第60章

On the morning of the 27th we had a fair wind, the breadth of the stream varying from about 150 to 400 yards.About midday we passed, on the western side, the mouth of the Aturiazal, through which, on account of its swifter current, vessels pass in descending from the Amazons to Para.Shortly afterwards we entered the narrow channel of the Jaburu, which lies twenty miles above the mouth of the Breves.Here commences the peculiar scenery of this remarkable region.We found ourselves in a narrow and nearly straight canal, not more than eighty to a hundred yards in width, and hemmed in by two walls of forest, which rose quite perpendicularly from the water to a height of seventy or eighty feet.The water was of great and uniform depth, even close to the banks.We seemed to be in a deep gorge, and the strange impression the place produced was augmented by the dull echoes wakened by the voices of our Indians and the splash of their paddles.The forest was excessively varied.Some of the trees, the dome-topped giants of the Leguminous and Bombaceous orders, reared their heads far above the average height of the green walls.The fan-leaved Miriti palm was scattered in some numbers amidst the rest, a few solitary specimens shooting up their smooth columns above the other trees.The graceful Assai palm grew in little groups, forming feathery pictures set in the rounder foliage of the mass.The Ubussu, lower in height, showed only its shuttlecock shaped crowns of huge undivided fronds, which, being of a vivid pale-green, contrasted forcibly against the sombre hues of the surrounding foliage.The Ubussu grew here in great numbers; the equally remarkable Jupati palm (Rhaphia taedigera), which, like the Ubussu, is peculiar to this district, occurred more sparsely, throwing its long shaggy leaves, forty to fifty feet in length, in broad arches over the canal.An infinite diversity of smaller-sized palms decorated the water's edge, such as the Maraja-i (Bactris, many species), the Ubim (Geonoma), and a few stately Bacabas (Oenocarpus Bacaba).The shape of this last is exceedingly elegant, the size of the crown being in proper proportion to the straight smooth stem.The leaves, down even to the bases of the glossy petioles, are of a rich dark-green colour, and free from spines.

"The forest wall"--I am extracting from my journal-"under which we are now moving, consists, besides palms, of a great variety of ordinary forest trees.From the highest branches of these down to the water sweep ribbons of climbing plants of the most diverse and ornamental foliage possible.Creeping convolvuli and others have made use of the slender lianas and hanging air roots as ladders to climb by.Now and then appears a Mimosa or other tree having similar fine pinnate foliage, and thick masses of Inga border the water, from whose branches hang long bean-pods, of different shape and size according to the species, some of them a yard in length.Flowers there are very few.I see, now and then, a gorgeous crimson blossom on long spikes ornamenting the sombre foliage towards the summits of the forest.I suppose it to belong to a climber of the Combretaceous order.There are also a few yellow and violet Trumpet-flowers (Bignoniae).The blossoms of the Ingas, although not conspicuous, are delicately beautiful.

The forest all along offers so dense a front that one never obtains a glimpse into the interior of the wilderness."The length of the Jaburu channel is about thirty-five miles, allowing for the numerous abrupt bends which occur between the middle and the northern end of its course.We were three days and a half accomplishing the passage.The banks on each side seemed to be composed of hard river-mud with a thick covering of vegetable mold, so that I should imagine this whole district originated in a gradual accumulation of alluvium, through which the endless labyrinths of channels have worked their deep and narrow beds.The flood-tide as we travelled northward became gradually of less assistance to us, as it caused only a feeble current upwards.The pressure of the waters from the Amazons here makes itself felt; as this is not the case lower down, I suppose the currents are diverted through some of the numerous channels which we passed on our right, and which traverse, in their course towards the sea, the northwestern part of Marajo.In the evening of the 29th we arrived at a point where another channel joins the Jaburu from the northeast.Up this the tide was flowing; we turned westward, and thus met the flood coming from the Amazons.

This point is the object of a strange superstitious observance on the part of the canoemen.It is said to be haunted by a Paje, or Indian wizard, whom it is necessary to propitiate by depositing some article on the spot, if the voyager wishes to secure a safe return from the "sertao," as the interior of the country is called.The trees were all hung with rags, shirts, straw hats, bunches of fruit, and so forth.Although the superstition doubtless originated with the aborigines, I observed in both my voyages, that it was only the Portuguese and uneducated Brazilians who deposited anything.The pure Indians gave nothing, and treated the whole affair as a humbug; but they were all civilised Tapuyos.

On the 30th, at 9 p.m., we reached a broad channel called Macaco, and now left the dark, echoing Jaburu.The Macaco sends off branches towards the northwest coast of Marajo.It is merely a passage amongst a cluster of islands, between which a glimpse is occasionally obtained of the broad waters of the main Amazons.Abrisk wind carried us rapidly past its monotonous scenery, and early in the morning of the 1st of October we reached the entrance of the Uituquara, or the Wind-hole, which is fifteen miles distant from the end of the Jaburu.This is also a winding channel, thirty-five miles in length, threading a group of islands, but it is much narrower than the Macaco.