

E-text prepared by MWS, Adrian Mastronardi, Eleni Christofaki, and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page
images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)



Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
      file which includes the original illustrations.
      See 53177-h.htm or 53177-h.zip:
      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53177/53177-h/53177-h.htm)
      or
      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53177/53177-h.zip)


      Images of the original pages are available through
      Internet Archive. See
      https://archive.org/details/travelsonamazon00wall_0


Transcriber's note:

      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

      Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).

      A list of the changes made can be found at the end of
      the book.





TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON


[Illustration: THE WORLD LIBRARY]


TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON

by

A. R. WALLACE







London
Melbourne·&·Toronto
Ward·Lock·&·Co·Limited
1911




PREFACE.


AN earnest desire to visit a tropical country, to behold the luxuriance
of animal and vegetable life said to exist there, and to see with my
own eyes all those wonders which I had so much delighted to read of in
the narratives of travellers, were the motives that induced me to break
through the trammels of business and the ties of home, and start for

    "Some far land where endless summer reigns."

My attention was directed to Pará and the Amazon by Mr. Edwards's
little book, "A Voyage up the Amazon," and I decided upon going there,
both on account of its easiness of access and the little that was known
of it compared with most other parts of South America.

I proposed to pay my expenses by making collections in Natural History,
and I have been enabled to do so; and the pleasures I have found in
the contemplation of the strange and beautiful objects continually met
with, and the deep interest arising from the study in their native
wilds of the varied races of mankind, have been such as to determine my
continuing in the pursuit I have entered upon, and to cause me to look
forward with pleasure to again visiting the wild and luxuriant scenery
and the sparkling life of the tropics.

In the following pages I have given a narrative of my journeys and of
the impressions excited at the time. The first and last portions are
from my journals, with little alteration; but all the notes made during
two years, with the greater part of my collections and sketches,
were lost by the burning of the ship on my homeward voyage. From
the fragmentary notes and papers which I have saved I have written
the intermediate portion, and the four last chapters on the Natural
History of the country and on the Indian tribes, which, had I saved all
my materials, were intended to form a separate work on the Physical
History of the Amazon.

In conclusion, I trust that the great loss of materials which
I have suffered, and which every naturalist and traveller will
fully appreciate, may be taken into consideration, to explain the
inequalities and imperfections of the narrative, and the meagreness
of the other part of the work, so little proportionate to what might
be expected from a four years' residence in such an interesting and
little-known country.

    LONDON, _October_, 1853.


PREFACE TO NEW EDITION.

THIS issue is substantially a reprint of the original work, but the
proof sheets have been carefully revised and many verbal corrections
made. A few notes have been added, and English names have in many cases
been substituted for the local terms, which were used too freely in
the first edition. The only omissions are the vocabularies of Indian
languages and Dr. Latham's observations on them, which were thought to
be unsuitable to the general reader.

                                                               A. R. W.

    PARKSTONE, DORSET, _October_, 1889.




CONTENTS.


    CHAPTER I.

    PARÁ.

    Arrival at Pará--Appearance of the city and its environs--The
      inhabitants and their costumes--Vegetation--Sensitive
      plants--Lizards--Ants and other insects--Birds--Climate--Food of
      the inhabitants                                                  1

    CHAPTER II.

    PARÁ.

    Festas--Portuguese and Brazilian currency--M. Borlaz'
      estate--Walk to the rice-mills--The virgin forest, its
      plants and insects--Milk-tree--Saw and rice-mills--Caripé
      or pottery-tree--India-rubber-tree--Flowers and trees in
      blossom--Saüba ants, wasps, and chegoes--Journey by water to
      Magoary--The monkeys--The commandante at Laranjeiras--Vampire
      bats--The timber-trade--Boa constrictor and sloth               13

    CHAPTER III.

    THE TOCANTÍNS.

    Canoe, stores, and crew--River Mojú--Igaripé
      Miri--Cametá--Senhor Gomez and his establishment--Search
      for a dinner--Jambouassú--Polite letter--Baião and its
      inhabitants--A swarm of wasps--Enter the rocky district--The
      Mutuca--Difficulty of getting men--A village without
      houses--Catching an alligator--Duck-shooting--Aroyas, and the
      Falls--