottom, and little or no current. We pulled across and camped at half-past six, on a small sand-beach on the left bank.

January 6.—Started at 1 a. m. Moderate breeze from the eastward, blowing in squalls, with light rain. The left bank of the river is bold, and occasionally rocky. At 5 a. m. we arrived at Barra. My countryman, Mr. Marcus Williams, and Senhor Enrique Antonii, an Italian, (merchants of the place,) came on board to see me. Williams was fitting out for an expedition of six months up the river; but Antonii took me at once to his house, and established me there snugly and comfortably. The greatest treat I met here, however, was a file of New York papers. They were not very late, it is true, but still six months later than anything I had seen from home; and I conned them with great interest and no small anxiety.

The Comarca of the Rio Negro, one of the territorial divisions of the great province of Pará, has, within the last year, been erected into a province, with the title of Amazonas. The President, Senhor Joâo Baptista de Figuierero Tenreiro Aranha, arrived at the capital (Barra) on the first of the month, in a government steamer, now lying abreast of the town. He brought most of the officers of the new government, and the sum of two hundred contos of reis, (one hundred and four thousand one hundred and sixty-six dollars,) drawn from the custom-house at Pará, to pay the expenses of establishing the new order of things until the collection of customs shall begin to yield.

This territory, whilst a Comarca, was a mere burden upon the public treasury, and will probably continue to be so for some time to come. I have not seen yet any laws regulating its trade, but presume that a custom-house will be established at Barra, where the exportation duties of seven per cent., and the meio dezimo, a duty of five per cent. for the support of the church, now paid at Pará, will be collected. Goods also pay a provincial tax of one and a half per cent. on foreign articles, and a half per cent. on articles of domestic produce. The income of the province would be much increased by making Barra a port of entry for the trade with Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and New Grenada; and I have no doubt that industry and enterprise will, in the course of time, bring goods of European manufacture from Demarara, by the Essequibo and Rio Branco, to Barra, and foreign trade may likewise grow up along the banks of the Oronoco, Cassiquiari, and Rio Negro.

The province has six hundred thousand square miles of territory, and but thirty thousand inhabitants—whites and civilized Indians. (No estimate can be made of the number of "Gentios," or savages, but I think this is small.) It is nobly situated. By the Amazon, Ucayali, and Huallaga, it communicates with Peru; by the Yavari, Jutay, Jurua, Purus, and Madeira, with Peru and Bolivia; by the Santiago, Pastaza, and Napo, with Ecuador; by the Iça and Japurá, with New Grenada; by the Negro and Branco, with Venezuela and the Guayanas; and by the Madeira, Tapajos Tocantins, and Xingu, with the rich interior provinces of Brazil. I presume that the Brazilian government would impose no obstacles to the settlement of this country by any of the citizens of the United States who would choose to go there and carry their slaves; and I know that the thinking people on the Amazon would be glad to see them. The President, who is laboring for the good of the province, and sending for the chiefs of the Indian tribes for the purpose of engaging them in settlement and systematic labor, said to me, at parting, "How much I wish you could bring me a thousand of your active, industrious, and intelligent population, to set an example of labor to these people;" and others told me that they had no doubt that Brazil would give titles to vacant lands to as many as came.

Foreigners have some advantage over natives in being exempt from military and civil services, which are badly paid, and a nuisance. There is still some jealousy on the part of the less educated among the natives against the foreigners, who, by superior knowledge and industry, monopolize trade, and thus prosper. This produced the terrible revolution of the Cabanos (serfs, people who live in cabins) in the years from 1836 to 1840, when many Portuguese were killed and expelled. These are the most numerous and active foreigners in the province. I have been told that property and life in the province are always in danger from this cause; and it was probably for this reason that the President, in his speech to the provincial assembly, before quoted, reminded that body, in such grave terms, that laws must be made for the control and government of the sixty thousand tapuios, who so far outnumbered the property-holders, and who are always open to the influence of the designing, the ambitious, and the wicked.

The military force of the province of Amazonas consists of two battalions of a force called Guarda Policial, numbering about thirteen hundred, and divided amongst the villages of the province. They are not paid; they furnish their own uniform, (a white jacket and trousers;) and small bodies of them are compelled by turns to do actual military service in the barracks of some of the towns, for which time they are paid at the same rate as the soldiers of the line. This is a real grievance. I have heard individuals complain of it; and I doubt if the government would get very effective service from this body in the event of civil war. This organization took the place of the national guard, disbanded in 1836. Since I left the country the national guard has been reorganized, and the military force of the province placed upon a better footing.