On the Banks of the Amazon

by William Henry Giles Kingston

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

  JOYFUL NEWS.

  Day after day we sailed down the mighty Amazon, often the opposite shoreappearing like a blue line in the distance, and yet we were upwards oftwelve hundred miles from the mouth. Now it again narrowed into moreriver-like proportions. Sometimes we found ourselves navigating betweennumerous islands, cut off from the mainland by the rush of waters; butalong the whole extent, often for a hundred miles together, not a hutwas to be seen, not a sign of a human habitation. Whenever we came nearthe abode of man we landed, and Domingos or John and one of the nativesapproached cautiously to make inquiries; but hitherto without success.Here and there we came to a mission establishment of the Portuguese.They consisted generally of the priest's house, a larger building forthe church, and a few huts scattered about, inhabited by natives. Asfar as we could judge, these so-called Christian natives were but littleraised above their still heathen countrymen, while the effect of thereligion they had assumed was to make them more idolatrous andsuperstitious than before. The priests, however, were very civil, butthere was nothing to tempt us to remain at their stations; we therefore,after gaining the information we required, pushed on and camped in ourusual way. We agreed that our father had probably acted in the sameway, for we could gain no certain news of him. We heard, however, whatgave us some anxiety--that the country was in a greatly disturbed state,and that the natives had, in several places, risen against thePortuguese, and driven them from their settlements. The poor priests,indeed, seemed unhappy about themselves, and not at all confident thattheir flocks might not rise and treat them in the same way. One,indeed, gave out strong hints that he would like to accompany us, andwould undertake to pilot us down the river; but our canoe had already asmany on board as she could carry, while our provisions were so greatlydiminished that they would not hold out much longer.

  We frequently avoided the main channel, the navigation of which in badweather is dangerous, and made our way through some of the numerouschannels filled by the rising waters on either side. Thus we paddled onthrough channels sometimes so narrow that the boughs arched almostoverhead, at other times spreading out into lake-like expanses. I havealready so frequently described the vegetation, the numberless palms andother trees, some of enormous size, with their festoons of air-plantsand climbers of all sorts, that I need not again draw the picture.Emerging from a narrow path, we entered a calm and beautiful lake, whenthere appeared before us, floating on the water, a number of vastcircular leaves, amid which grow up the most gigantic and beautifulwater-lilies.

  "Oh, what flowers!" exclaimed Ellen; "do gather some."

  "Surely those cannot be leaves!" exclaimed Arthur. "See, a bird withlong legs is walking over them!"

  John fired, and the bird fell in the centre of the leaf on which it wasstanding, and which still supported it in the water; and taking it offthe leaf, alongside which we paddled, we found it to be a jacana,remarkable for the great length of its toes, especially the hinder one,and their spine-like claws. It was a wonderfully light bird also, andthese peculiarities enable it to walk over the leaves of thewater-plants and procure its food, which consists of worms. The beakwas orange colour, but the greater part of the body black, with the backand wing-coverts of a bright chestnut, with a few yellow touches hereand there, and the legs of a greenish-ash colour. We heard the shrilland noisy notes of its fellows in the trees near us. "Ah, that is a_piosoca_!" said Duppo, "and that leaf is its oven;" and so it was inshape like the pans in which the natives roast their mandioca meal.

  Ellen had, in the meantime, been examining one of the beautiful flowerswhich the boatmen picked for her. The outside of the leaves was of adelicate white, deepening in colour through every shade of rose to thedeepest crimson, and then fading again to a creamy-yellowish tint at theheart. Many of the leaves were five feet and upwards in diameter, andperfectly smooth on the upper surface, with an upright edge of an inchto two inches all the way round. We managed, though not withoutdifficulty, to pull up some stalks, and found them covered with longsharp spines. The construction of the leaf was very curious, it beingsupported below by a number of ribs projecting from the stalk, andgiving it greater buoyancy and strength. One of the boatmen, plungingdown, brought up a young leaf from the bottom. It had the form of adeep cup or vase, and on examining it we discovered the embryo ribs, andcould see how, as they grew, their ramifications stretched out in everydirection, the leaf letting out one by one its little folds to fill theever-widening spaces. At last, when it reaches the surface of thewater, its pan-like form rests horizontally above it without a wrinkle.This beautiful lily, then unknown to science, has since been called theVictoria Regia.

