The Collected Works of Jules Verne: 36 Novels and Short Stories (Unexpurgated Edition) (Halcyon Classics)

by Jules Verne

  CHAPTER XIII. TORRES

  AT FIVE O'CLOCK in the evening Fragoso was still there, and was asking himself if he would have to pass the night on the spot to satisfy the expectant crowd, when a stranger arrived in the square, and seeing all this native gathering, advanced toward the inn.

  For some minutes the stranger eyed Fragoso attentively with some circumspection. The examination was obviously satisfactory, for he entered the loja.

  He was a man about thirty-five years of age. He was dressed in a somewhat elegant traveling costume, which added much to his personal appearance. But his strong black beard, which the scissors had not touched for some time, and his hair, a trifle long, imperiously required the good offices of a barber.

  "Good-day, friend, good-day!" said he, lightly striking Fragoso on the shoulder.

  Fragoso turned round when he heard the words pronounced in pure Brazilian, and not in the mixed idiom of the natives.

  "A compatriot?" he asked, without stopping the twisting of the refractory mouth of a Mayouma head.

  "Yes," answered the stranger. "A compatriot who has need of your services."

  "To be sure! In a minute," said Fragoso. "Wait till I have finished with this lady!"

  And this was done in a couple of strokes with the curling-tongs.

  Although he was the last comer, and had no right to the vacant place, he sat down on the stool without causing any expostulation on the part of the natives who lost a turn.

  Fragoso put down the irons for the scissors, and, after the manner of his brethren, said:

  "What can I do for you, sir?"

  "Cut my beard and my hair," answered the stranger.

  "All right!" said Fragoso, inserting his comb into the mass of hair.

  And then the scissors to do their work.

  "And you come from far?" asked Fragoso, who could not work without a good deal to say.

  "I have come from the neighborhood of Iquitos."

  "So have I!" exclaimed Fragoso. "I have come down the Amazon from Iquitos to Tabatinga. May I ask your name?"

  "No objection at all," replied the stranger. "My name is Torres."

  When the hair was cut in the latest style Fragoso began to thin his beard, but at this moment, as he was looking straight into his face, he stopped, then began again, and then:

  "Eh! Mr. Torres," said he; "I seem to know you. We must have seen each other somewhere?"

  "I do not think so," quickly answered Torres.

  "I am always wrong!" replied Fragoso, and he hurried on to finish his task.

  A moment after Torres continued the conversation which this question of Fragoso had interrupted, with:

  "How did you come from Iquitos?"

  "From Iquitos to Tabatinga?"

  "Yes."

  "On board a raft, on which I was given a passage by a worthy fazender who is going down the Amazon with his family."

  "A friend indeed!" replied Torres. "That is a chance, and if your fazender would take me----"

  "Do you intend, then, to go down the river?"

  "Precisely."

  "Into Para?"

  "No, only to Manaos, where I have business."

  "Well, my host is very kind, and I think he would cheerfully oblige you."

  "Do you think so?"

  "I might almost say I am sure."

  "And what is the name of this fazender?" asked Torres carelessly.

  "Joam Garral," answered Fragoso.

  And at the same time he muttered to himself:

  "I certainly have seen this fellow somewhere!"

  Torres was not the man to allow a conversation to drop which was likely to interest him, and for very good reasons.

  "And so you think Joam Garral would give me a passage?"

  "I do not doubt it," replied Fragoso. "What he would do for a poor chap like me he would not refuse to do for a compatriot like you."

  "Is he alone on board the jangada?"

  "No," replied Fragoso. "I was going to tell you that he is traveling with all his family--and jolly people they are, I assure you. He is accompanied by a crew of Indians and negroes, who form part of the staff at the fazenda."

  "Is he rich?"

  "Oh, certainly!" answered Fragoso--"very rich. Even the timber which forms the jangada, and the cargo it carries, constitute a fortune!"

  "The Joam Garral and his whole family have just passed the Brazilian frontier?"

  "Yes," said Fragoso; "his wife, his son, his daughter, and Miss Minha's betrothed."

