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At Cameta I chanced to verify a fact relating to the habits of a large hairy spider of the genus Mygale, in a manner worth recording. The species was M. avicularia, or one very closely allied to it; the individual was nearly two inches in length of body, but the legs expanded seven inches, and the entire body and legs were covered with coarse grey and reddish hairs.
The town in 1849 was estimated to contain about 5000 inhabitants, but the municipal district of which Cameta is the capital numbered 20,000; this, however, comprised the whole of the lower part of the Tocantins, which is the most thickly populated part of the province of Para. The productions of the district are cacao, india-rubber, and Brazil nuts.
The rocinha was situated near a broad grassy road bordered by lofty woods, which leads from Cameta to the Aldeia, a village two miles distant. My first walks were along this road. From it branches another similar but still more picturesque road, which runs to Curima and Pacaja, two small settlements, several miles distant, in the heart of the forest. The Curima road is beautiful in the extreme.
He was admired and loved, as I had ample opportunity of observing, throughout all Amazonia. He sacrificed his life in 1855, for the good of his fellow- townsmen, when Cameta was devastated by the cholera; having stayed behind with a few heroic spirits to succour invalids and direct the burying of the dead, when nearly all the chief citizens had fled from the place.
It seemed not to matter to him that he had a cargo of merchandise, vessel, and crew of twelve persons, which required an economical use of time; "pleasure first and business afterwards" appeared to be his maxim. We stayed at Cameta twelve days.
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