There is said to be a good deal of elephantiasis and leprosy among the poorer class of its inhabitants. I did not visit their residences, which are generally on the beach above the town, and therefore saw nothing of them; nor did I see much poverty or misery.
There are tokens of an increased civilization in a marble monument in the cemetery, and a billiard table. The houses are comfortably furnished, though I believe every one still sleeps in a hammock. The rides in the environs are agreeable, the views picturesque, and the horses good. A tolerably good and well-bitted horse may be had for seventy-five dollars; they graze in the streets and outskirts of the town, and are fed with Indian corn.
There is a church (one of the towers has lately tumbled down) and two or three primary schools. The gentlemen all wear gold watches, and take an immoderate quantity of snuff. I failed to get statistics of the present trade of Santarem; but an examination of the following tables furnished by Mr. Gouzennes, the intelligent and gentlemanly vice-consul of France, will show the increase in the exports of the place in the three years between 1843 and 1846.
These tables show the tonnage and cargoes of the vessels arriving in Santarem for three months in each year.
Mr. Gouzennes gave me the table for 1843, and to M. Castelnau the table for 1846. He also gave me a letter to M. Chaton, French consul at Pará, requesting that gentleman to give me his tables for the last year, (1851;) but they had been sent to France.
| Three months of 1843. | Three months of 1846. | ||
| Number of crews | 300 | 362 | |
| Tonnage | 647 | 1,287 | |
| Fish | arrobas | 5,537 | 6,402 |
| Peixe-boi | " | 75 | — |
| Tow | " | 430 | 478 |
| Pitch | " | 64 | 933 |
| Tobacco | " | 499 | 3,352 |
| Cocoa | " | 12,808 | 19,940 |
| Sarsaparilla | " | 665 | 4,836 |
| Cloves | " | 226 | 998 |
| Guaraná | " | 94 | 457 |
| Coffee | " | 369 | 512 |
| Cotton | " | 24 | 226 |
| Cumarú (Tonka beans) | " | — | 47 |
| Carajurú | " | 2 | 75 |
| Castanhas | alquieres | 1,206 | 3,709 |
| Farinha | " | 2,428 | 1,384 |
| Oil of Copaiba | pots | 427 | 3,056 |
| Oil of turtle-eggs | " | 420 | 1,628 |
| Oil of andirobá | " | 11 | 29 |
| Mixira | 170 | 316 | |
| Hides | — | 664 | |
| Oxen | 100 | 85 | |
| Piassaba rope | inches | — | 1,970 |
I think, but have no means of forming an accurate judgment, that the importations of Santarem have not increased in the same proportion in the years between 1846 and 1852. A few of these articles—such as the cotton, the coffee, a part of the tobacco, and the farinha—were probably consumed in Santarem. The rest were reshipped to Pará for consumption there, or for foreign exportation.
The decrease in the consumption of farinha is significant, and shows an increased consumption of flour from the United States.
I had from Capt. Hislop, an old Scotchman, resident of Santarem, and who had traded much with Cuiaba, in the province of Matto Grosso, the following notices of the river Tapajos, and its connexion with the Atlantic, by means of the rivers Paraguay and La Plata.
Hence to the port of Itaituba, the river is navigable for large vessels, against a strong current, for fifteen days. The distance is about two hundred miles. From Itaituba the river is navigable for boats of six or eight tons, propelled by paddling, poling, or warping. There are some fifteen or twenty caxoieras, or rapids, to pass, where the boat has to be unloaded and the cargoes carried round on the backs of the crew. At one or two the boat itself has to be hauled over the land.