The city of Pará is supplied with its beef from the great island of Marajo, which is situated immediately in the mouth of the Amazon. This island has a superficial extent of about ten thousand square miles, and is a great grazing country. Cattle were first introduced into it from the Cape de Verde Islands, in 1644. They increased with great rapidity, and government soon drew a considerable revenue from its tax on cattle.
Before the year 1824, a good horse might have been bought in Marajo for a dollar; but about that time a great and infectious disease broke out among the horses, and swept away vast numbers; so that Marajo is now dependent upon Ceará and the provinces to the southward for its supply of horses. I heard that the appearance of this disease was caused by the fact that an individual having bought the right from the government to kill ten thousand mares on the island, actually killed a great many more; and the carcasses, being left to rot upon the plains, poisoned the grass and bred the pestilence which swept off nearly all.
Other accounts state that the disease came from about Santarem and Lago Grande, where it first attacked the dogs; then the capiuaras, or river-hogs; then the alligators; and, finally, the horses. It attacks the back and loins; so that the animal loses the use of his hind-legs. Government sent a young man to France to study farriery, in hopes to arrest the disease; but the measure was productive of no good results. The disease still continues; and, ten years ago, appeared for the first time in the island of Mexiana, not far from Marajó. Within the last year, nearly all the horses on this island have died. I believe it has never attacked the horned cattle.
Beeves are brought from Marajó to Pará in small vessels, fitted for the purpose. They are frequently a week on the passage; and all this time they are on very short allowance of food and water; so that, when they arrive, they may almost be seen through.
The butchering and selling are all done under municipal direction; and the price of beef is regulated by law. This is about five and a half cents the pound. Gentlemen maintain horses and milch cows in Pará, or its neighborhood. These are fed generally on American hay. Some small quantity of grass is to be had from the roçinhas, or small farms, in the environs of the city; and a tolerably good food for cattle is had from a fine flour, found between the chaff and grain of rice. This is called muinha, (quim, in Maranham,) and is very extensively used, mixed with the chaff.
The island of Marajó is very much cut up with creeks, which, in the rainy season, overflow the low land, and form marshes, which are the graves of a great number of cattle. The cattle, at this season, are also crowded together on the knolls of land that are above the waters in the inundation, and many of them fall a prey to the ounces, which abound on the island. These creeks are also filled with alligators. Mr. Smith, former consul at Pará, told me that he had seen the carcass of one there which was thirty feet long.
I saw a number of curious and beautiful animals in Pará. Mr. Norris had some electric eels, and a pair of large and beautiful anacondas. I had never heard a serpent hiss before I heard these, and the sound filled me with disgust and dread. The noise was very like the letting off of steam at a distance. The extreme quickness and violence with which they darted from their coil (lacerating their mouths against the wire-work of the cage) was sufficiently trying to a nervous man; and few could help starting back when it occurred. These animals measured about eighteen feet in length, and the skin, which they shed nearly every month, measured eighteen inches in circumference. They seldom ate; a chicken or a rat was given to them when it was convenient. They killed their food by crushing it between their head and a fold of their body, and swallowed it with deliberation. I imagine that they would live entirely without food for six months.
Many gentlemen had tigers about their establishments. They were docile, and playful in their intercourse with acquaintances; but they were generally kept chained for fear of injury to strangers. Their play, too, was not very gentle, for their claws could scarcely touch without leaving a mark.
Mr. Pond, an American, had a pair of black tigers, that were the most beautiful animals I have ever seen. The ground color of the body was a very dark maroon; but it was so thickly covered with black spots that, to a casual glance, the animal appeared coal black. The brilliancy of the color—the savage glare of the eye—the formidable appearance of their tusks and claws—and their evidently enormous strength—gave them a very imposing appearance. They were not so large as the Bengal tiger; but much larger than the common ounce. They were bred in Pará from cubs.
Electric eels are found in great numbers in the creeks and ditches about Pará. The largest I have seen was about four inches in diameter, and five feet in length. Their shock, to me, was unpleasant, but not painful. Some persons, however, are much more susceptible than others. Captain Lee, of the Dolphin, could not feel at all the shock of an eel, which affected a lady so strongly as to cause her to reel, and nearly fall. Animals seem more powerfully affected than men. Mr. Norris told me that he had seen a horse drinking out of a tub, in which was one of these eels, jerked entirely off his feet. It may be that the electric shock was communicated directly to the stomach by means of the water he was swallowing; but Humboldt gives a very interesting account of the manner of taking these eels by means of horses, which shows that they are peculiarly susceptible to the shock. He says: