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And the old sun-dried, and storm-battered, and time-shrivelled mulatto trader, in those canoe they were embarked and whose servants they had become, found it pleasant, as he sat there perched in his little montaria, like an exceedingly ancient and overgrown monkey, guiding it safely down the waters of the great river of the Tocantins.
The campos along the banks of the River Amazon are equal to six times the size of France; and there is one great plain which lies between the Sierra Ibiapaba and the River Tocantins which is 600 miles long by 400 miles broad. There are very few lakes in Brazil, and only one worth speaking of the Lagoa dos Platos which is 150 miles long.
We passed many quite large establishments, besides one pretty little village called Santa Anna. All these channels are washed through by the tides the ebb, contrary to what takes place in the short canal, setting towards the Tocantins. The country however, as we were told, is perfectly healthy. Some of the houses are built on wooden piles driven into the mud of the swamp.
I thoroughly enjoyed the journey to Cameta; the weather was again beautiful in the extreme. We started from Para at sunrise on the 8th of June, and on the 10th emerged from the narrow channels of the Anapu into the broad Tocantins. The vessel was so full of cargo that there was no room to sleep in the cabin; so we passed the nights on deck.
In the afternoon we reached the end of the last channel, called the Murut Ipucu, which runs for several miles between two unbroken lines of fan-leaved palms, forming colossal palisades with their straight stems . On rounding a point of land, we came in full view of the Tocantins. The event was announced by one of our Indians, who was on the lookout at the prow, shouting: "La esta o Parana-uassu!"
It did not present that lake-like aspect which the waters of the Para and Tocantins affect, but had all the swing, so to speak, of a vast flowing stream. The ochre-coloured turbid waters offered also a great contrast to the rivers belonging to the Para system. The channel formed a splendid reach, sweeping from southwest to northeast, with a horizon of water and sky both upstream and down.
Preparations for the journey The Bay of Goajara Grove of fan- leaved Palms The lower Tocantins Sketch of the River-Vista Alegre Baiao Rapids Boat journey to the Guariba Falls Native Life on the Tocantins Second journey to Cameta. August 26th, 1848 Mr. Wallace and I started today on the excursion ,which I have already mentioned as having been planned with Mr.
Besides dolphins in the water, frigate birds in the air are characteristic of this lower part of the Tocantins. Flocks of them were seen the last two or three days of our journey, hovering above at an immense height. Towards night, we were obliged to cast anchor over a shoal in the middle of the river to await the ebb tide.
I was not familiar enough, at this early period of my residence in the country, with Portuguese to converse freely with Senhor Scares, or ascertain what use he made of these books; it was an unexpected sight, a classical library in a mud-plastered and palm-thatched hut on the banks of the Tocantins.
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.
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