I must now take the reader from the picturesque, hilly country of the Tapajos, and its dark, streamless waters, to the boundless wooded plains, and yellow turbid current of the Upper Amazons or Solimoens. I will resume the narrative of my first voyage up the river, which was interrupted at the Barra of the Rio Negro, in the seventh chapter, to make way for the description of Santarem and its neighbourhood.

I embarked at Barra on the 26th of March, 1850, three years before steamers were introduced on the upper river, in a cuberta which was returning to Ega, the first and only town of any importance in the vast solitudes of the Solimoens, from Santarem, whither it had been sent with a cargo of turtle oil in earthenware jars. The owner, an-old white-haired Portuguese trader of Ega, named Daniel Cardozo, was then at Barra, attending the assizes as juryman, a public duty performed without remuneration, which took him six: weeks away from his business. He was about to leave Barra himself, in a small boat, and recommended me to send forward my heavy baggage in the cuberta and make the journey with him. He would reach Ega, 370 miles distant from Barra, in twelve or fourteen days! whilst the large vessel would be thirty or forty days on the road.

August 26th. 1848.—Mr. Wallace and I started to-day on the excursion which I have already mentioned as having been planned with Mr. Leavens, up the river Tocantins, whose mouth lies about forty-five miles in a straight line, but eighty miles following the bends of the river channels, to the southwest of Pará This river, as before stated, has a course of 1,600 miles, and stands third in rank amongst the streams which form the Amazons system. The preparations for the journey took a great deal of time and trouble. We had first to hire a proper vessel, a two-masted vigilinga twenty-seven feet long, with a flat prow and great breadth of beam, and fitted to live in heavy seas; for, although our voyage was only a river trip, there were vast sea-like expanses of water to traverse. It was not decked over, but had two arched awnings formed of strong wickerwork, and thatched with palm leaves. We had then to store it with provisions for three months, the time we at first intended to be away; procure the necessary passports ; and, lastly, engage a crew. Mr. Leavens, having had much experience in the country, managed all these matters. He brought two Indians from the rice-mills, and these induced another to enrol himself. We, on our parts, took our cook, Isidoro, and a young Indian lad, named Antonio, who had attached himself to us in the course of our residence at Nazareth.

As may have been gathered from the remarks already made, the neighbourhood of Ega was a fine field for a Natural History collector. With the exception of what could be learnt from the few specimens brought home, after transient visits, by Spix and Martius and the Count de Castelnau, whose acquisitions have been deposited in the public museums of Munich and Paris, very little was known in Europe of the animal tenants of this region; the collections that I had the opportunity of making and sending home attracted, therefore, considerable attention. Indeed, the name of my favourite village has become quite a household word amongst a numerous class of Naturalists, not only in England, but abroad, in consequence of the very large number of new species (upwards of 3,000) which they have had to describe, with the locality “ Ega” attached to them. The discovery of new species, however, forms but a small item in the interest belonging to the study of the living creation. The structure, habits, instincts, and geographical distribution of some of the oldest-known forms supply inexhaustible materials for reflection. The few remarks I have to make on the animals of Ega will relate to the mammals, birds, and insects, and will sometimes apply to the productions of the whole Upper Amazons region. We will begin with the monkeys, the most interesting, next to man, of all animals.

That part of the Pará river which lies in front of the city, as I have already explained, forms a narrow channel; being separated from the main waters of the estuary by a cluster of islands. This channel is about two miles broad, and constitutes part of the minor estuary of Goajará, into which the three rivers Guamá, Mojú, and Acará discharge their waters. The main channel of the Pará lies 10 miles away from the city, directly across the river; at that point, after getting clear of the islands, a great expanse of water is beheld, 10 to 12 miles in width ; the opposite shore—the island of Marajó—being visible only in clear weather as a line of tree-tops dotting the horizon. A little further upwards, that is, to the south-west, the mainland on the right or eastern shore appears, this is called Carnapijó ; it is rocky, covered with the never-ending forest, and the coast, which is fringed with broad sandy beaches, describes a gentle curve inwards. The broad reach of the Pará in front of this coast is called the Bahia, or Bay of Marajó. The coast and the interior of the land are peopled by civilised Indians and mamelucos, with a mixture of free negroes and mulattos. They are poor, for the waters are not abundant in fish, and they are dependent for a livelihood solely on their small plantations, and the scanty supply of game found in the woods.