  "Ah! he has a daughter?" said Torres.

  "A charming girl!"

  "Going to get married?"

  "Yes, to a brave young fellow," replied Fragoso--"an army surgeon in garrison at Belem, and the wedding is to take place as soon as we get to the end of the voyage."

  "Good!" said the smiling Torres; "it is what you might call a betrothal journey."

  "A voyage of betrothal, of pleasure, and of business!" said Fragoso. "Madame Yaquita and her daughter have never set foot on Brazilian ground; and as for Joam Garral, it is the first time he has crossed the frontier since he went to the farm of old Magalhaës."

  "I suppose," asked Torres, "that there are some servants with the family?"

  "Of course," replied Fragoso--"old Cybele, on the farm for the last fifty years, and a pretty mulatto, Miss Lina, who is more of a companion than a servant to her mistress. Ah, what an amiable disposition! What a heart, and what eyes! And the ideas she has about everything, particularly about lianas--" Fragoso, started on this subject, would not have been able to stop himself, and Lina would have been the object of a good many enthusiastic declarations, had Torres not quitted the chair for another customer.

  "What do I owe you?" asked he of the barber.

  "Nothing," answered Fragoso. "Between compatriots, when they meet on the frontier, there can be no question of that sort."

  "But," replied Torres, "I want to----"

  "Very well, we will settle that later on, on board the jangada."

  "But I do not know that, and I do not like to ask Joam Garral to allow me----"

  "Do not hesitate!" exclaimed Fragoso; "I will speak to him if you would like it better, and he will be very happy to be of use to you under the circumstances."

  And at that instant Manoel and Benito, coming into the town after dinner, appeared at the door of the loja, wishing to see Fragoso at work.

  Torres turned toward them and suddenly said: "There are two gentlemen I know--or rather I remember."

  "You remember them!" asked Fragoso, surprised.

  "Yes, undoubtedly! A month ago, in the forest of Iquitos, they got me out of a considerable difficulty."

  "But they are Benito Garral and Manoel Valdez."

  "I know. They told me their names, but I never expected to see them here."

  Torres advanced toward the two young men, who looked at him without recognizing him.

  "You do not remember me, gentlemen?" he asked.

  "Wait a little," answered Benito; "Mr. Torres, if I remember aright; it was you who, in the forest of Iquitos, got into difficulties with a guariba?"

  "Quite true, gentlemen," replied Torres. "For six weeks I have been traveling down the Amazon, and I have just crossed the frontier at the same time as you have."

  "Very pleased to see you again," said Benito; "but you have not forgotten that you promised to come to the fazenda to my father?"

  "I have not forgotten it," answered Torres.

  "And you would have done better to have accepted my offer; it would have allowed you to have waited for our departure, rested from you fatigues, and descended with us to the frontier; so many days of walking saved."

  "To be sure!" answered Torres.

  "Our compatriot is not going to stop at the frontier," said Fragoso, "he is going on to Manaos."

  "Well, then," replied Benito, "if you will come on board the jangada you will be well received, and I am sure my father will give you a passage."

  "Willingly," said Torres; "and you
will allow me to thank you in advance."

  Manoel took no part in the conversation; he let Benito make the offer of his services, and attentively watched Torres, whose face he scarcely remembered. There was an entire want of frankness in the eyes, whose look changed unceasingly, as if he was afraid to fix them anywhere. But Manoel kept this impression to himself, not wishing to injure a compatriot whom they were about to oblige.

  "Gentlemen," said Torres, "if you like, I am ready to follow you to the landing-place."

  "Come, then," answered Benito.

  A quarter of an hour afterward Torres was on board the jangada. Benito introduced him to Joam Garral, acquainting him with the circumstances under which they had previously met him, and asked him to give him a passage down to Manaos.

  "I am happy, sir, to be able to oblige you," replied Joam.

  "Thank you," said Torres, who at the moment of putting forth his hand kept it back in spite of himself.

  "We shall be off at daybreak to-morrow," added Joam Garral, "so you had better get your things on board."

