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The only large body of them now extant are located on the Japura, at a place distant about 150 miles from Ega: the population of this horde, however, does not exceed, from what I could learn, 300 or 400 persons. I think it probable that the lower part of the Japura and its extensive delta lands formed the original home of this gentle tribe of Indians.
Considering that the ceremony was got up of their own free will, and at considerable expense, I thought it spoke well for the good intentions and simplicity of heart of these poor, neglected villagers. I left Fonte Boa, for Ega, on the 25th of January, making the passage by steamer, down the middle of the current, in sixteen hours.
There was no current perceptible, and the water was stained of a dark olive-brown hue, but the submerged stems could be seen through it to a great depth. We travelled at good speed for three hours along this shady road the distance of Pedro's house from Ega being about twenty miles.
They are the captives made during the merciless raids of one section of the Miranha tribe on the territories of another, and sold to the Ega traders. The villages of the attacked hordes are surprised, and the men and women killed or driven into the thickets without having time to save their children.
Birds. I have already had occasion to mention several of the more interesting birds found in the Ega district. The first thing that would strike a newcomer in the forests of the Upper Amazons would be the general scarcity of birds; indeed, it often happened that I did not meet with a single bird during a whole day's ramble in the richest and most varied parts of the woods.
Sometimes the party were settled, for weeks at a time, in more civilized fashion, in the towns or villages on the banks of the main river, or its immediate neighborhood, at Manaos, Ega, Obydos, and elsewhere. Wherever they sojourned, whether for a longer or a shorter time, the scientific work went on uninterruptedly. There was not an idle member in the company.
Under what circumstances? And I cannot hit upon it." "Mr. Fragoso!" "Miss Lina!" "Stay on board and keep watch on Torres during our absence!" "What? Not go with you to Ega, and remain a whole day without seeing you?" "I ask you to do so!" "Is it an order?" "It is an entreaty!" "I will remain!" "Mr. Fragoso!" "Miss Lina!" "I thank you!"
The beach terminates, eight miles beyond Ega, at the mouth of a rivulet; the character of the coast then changes, the river banks being masked by a line of low islets amid a labyrinth of channels.
On this occasion, an unscrupulous lawyer was sent by the government party from the capital to overawe the opposition to its nominee; many of the half-castes, headed by my old friend John da Cunha, who was then settled at Ega, fought hard, but with perfect legality and good humour, against this powerful interest.
They are a shrewd, hard-working people, and are the only Indians who willingly, and in a body, engage themselves to navigate the canoes of traders. The pilot, a steady and faithful fellow named Vicente, told me that he and his companions had now been fifteen months absent from their wives and families, and that on arriving at Ega they intended to take the first chance of a passage to Nauta.
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