"The remedy had a good effect. The attacks became less frequent and long; and during the three days I remained in the neighborhood of the Malocca the old Tuchão came every day to thank me; pressed my hands with affection, and brought me each time different small presents—fruits, birds, or spoils taken heretofore from an enemy.
"From Santa Ana, where I crossed the river, I determined to enter the forests, and not to descend by the cataracts. Six Indians went back with the boat to Itaituba; the three others remained to accompany me to the Mahués Indians, whom no European traveller had visited, and whom I much desired to know.
"The Indian hunter, to whom I gave one of my guns, carried my hammock and walked in front. I followed him, loaded with a gun and a sack, (which contained ammunition,) my compass, paper, pencils, and some pieces of guaraná. The other two Indians walked behind carrying a little manioc flour, travelling necessaries, and a small press to dry the rare plants that I might collect on my journey.
"We followed a narrow pathway, sometimes across forests, uneven, and muddy, broken by small pebbly rivulets, the water of which is occasionally very cold; sometimes climbing steep mountains, through running vines and thorny palm-trees. I was covered with a cold and heavy sweat, which forced me to throw off my garment, preferring to endure the stings of myriads of insects to the touch of a garment that perspiration and the humidity of the forest had chilled.
"Towards five o'clock we stopped near a rivulet; for in these forests it soon becomes night. The Indians made a fire and roasted the birds and monkeys that the hunter had killed. I selected a parrot for supper.
"The following day we arrived, about nightfall, at the Indian village of Mandu-assu.
"The Mahués Indians do not tattoo the body as the Mundrucus, or, if they do, it is only with the juice of vegetables, which disappears after four or five days.
"Formerly, when they were enemies of the white man, they were conquered and subdued by the Mundrucus. At present they live in peace with their neighbors, and willingly negotiate with the whites.
"The men are well formed, robust, and active; the women are generally pretty. Less warlike than the Mundrucus, they yield willingly to civilization; they surround their neat cabins with plantations of banana trees, coffee, or guaraná.
"The precious and medicinal guaraná plant, which the Brazilians of the central provinces of Goyaz and Matto Grosso purchase with its weight in gold, to use against the putrid fevers which rage at certain periods of the year, is owed to the Mahués Indians. They alone know how to prepare it, and entirely monopolize it.