  "Oh, that will not take me long!" answered Torres; "there is only myself and nothing else!"

  "Make yourself at home," said Joam Garral.

  That evening Torres took possession of a cabin near to that of the barber. It was not till eight o'clock that the latter returned to the raft, and gave the young mulatto an account of his exploits, and repeated, with no little vanity, that the renown of the illustrious Fragoso was increasing in the basin of the Upper Amazon.

  CHAPTER XIV. STILL DESCENDING

  AT DAYBREAK on the morrow, the 27th of June, the cables were cast off, and the raft continued its journey down the river.

  An extra passenger was on board. Whence came this Torres? No one exactly knew. Where was he going to? "To Manaos," he said. Torres was careful to let no suspicion of his past life escape him, nor of the profession that he had followed till within the last two months, and no one would have thought that the jangada had given refuge to an old captain of the woods. Joam Garral did not wish to mar the service he was rendering by questions of too pressing a nature.

  In taking him on board the fazender had obeyed a sentiment of humanity. In the midst of these vast Amazonian deserts, more especially at the time when the steamers had not begun to furrow the waters, it was very difficult to find means of safe and rapid transit. Boats did not ply regularly, and in most cases the traveler was obliged to walk across the forests. This is what Torres had done, and what he would continue to have done, and it was for him unexpected good luck to have got a passage on the raft.

  From the moment that Benito had explained under what conditions he had met Torres the introduction was complete, and he was able to consider himself as a passenger on an Atlantic steamer, who is free to take part in the general life if he cares, or free to keep himself a little apart if of an unsociable disposition.

  It was noticed, at least during the first few days, that Torres did not try to become intimate with the Garral family. He maintained a good deal of reserve, answering if addressed, but never provoking a reply.

  If he appeared more open with any one, it was with Fragoso. Did he not owe to this gay companion the idea of taking passage on board the raft? Many times he asked him about the position of the Garrals at Iquitos, the sentiments of the daughter for Manoel Valdez, and always discreetly. Generally, when he was not walking alone in the bow of the jangada, he kept to his cabin.

  He breakfasted and dined with Joam Garral and his family, but he took little part in their conversation, and retired when the repast was finished.

  During the morning the raft passed by the picturesque group of islands situated in the vast estuary of the Javary. This important affluent of the Amazon comes from the southwest, and from source to mouth has not a single island, nor a single rapid, to check its course. The mouth is about three thousand feet in width, and the river comes in some miles above the site formerly occupied by the town of the same name, whose possession was disputed for so long by Spaniards and Portuguese.

  Up to the morning of the 30th of June there had been nothing particular to distinguish the voyage. Occasionally they met a few vessels gliding along by the banks attached one to another in such a way that a single Indian could manage the whole--_"navigar de bubina,"_ as this kind of navigation is called by the people of the country, that is to say, "confidence navigation."

  They had passed the island of Araria, the Archipelago of the Calderon islands, the island of Capiatu, and many others whose names have not yet come to the knowledge of geographers.

  On the 30th of June the pilot signaled on the right the little village of Jurupari-Tapera, where they halted for two or three hours.

  Manoel and Benito had gone shooting in the neighborhood, and brought back some feathered game, which was well received in the larder. At the same time they had got an animal of whom a naturalist would have made more than did the cook.

  It was a creature of a dark color, something like a large Newfoundland dog.

  "A great ant-eater!" exclaimed Benito, as he threw it on the deck of the jangada.

  "And a magnificent specimen which would not disgrace the collection of a museum!" added Manoel.

  "Did you take much trouble to catch the curious animal?" asked Minha.

  "Yes, little sister," replied Benito, "and you were not there to ask for mercy! These dogs die hard, and no less than three bullets were necessary to bring this fellow down."

  The ant-eater looked superb, with his long tail and grizzly hair; with his pointed snout, which is plunged into the ant-hills whose insects form its principal food; and his long, thin paws, armed with sharp nails, five inches long, and which can shut up like the fingers of one's hand. But what a hand was this hand of the ant-eater! When it has got hold of anything you have to cut it off to make it let go! It is of this hand that the traveler, Emile Carrey, has so justly observed: "The tiger himself would perish in its grasp."

