jaburu

Updated: May 9, 2025

The river reminds me of some parts of the Jaburu channel, being hemmed in by two walls of forest rising to the height of at least a hundred feet, and the outlines of the trees being concealed throughout by a dense curtain of leafy creepers. The impression of vegetable profusion and overwhelming luxuriance increases at every step.

Henry Walter Bates - The Naturalist on the River Amazons

The length of the Jaburu channel is about thirty-five miles, allowing for the numerous abrupt bends which occur between the middle and the northern end of its course. We were three days and a half accomplishing the passage.

Henry Walter Bates - The Naturalist on the River Amazons

Although the superstition doubtless originated with the aborigines, I observed in both my voyages, that it was only the Portuguese and uneducated Brazilians who deposited anything. The pure Indians gave nothing, and treated the whole affair as a humbug; but they were all civilised Tapuyos. On the 30th, at 9 p.m., we reached a broad channel called Macaco, and now left the dark, echoing Jaburu.

Henry Walter Bates - The Naturalist on the River Amazons

A brisk wind carried us rapidly past its monotonous scenery, and early in the morning of the 1st of October we reached the entrance of the Uituquara, or the Wind-hole, which is fifteen miles distant from the end of the Jaburu. This is also a winding channel, thirty-five miles in length, threading a group of islands, but it is much narrower than the Macaco.

Henry Walter Bates - The Naturalist on the River Amazons

About midday we passed, on the western side, the mouth of the Aturiazal, through which, on account of its swifter current, vessels pass in descending from the Amazons to Para. Shortly afterwards we entered the narrow channel of the Jaburu, which lies twenty miles above the mouth of the Breves. Here commences the peculiar scenery of this remarkable region.

Henry Walter Bates - The Naturalist on the River Amazons

In the evening of the 29th we arrived at a point where another channel joins the Jaburu from the northeast. Up this the tide was flowing; we turned westward, and thus met the flood coming from the Amazons. This point is the object of a strange superstitious observance on the part of the canoemen.

Henry Walter Bates - The Naturalist on the River Amazons