Four years ago Senhor Seraphim, in one of his voyages, encountered the wreck of a boat stranded on a beach of the Purus. He knew that it was not a Brazilian boat, on account of its construction, and from the fact that he at that time was the only trader on the river. He also knew that it was not an Indian's boat, from the iron ring in its bow; and the only conclusion that he could come to was that the boat had broken adrift from civilized people above, and been wrecked and broken in passing the rapids. The Indians who were with Seraphim told him that ten days higher up (though the river was broken by caxoeiras) would reach white people, who rode on horseback, and had flocks and herds. Seraphim was then probably about six hundred miles from the mouth of the Purus. His last voyage occupied eighteen months, and he brought down two hundred and twenty-five pots of copaiba, and one hundred and fifty arrobas of sarsaparilla.
The catauxis and the Indians generally of the Purus build their houses exactly as I have described those of the Yaguas. There is rarely ever more than one house at a settlement; it is called a malocca, and ten or fifteen families reside in it. Children are contracted in marriage at birth and are suffered to come together at ten or twelve years of age. The capacity of a boy to endure pain is always tested before he is permitted to take his place as a man in his tribe. The dead are buried in the same position as that used by the ancient Peruvians. The knees and elbows are tied together, and the body placed in a sitting position in a large earthern jar. This jar is placed in a hole dug in the floor of the malocca, and is filled in around the body with earth. Two smaller jars are then placed, with mouth downwards, over the large jar, and the whole is covered up with earth.
The Indians of the Purus, as elsewhere in the valley of the Amazon, are careless and lazy; most of them go naked. They cultivate a little maize and mandioc for sustenance, and make a little carajurú to paint their bodies and weapons with. Seraphim, however, had no difficulty in getting Indians to collect copaiba and sarsaparilla for him. He was not long from the Purus when I arrived at Barra; poor fellow! he was a martyr to the rheumatism, and his hands and legs were positively black from the marks left by the musquitoes. I sent him from Pará physic, which is highly esteemed upon the Amazon, called Ioduret of potassa, and "Le Roi," in return for his information, and some presents of arms &c., from the Purus.
The Amazon at Barra ordinarily commences to rise about the fifteenth of November, and continues filling till the end of December. It falls through the month of January, when it again rises till June, about the end of which month it begins to fall.
I found the Rio Negro stationary during the month of January. It commenced rising about the first of February; it is full in June. I believe it follows the laws of the Amazon, and had risen through the month of December. These laws are subject to considerable fluctuations, depending upon the greater or less quantity of rain at the sources of the rivers.
The Rio Branco, the greatest tributary of the Negro, is low in January. This river is navigable for large craft for about three hundred miles from its mouth; thence it is broken into rapids, only passable for large flat bottomed boats. It is very thickly wooded below the first rapids; above these the trees disappear, and the river is bordered by immense plains, which would afford pasturage to large numbers of cattle. Barra is supplied with beef from the Rio Branco, where it must cost very little, as it is sold in Barra at five cents a pound.
Strong northeasterly winds make the ascent of the river tedious. A boat will come down from San Joachim, near the sources of the river, to Barra, a distance of five hundred miles, and passing many rapids, in twelve days.
A portage of only two hours divides the head-waters of the Branco from those of the Essequibo. I saw fowling pieces, of English manufacture, in Barra, that had been bought by the traders on the Rio Branco from Indians, who had purchased them from traders on the Essequibo. They were of very good quality, but had generally been damaged, and were repaired by the blacksmiths of Barra. Beautiful specimens of rock crystal are brought from the highlands that divide the Branco and Essequibo. The tertianas are said to be very malignant on the Rio Branco.
There is scarcely any attempt at the regular cultivation of the earth in all the province of Amazonas; but the natural productions of its soil are most varied and valuable. In the forest are twenty-three well-known varieties of palm, all more or less useful. From the piassaba bark (called by Humboldt the chiquichiqui palm) is obtained cordage which I think quite equal in quality to the coir of India. From the leaves of the tucum are obtained the fibres of which all the hammocks of the country are made. Roofs of houses thatched with the gigantic leaves of the bussu will last more than ten years. The seed of the urucurí and inaja, are found to make the best fires for smoking India-rubber; and most of the palms give fruit, which is edible in some shape or other.
Of trees fitted for nautical constructions, there are twenty-two kinds; for the construction of houses and boats, thirty-three; for cabinet-work, twelve, (some of which—such as the jacarandá, the muirapinima, or tortoise-shell wood, and the macacauba—are very beautiful;) and for making charcoal, seven.