  Nothing could exceed the beauty of this calm lake, covered for aconsiderable distance with these magnificent flowers. Among the liliesappeared a variety of other water-plants, some gracefully bending overlike bamboos, others with large deep serrated leaves, while thedifferent forest trees in varied forms rose round us, fringed by a broadband of feathery grass. Several trees floated on the borders coveredwith water-fowl, among which were many ducks and ciganas, while amid thelofty branches of the living forest flew numerous macaws of a red,green, and yellow species, and one of the small flock of the still morebeautiful blue macaw, appeared to add their lovely tints to thelandscape. Such was the scenery through which we passed during thegreater part of the day. Had we felt sure about the safety of ourfamily, how much more should we have enjoyed it. Our anxiety againincreased. We had good reason to be anxious about ourselves. Our stockof provisions was almost exhausted; all our luxuries except coffee hadcome to an end, and of that we had very little, while we had only asmall supply of farinha remaining.

  We encamped at the end of our day's voyage through that labyrinth ofcanals on the only spot we could find free from trees, the rising watershaving covered nearly all the ground. While looking for some poles forour hut, I saw on the branch of a tree overhanging the water, gazingdown upon us, a hideous monster, fully five feet long, which at thefirst glance I took to be a species of alligator with which I wasunacquainted. Presently, as I gazed at it, it filled out a large bagunder its throat, and opened its hideous mouth. It was covered withscales, had a long tail, the point of which was hid among the branches,and enormous claws at the end of its legs. I beat a quick retreat,calling to John to come to my assistance with his gun, for I fullybelieved that the creature would leap off and attack me. The Indians,hearing my voice, came towards me, and cut down some long thin sipos, atthe end of which they formed a running noose. Thus prepared, theyboldly advanced towards the creature, and one of them throwing up thenoose, adroitly caught it round the neck. The others, taking the end,gave it a sudden jerk, and down it came to the ground. As soon as itregained its feet it boldly made at them, but they nimbly leaped out ofits way; and as its movements were slow, there seemed but little risk ofits catching them.

  "Why, that must be an iguana!" exclaimed John.

  While some kept hauling at the creature's neck, turning it when it triedto get away, others ran to the canoe and brought their spears, withwhich they ran it through the neck, and quickly killed it. It was aniguana (_Iguana tuberculata_). Though the head was very different fromthat of the alligator, being blunt, yet, from having a number of sharpteeth, it could evidently have given a severe bite. Its head wassomewhat large, and covered with large scales. It had an enormous widemouth, while under its chin was a sort of big dew-lap, which, as it hadshown me, it could inflate when angry. At the sides of the neck were anumber of tubercles, while the tail was very long, thin, and tapering.It was of a dark olive-green, but the tail was marked with brown andgreen in alternate rings. The creature was nearly six feet long. TheIndians seemed highly delighted with their prize, and as soon as ourhuts were built, commenced skinning and cutting it up. Domingos assuredus that it was very good to eat, and produced a fricassee for supper,which we could not help acknowledging was excellent. A part also wasroasted.

  Shortly afterwa
rds I saw another iguana on the ground. True darted atit, and I shouted to him to come back. Fortunately for itself, myshouts startled the iguana, which took to the water, and swam away,sculling itself forward by meant of its long tail at a rapid rate.

