We landed on the east side on a bank thirty feet high, and visited the Trapiche of San Pedro. Four sugar mills were in motion by oxen. The Indians had collected large piles of cane from the patches, and were manufacturing rum and molasses under the superintendence of the correjidor, a creole, having a wife and children with him. We supplied ourselves with sugar of good quality for the voyage.
The same planting produces sugar for twenty years in Mojos. The suckers yield a juice which increases in sweetness for twelve years, after which it begins to loose its saccharine matter. Cacao is gathered in November, coffee in May, and sugar in August and September.
We have quantities of musquitoes during the night, but none in the day. At 3 p. m., thermometer, 91°; water, 78°. We count eighteen different kinds of fish in the Mamoré, where the river is thirty-nine feet deep. The country has become somewhat broken in places; the land is dry, and raised well up from the level of the river, while in others it sinks down swampy. We drifted along by the current during the night after getting entangled with a sawyer or run on the side of the shore.
One of the Indians who had the "sleep in," was seated napping on the rounded roof of the barrel-shaped boat, with his head between his knees and camecita doubled under his toes, to keep the musquitoes out. He lost his balance, rolled in his sleep over and over off the boat into the river. The remarkably quick time of the man in waking up and regaining the boat, amused the old captain, who was standing forward like a figure-head, with a cigar in his mouth; now looking up at the bright moon, and then on the surface of the water for snags, both hands fighting musquitoes on all parts of his nakedness. Instead of giving the usual cry of a look-out, "Man overboard," he laughingly remarked to himself, without offering assistance—"Mucha fiesta esta noche"—plenty of fun to-night.
The grasses on the prairie are fired, and as the midnight hours pass, lightning flashes to the east. The wild cattle roam bellowing beyond the ravages of the flames. Our lead here tangles at the bottom of the river and troubles us, where we find fifty-one feet of water.
August 22.—The wind from southeast freshened almost to a gale. At a turn in the river we lay by the bank for the day; the men were unable to force the boat against the wind, which made a little sea against the current, and drove us up stream.
At 9 a. m., thermometer, 77°, and at 4 p. m., 69°. August 23d rain and lightning, with a strong southeaster. We clung to the bank all night. At 9 a. m., thermometer, 62°. At 3 p. m., thermometer, 61°. The Indians became quite cold, fastened up in the boat by the side of a steep bank. To warm themselves they took out a line ahead and pulled us slowly along against the wind and sea to the next turn in the river, which gave us the wind fair. Our poles were rigged up as masts, and with old pouches and baggage covers, we stuck up a sail, which drove us along at the rate of four miles, very much to the delight of the Indians, who never use sails in their canoes. Arriving at another turn, it became necessary to take in all sail; doing so, we ran into a cluster of trees sticking fast to the bottom of the river, when the Indians laughed, and pronounced sailing a humbug.
CHAPTER XI.
Exaltacion—Cayavabo Indians—Descending the Mamoré river—Indians shooting fish—Houbarayos savages and birds at midnight—Ascend the Itenez river—Forte do Principe da Beira in Brazil—Negro soldiers—Kind attention of the commandante—Favorable notice of the expedition by the President of Matto Grosso—The wilderness—Friendship of Don Antonio, his boat and a crew of negro soldiers—Departure for the Madeira river—Birds and fishes congregated at the mouth of the Itenez—On the Mamoré river again—A negro soldier's account of the Emperor's service—Roar of "Guajará-merim" falls.
August 24.—Arrived at the port of Exaltacion. The Indians manufacturing sugar at the mill on the bank. The largest Indian we met on the route was superintending the workmen; he measured five feet eleven inches. This is the Cayavabos tribe. These Indians are said to be the most courageous in the Beni. They are certainly a superior looking set of men.