His
excellency received us with less formality and more cordiality than we
expected to find in the solemn officials of the empire. The first glance
at the reception-room, with the four chairs for visitors set in two
lines at right angles to the chair of state, promised cold etiquette;
but he addressed us with considerable familiarity and evident good-will.
We found, however, that his authority was quite limited, for a written
order which he gave us for a subordinate did not receive the slightest
consideration. At the house of a Jew named Levy we met a party of
Southerners, Captains Mallory, Jones, Sandedge, and Winn, commanded by
Dr. Dowsing, who, since "the late onpleasantness," as Nasby calls it,
have determined to settle in this country. The government grants them
twenty square leagues of land on any tributary, on condition that they
will colonize it. They were about to start for the Rio Branco on an
exploring tour.

CHAPTER XVII.

Down the Amazon.--Serpa.--Villa Nova.--Obidos.--Santarem.--A Colony
of Southerners.--Monte Alegre.--Porto do Moz.--Leaving the
Amazon.--Breves.--Para River.--The City of Para.--Legislation and
Currency.--Religion and Education.--Nonpareil Climate.

At 10 P.M. we left Manaos in the "Tapajos," an iron steamer of seven
hundred tons. We missed the snow-white cleanliness and rigid regularity
of the "Icamiaba," and Captain Jose Antunes Rodrigues de Oliveira
Catramby was quite a contrast to Lieutenant Nuno. There were only five
first-class passengers besides ourselves (and four of these were
"dead-heads"), though there were accommodations for sixty-four. Between
Manaos and Para, a distance of one thousand miles, there were fourteen
additions. Passing the mouth of the Madeira, the largest tributary to
the Amazon, we anchored thirty miles below at Serpa, after nine hours'
sailing. Serpa is a village of ninety houses, built on a high bank of
variegated clay, whence its Indian name, _Ita-coatiara_, or painted
rock. It was the most animated place we had seen on the river. The town
is irregularly laid out and overrun with weeds, but there is a busy tile
factory, and the port was full of canoes, montarias, and cubertas. The
African element in the population began to show itself prominently here,
and increased in importance as we neared Para. The Negroes are very
ebony, and are employed as stevedores. The Indians are well-featured,
and wear a long gown of bark-cloth reachin