  Arthur had manufactured a net for catching insects. As soon as we wereseated in front of our hut, enjoying the cool air after the sun had set,Ellen exclaimed, "Oh, see what beautiful fireworks!" At a shortdistance from us there appeared suddenly to rise thousands of sparks ofgreat brilliancy. Arthur ran forward with his net, and quicklyreturned, placed the hoop on the ground, and lifted up the end, when sobright was the light which came from the interior that we could withoutdifficulty read a page of the book on natural history we had beenexamining a short time before. On taking out some of the insects he hadcaught to look at them more narrowly, Arthur placed one on its back,when it sprang up with a curious click and pitched again on its feet.On examining it we found that this was produced by the strong spineplaced beneath the thorax, fitting into a small cavity on the upper partof the abdomen. It brings this over its head, and striking the groundwith great force, can thus regain its natural position. The creaturewas about an inch and a half long, and of a brown colour. The lightproceeded from a smooth, yellow, semi-transparent spot on each side ofthe thorax. We found that even with a single one passed over the pagewe could see the letters clearly. Ellen ran and brought a vial, intowhich we put a dozen, when it literally gave forth the light of a brightlamp, sufficient to write by. It is known in the country as the cocuja.It is the elater, or still more scientifically, the _Pyrophorusnoctilucus_. The forest behind the hut was literally filled at timeswith brilliant sparks of light, now vanishing, now bursting forth withgreater brightness than at first. The Brazilian ladies wear thesebeetles alive secured in their hair, and sometimes on their dresses,which thus glitter brightly as they move about in the dusk.

  The next morning at daylight Duppo was busily employed hunting about inthe neighbourhood, and at length shouted to us to bring a basket. Wefound he had just discovered the nest of an iguana, filled with eggs.He assured us that they were excellent. On boiling some for breakfast,we agreed with him. Like those of the turtle, they did not harden byboiling, but only became somewhat thicker, and were filled almostentirely with yellow, having very little albumen. We all set to work tohunt for more, and were fortunate in finding another nest, the eggsbeing a welcome addition to our scanty supply of food. The Indiansmeantime, while we were finishing breakfast, set off into the forest,and just as we were ready to start came back with another iguana.

  We were constantly employed in trying to teach Duppo English. Arthurwas explaining to him the animals of our country, and was mentioning thecow, and describing its milk. He seemed much interested, and then gaveus to understand that they also had cows in their land, which, insteadof walking about on four legs, grew in the ground, and were of greatsize. After this he was constantly looking out along the banks, and atlength he shouted out to the men, "Massaranduba!" and they at oncepaddled in for the bank. One of them accompanied us with an axe. As wepassed along we found on the ground a number of woody vessels, which hadevidently contained seeds. Duppo picked up one of them, and foundanother piece close by which fitted on to it, and then told us that theywere called monkeys' drinking-cups; the Portuguese call them _cuyas demacaco_. These shells had contained nuts. When falling off the tree--the sapucaya--the tops split off, and the nuts are scattered on theground. Duppo made us understand that these cups would serve well tocollect the milk from the cow he promised to show us.

  I may observe that the trees which bear the monkey drinking-cups areclosely allied to the Brazil-nut tree, the fruit of which we had oftenseen sold in England under that name. Its seeds are also enclosed inlarge woody vessels, but they, having no lid, fall entire to the ground,and are thus easily collected by the natives.

  Supplied with these vessels, we went on a few yards further, when westopped under an enormous tree, one of the giants of the forest. Itstrunk was covered with deeply scored reddish and rugged bark. Duppopatted it, saying, "This my cow." Another tree of the same species, butmuch smaller, grew near. He ran to it, and saying, "Small cow givebetter milk," began to attack it with his axe. After making a fewstrokes, out flowed a perfectly white liquid, which John, kneeling down,caught in the monkey-cup. As soon as it was filled I handed himanother, the milk continuing to flow in great abundance, so that we soonhad four cups filled full of the tempting liquid. On tasting it wefound it sweet, and of a not unpleasant flavour, and wonderfully likemilk.