  On the 2d of July, in the morning, the jangada arrived at the foot of San Pablo d'Olivença, after having floated through the midst of numerous islands which in all seasons are clad with verdure and shaded with magnificent trees, and the chief of which bear the names of Jurupari, Rita, Maracanatena, and Cururu Sapo. Many times they passed by the mouths of iguarapes, or little affluents, with black waters.

  The coloration of these waters is a very curious phenomenon. It is peculiar to a certain number of these tributaries of the Amazon, which differ greatly in importance.

  Manoel remarked how thick the cloudiness was, for it could be clearly seen on the surface of the whitish waters of the river.

  "They have tried to explain this coloring in many ways," said he, "but I do not think the most learned have yet arrived at a satisfactory explanation."

  "The waters are really black with a magnificent reflection of gold," replied Minha, showing a light, reddish-brown cloth, which was floating level with the jangada.

  "Yes," said Manoel, "and Humboldt has already observed the curious reflection that you have; but on looking at it attentively you will see that it is rather the color of sepia which pervades the whole."

  "Good!" exclaimed Benito. "Another phenomenon on which the _savants_ are not agreed."

  "Perhaps," said Fragoso, "they might ask the opinions of the caymans, dolphins, and manatees, for they certainly prefer the black waters to the others to enjoy themselves in."

  "They are particularly attractive to those animals," replied Manoel, "but why it is rather embarrassing to say. For instance, is the coloration due to the hydrocarbons which the waters hold in solution, or is it because they flow through districts of peat, coal, and anthracite; or should we not rather attribute it to the enormous quantity of minute plants which they bear along? There is nothing certain in the matter. Under any circumstances, they are excellent to drink, of a freshness quite enviable for the climate, and without after-taste, and perfectly harmless. Take a little of the water, Minha, and drink it; you will find it all right."


  The water is in truth limpid and fresh, and would advantageously replace many of the table-waters used in Europe. They drew several frasques for kitchen use.

  It has been said that in the morning of the 2d of July the jangada had arrived at San Pablo d'Olivença, where they turn out in thousands those long strings of beads which are made from the scales of the _"coco de piassaba."_ This trade is here extensively followed. It may, perhaps, seem singular that the ancient lords of the country, Tupinambas and Tupiniquis, should find their principal occupation in making objects for the Catholic religion. But, after all, why not? These Indians are no longer the Indians of days gone by. Instead of being clothed in the national fashion, with a frontlet of macaw feathers, bow, and blow-tube, have they not adopted the American costume of white cotton trousers, and a cotton poncho woven by their wives, who have become thorough adepts in its manufacture?

  San Pablo d'Olivença, a town of some importance, has not less than two thousand inhabitants, derived from all the neighboring tribes. At present the capital of the Upper Amazon, it began as a simple Mission, founded by the Portuguese Carmelites about 1692, and afterward acquired by the Jesuit missionaries.

  From the beginning it has been the country of the Omaguas, whose name means "flat-heads," and is derived from the barbarous custom of the native mothers of squeezing the heads of their newborn children between two plates, so as to give them an oblong skull, which was then the fashion. Like everything else, that has changed; heads have re-taken their natural form, and there is not the slightest trace of the ancient deformity in the skulls of the chaplet-makers.

  Every one, with the exception of Joam Garral, went ashore. Torres also remained on board, and showed no desire to visit San Pablo d'Olivença, which he did not, however, seem to be acquainted with.

  Assuredly if the adventurer was taciturn he was not inquisitive.

  Benito had no difficulty in doing a little bartering, and adding slightly to the cargo of the jangada. He and the family received an excellent reception from the principal authorities of the town, the commandant of the place, and the chief of the custom-house, whose functions did not in the least prevent them from engaging in trade. They even intrusted the young merchant with a few products of the country for him to dispose of on their account at Manaos and Belem.