n floating like oil amid
the turbid waters of the Amazon. The sluggish tributary seems to be
dammed up by the impetuous monarch. The banks of the latter are low,
ragged, perpendicular beds of clay, covered with a bright green foliage;
the Negro is fringed with sandy beaches, with hills in the background
clothed with a sombre, monotonous forest containing few palms or
leguminous trees. Musquitoes, piums, and montucas never trouble the
traveler on the inky stream. When seen in a tumbler, the water of the
Negro is clear, but of a light-red color; due, undoubtedly, to vegetable
matter. The visible mouth of the river at this season of the year
(December) is three miles wide, but from main-land to main-land it can
not be less than twenty.

[Illustration: A Siesta.]

In forty minutes after leaving the Amazon we arrived at Manaos. This
important city lies on the left bank of the Negro, ten miles from its
mouth and twenty feet above high-water level. The site is very uneven,
and consists of ferruginous sandstone. There was originally a fort here,
erected by the Portuguese to protect their slave-hunting expeditions
among the Indians on the river--hence the ancient name of Barra. On the
old map of Father Fritz (1707) the spot is named _Taromas_. Since 1852
it has been called Manaos, after the most warlike tribe. Some of the
houses are two-storied, but the majority are low adobe structures, white
and yellow washed, floored and roofed with tiles, and having green doors
and shutters. Every room is furnished with hooks for hanging hammocks.
We did not see a bed between Quito and New York except on the steamers.
The population, numbering two thousand,[139] is a mongrel
set--Brazilians, Portuguese, Italians, Jews, Negroes, and Indians, with
divers crosses between them. Laziness is the prominent characteristic. A
gentleman offered an Indian passing his door twenty-five cents if he
would bring him a pitcher of water from the river, only a few rods
distant. He declined. "But I will give you fifty cents." Whereupon the
half-clothed, penniless aboriginal replied: "I will give you a dollar to
bring me some."[140] While every inch of the soil is of exuberant
fertility, there is always a scarcity of food. It is the dearest spot on
the Amazon. Most of the essentials and all of the luxuries come from
Liverpool, Lisbon, and New York. Agriculture is at a discount on the
Amazon. Brazilians will not work; European immigrants are traders;
nothing ca