  We returned to the boat with our prize. Domingos had meantime beenboiling some coffee; as we had now no sugar, the fresh milk proved amost valuable acquisition. The Indians, however, recommended us not totake much of it. We kept it, intending to use it again in the evening,but on taking off the lid of one of the monkey-cups, we found that ourmilk had thickened into a stiff and excessively tenacious glue. "My cowgood?" asked Duppo, as he saw us tasting the liquid. When we showed himthe gluey substance in the evening, he inquired sagaciously whether themilk of our cow would keep so long, and we confessed that, in thatclimate, it would be very likely to turn sour. After this, on severaloccasions we obtained fresh milk from the cow-tree for our breakfastsand suppers.

  We encamped at night on a bank, and found two sorts of tiger-beetles,with very large heads, running about on the sand. It was extraordinaryhow rapidly they moved. Arthur and I tried to catch them, but each timethey baffled us. One was very similar in hue to the sand over which itruns, the other was of a brilliant copper colour. Arthur, who was veryacute in his remarks, observed that the white species ran far moreswiftly than the copper-coloured one. As they only appear in the gloomor night, the white is far more easily seen than the darker one; andthis has by the Creator greater means afforded it of escaping from itsenemies. The dark-coloured one, however, he discovered, is not leftwithout means of defence; for when at last Duppo caught one for him, hefound that on touching it it emitted a strong, peculiar, and offensiveputrid odour, which is not the case with the whiter one.

  "How delightful it is!" he exclaimed, "to examine the habits of God'screatures, and see how admirably adapted they are to the life they aredestined to lead."

  I must not, however, attempt to describe the numberless insects andcreatures of all sorts we met with on our voyage. Duppo brought us alarge wood-cricket, called the _Tanana_, the wonderfully loud and notunmusical notes of which we had often heard. These sounds, we found,were produced by the overlapping edges of the wing-cases, which they rubtogether. In each wing-case the inner edge, near the lower part, has ahorny expansion. On one wing this horny expansion is furnished with asharp raised margin; on the other, the strong nervure which traverses iton the other side is crossed by a number of short, sharp furrows, likethose of a file. When, therefore, the insect rapidly moves its wings,the file of one expansion scrapes sharply across the horny margin of theother, thus producing the curious sounds. The wing-cases, which are ofa parchment-like nature, and the hollow drum-formed space which theyenclose, assists to give resonance to the tones. The music they make isemployed undoubtedly to serenade their mates, for the same object whichinduces the feathered tribe to utter their varied notes in the forest.

  We had once more entered the main stream, which, after the confinednavigation of the last few days, appeared to our eyes almost like thewide ocean. We landed rather earlier than usual, as a favourable spotappeared, and we could not tell how far off another might be found. Wehad formed huts as usual, our camp-fire was lighted, and Domingos andMaria were engaged in cooking our evening meal, making the most of thescanty fare we had remaining. A point was near from which we believedwe could get an uninterrupted view for a great distance down the river.As we found we could make our way to it without much difficulty, webegged Ellen and Oria to accompany us.

  On reaching the point we sat down on a bank. A small object appeared inthe distance on the water. Arthur was the first to
espy it. I thoughtit was but a log of wood. We pointed it out to Oria. She at oncedeclared that it was a canoe. It was certainly approaching, and atlength we made out a small canoe gliding over the smooth water; and asit came near we saw a white man in the stern steering, and ten nativesurging her on with rapid strokes. "What if those people should be ableto give us news of our father!" exclaimed Ellen. "Do call them, lestthey should pass by." John hailed the canoe. Presently we saw thewhite man stand up and look towards us. Instantly the head of the canoewas turned in our direction. We hastened down to the point where theywould land, and the white man stepped on shore. He gazed first at one,then at the other, with an inquiring glance.

  "Can you tell me, my friend," asked John, "if an English family arestopping anywhere on the banks down the river?"

  "Indeed I can, senor," answered the white man; "for I have been sent upby the master to look out for some part of his family who ought longsince to have arrived. He has already sent two messengers to inquirefor them; and his heart, and those of the senora and senorita, arewell-nigh worn out with anxiety on their account. At last I begged thathe would let me go; and I promised not to return without gaining tidingsof them."

