The mill was built upon a platform of rock at the edge of the fall, and the wheel placed below. There was no necessity for dam or race, or, at least, a log, placed diagonally across the stream, served for a dam. It was built by a Scotchman, in partnership with a Brazilian. The Brazilian dying, his widow would neither buy nor sell, and the mill was finally burned down. I judge that it was not a good speculation; there is no fine timber in the immediate neighborhood of Barra, and no roads in the country by which it may be brought to the mill.
The Indians of the neighborhood are called Muras; they lead an idle, vagabond life, and live by hunting and fishing. A few of them come in and take service with the whites; and nearly all bring their children in to be baptized. Their reason for this is, not that they care about the ceremony, but they can generally persuade some good-natured white man to stand as godfather, which secures the payment of the church fee, (a cruzado) a bottle of spirits to the father, and a yard or two of cotton cloth to the mother. Antonii tells me he is compadre with half the tribe.
They are thorough savages, and kill a number of their children from indisposition to take care of them. My good hostess told me that her father, returning from a walk to his house in the country, heard a noise in the woods; and, going towards the spot, found a young Indian woman, a tapuia of his, digging a hole in the ground for the purpose of burying her infant just born. He interfered to prevent it, when she flew at him like a tiger. The old gentleman, however, cudgelled her into submission and obedience, and compelled her to take the child home, where he put it under the care of another woman.
The women suffer very little in parturition, and are able to perform all the offices of a midwife for themselves. I am told that sometimes, when a man and his wife are travelling together in a canoe, the woman will signify to her husband her desire to land; will retreat into the woods, and in a very short time return with a newly-born infant, which she will wash in the river, sling to her back, and resume her paddle again. Even the ladies of this country are confined a very short time. The mother of my little namesake was about her household avocations in seven days after his birth. This probably arises from three causes: the climate, the habit of wearing loose dresses, and the absence of dissipation.
The Rio Negro, opposite the town, is about a mile and a half wide, and very beautiful. The opposite shore is masked by low islands; and, where glimpses of it can be had, it appears to be five or six miles distant. The river is navigable for almost any draught to the Rio Maraya, a distance of twenty-five days, or, according to the rate of travelling on these streams, about four hundred miles; there the rapids commence, and the further ascent must be made in boats. Though large vessels may not ascend these rapids, they descend without difficulty. Most of the vessels that ply both on the Rio Negro and Oronoco are built at or near San Carlos, the frontier port of Venezuela, situated above the rapids of the Negro, and are sent down those rapids, and also up the Cassiquiari and down the Oronoco to Angostura, passing the two great rapids of Atures and Maypures, where that river turns from its westerly course toward the north. They cannot again ascend these rapids. Antonii has a new vessel lying at Barra, built at San Carlos; it is one hundred tons burden, and is well constructed, except that the decks, being laid of green wood, have warped, and require to be renewed. It cost him one thousand dollars. Brazilians pay a tax of fifteen per cent. on prime cost on foreign-built vessels. Foreigners not naturalized cannot sail vessels in their own name upon the interior waters of the empire.
It takes fifty-one days to go from Barra, at the mouth of the Negro, to San Fernando, on the Oronoco. This is by ascending the Negro above the mouth of the Cassiquiari, taking the caño of Pimichim and a portage of six hours to the headwaters of a small stream called Atabapo, which empties into the Oronoco. A small boat may be dragged over this portage in a day; to go between the same places by the Cassiquiari requires ten days more at the most favorable season, and twenty when the Oronoco is full.
From the journal of a voyage made by Antonii in the months of April, May, and June, 1844, it appears that from Barra to Airâo is five days; thence to the mouth of Rio Branco, four; to Barcellos, three; to Moreira, three; to Thomar, two; to San Isabel, five; to Rio Maraia, three; to Castanheiro, two; to Masarabi, one; to San Gabriel, six; to Santa Barbara, one; to Sta. Ana, one; to N. S. de Guia, one; to Mabé, one; to Sta. Marcellina, one; to Maribitano, one; to Marcellera, one; to San Carlos, two; to Tiriquim, one; to Tomo, two; to Marâo, one; to Pimichim, one; to Javita, one; to Baltazar, one; to San Fernando, one.
A few hours above Barcellos is the mouth of the river Quiuni, which is known to run up to within a very short distance of the Japura; nearly opposite to San Isabel is the mouth of a river called Jurubashea, which also runs up nearly to the Japura. Between these rivers is the great Puxiri country; it is covered with water when the rivers are full. There is a vagabond tribe of Indians living in this country called Magu. They use no canoes, and when they cannot travel on the land, for the depth of water, they are said to make astonishing progress from tree to tree, like monkeys; the men laden with their arms and the women with their children.
Just above San Isabel are found great quantities of the Brazil nut; and a little further up is the mouth of the river Cababuri, where sarsaparilla, estimated at Pará as being better in quality than that of any other in the valley of the Amazon, is gathered; still higher up, above San Carlos, is cocoa of very superior quality, and in great abundance.
I have estimated that the distance between Barra and San Carlos at the mouth of the Cassiquiari is about six hundred and sixty miles. A flat-bottomed iron steamer calculated to pass the rapids of the Rio Negro will make seventy-five miles a day against the current. This will take her to San Carlos in nine days. She will ascend the Cassiquiari one hundred and eighty miles in two and a half days. From the junction of the Cassiquiari and the Oronoco to Angostura is seven hundred and eighty miles. The steamer has the current with her, and, instead of seventy-five, will run one hundred and twenty-five miles a day. This will bring her to Angostura in six days; thence to the ocean, two hundred and fifty miles, in two days. This allows the steamer abundance of time to take in fuel, and to discharge and take in cargo, at the many villages she finds on her route; with a canal cut over the portage of six hours at Pimichim, she will make the voyage in five days less. Thus by the natural canal of the Cassiquiari the voyage between Barra, at the mouth of the Negro, and the mouth of the Oronoco, may be made by steam in nineteen and a half days; by the canal at Pimichim in fourteen and a half days.