  "Why, then you must be Antonio, and we are those you are looking for!"said John.

  "Heaven be praised!" exclaimed Antonio, our father's old servant, who,rushing forward, seized John in his arms, and gave him a warm embrace.He then turned to me, and gave me the same affectionate yet respectfulgreeting. "And this is the senorita!" he exclaimed, turning to Ellen."Oh, it does my old heart good to see you. How little did I think thatbefore the sun set I should behold those I so longed to find. AndDomingos and Maria; surely they have come with you!"

  "Oh yes," said John; "they are at the camp. Send your montaria roundthe point, and come with us. We shall soon be there."

  As may be supposed, we had numberless questions to ask about our fatherand family; how far off they were from us, and all that had happened.

  "Oh, senor, I should like to have a dozen tongues in my head to reply toyou," answered Antonio. "They are well and safe now, though the timesare perilous. And, Heaven be praised, they have passed numberlessdangers unharmed. It has taken me two weary weeks to come thus far, butI hope that we may descend the river to them in far less time. Howcould I have expected to meet with you when others, we had cause tofear, had failed. First, a Brazilian trader, who was proceeding up inhis montaria, undertook the task, promising without fail to find you,and speedily to send down notice; but after waiting and waiting someweary weeks, no news came, and my master, your father, was resolved togo himself, though unwilling to leave the senoras without hisprotection, when, just then, two young Englishmen arrived from Para, andmade themselves known to your father as friends of yours; and hearingthat you were missing, agreed to go up in search of you."

  "Why, those must be our two school-fellows, Houlston and Tony Nyass!" Iexclaimed.

  From the description which Antonio had given of them, we had no doubtthat this was the case. But what had become of them? A few minutesbefore I had thought all our anxieties were over, but now they wereagain aroused on account of our friends. What if they had fallen intothe hands of the Majeronas, or been exposed to some of the storms we hadso narrowly escaped! "You forget how easily they may have passed us,"observed Arthur. "We might have been not a quarter of a mile apart, andyet have passed without seeing or hearing each other."

  Dear Ellen was so agitated with the thoughts of meeting those we lovedso soon, that she could scarcely speak. She overheard, however, theremarks between Arthur and myself. "And why do you doubt that all willcome right in the end?" she exclaimed. "Think of the many dangers wehave gone through, and how we have been preserved from them all. Let ushope the same for our friends."

  Domingos was standing over the fire with his frying-pan when we cameround the point with Antonio. At that moment he happened to look up,when, forgetting what he was about, he let the frying-pan and itscontents fall into the middle of the fire, thereby spoiling a deliciousfricassee of iguana, and sprang forward to welcome his fellow-servant,and to make inquiries for their master. The two rushed into eachother's arms, and the tears fell from the black man's eyes when he heardthat our father was well.

  We spent the evening at our encampment, hearing from Antonio all thathad occurred: how our father had received information of the intendedattack of the Majeronas, and had embarked just in time to escape them.He would have waited for us higher up the river had he not beencompelled, for the sake of obtaining assistance for our mother, toproceed downwards. They had all been hospitably received at the farm ofa Brazilian family, where she having recovered, he determined to waitfor our arrival. The first messengers he had despatched not having beenheard of, on the arrival of Houlston and Tony Nyass, they had insistedon proceeding upward. As they also had not returned, Antonio, with theparty we had met, had been sent to search for us.

  It was the happiest evening we had spent since the commencement of ourjourney. Anxiety about our friends did not damp our spirits, as wehoped that they would hear of us at some of the places at which we hadcalled; and that we should soon all meet, and continue our adventures incompany. "Fancy Tony and I, and old Houlston, after all, sailingtogether on the Amazon, just as we used to talk about at school!" Iacclaimed. "It will be jolly, will it not, Arthur?"