In all other directions my very numerous excursions were by water; the most interesting of those made in the immediate neighbourhood were to the houses of Indians on the banks of retired creeks-- an account of one of these trips will suffice.
On the 23rd of May, 1850, I visited, in company with Antonio Cardozo, the Delegado, a family of the Passe tribe, who live near the head waters of the Igarape, which flows from the south into the Teffe, entering it at Ega.The creek is more than a quarter of a mile broad near the town, but a few miles inland it gradually contracts, until it becomes a mere rivulet flowing through a broad dell in the forest.When the river rises it fills this dell; the trunks of the lofty trees then stand many feet deep in the water, and small canoes are able to travel the distance of a day's journey under the shade, regular paths or alleys being cut through the branches and lower trees.This is the general character of the country of the Upper Amazons; a land of small elevation and abruptly undulated, the hollows forming narrow valleys in the dry months, and deep navigable creeks in the wet months.In retired nooks on the margins of these shady rivulets, a few families or small hordes of aborigines still linger in nearly their primitive state, the relicts of their once numerous tribes.The family we intended to visit on this trip was that of Pedro-uassu (Peter the Great, or Tall Peter), an old chieftain or Tushaua of the Passes.
We set out at sunrise, in a small igarite, manned by six young Indian paddlers.After travelling about three miles along the broad portion of the creek-- which, being surrounded by woods, had the appearance of a large pool-- we came to a part where our course seemed to be stopped by an impenetrable hedge of trees and bushes.We were some time before finding the entrance, but when fairly within the shades, a remarkable scene presented itself.It was my first introduction to these singular waterpaths.A narrow and tolerably straight alley stretched away for a long distance before us; on each side were the tops of bushes and young trees, forming a kind of border to the path, and the trunks of the tall forest trees rose at irregular intervals from the water, their crowns interlocking far over our heads, and forming a thick shade.Slender air roots hung down in clusters, and looping sipos dangled from the lower branches; bunches of grass, tillandsiae, and ferns sat in the forks of the larger boughs, and the trunks of trees near the water had adhering to them round dried masses of freshwater sponges.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.When the paddlers rested for a time, the stillness and gloom of the place became almost painful: our voices waked dull echoes as we conversed, and the noise made by fishes occasionally whipping the surface of the water was quite startling.A cool, moist, clammy air pervaded the sunless shade.
The breadth of the wooded valley, at the commencement, is probably more than half a mile, and there is a tolerably clear view for a considerable distance on each side of the water-path through the irregular colonnade of trees; other paths also, in this part, branch off right and left from the principal road, leading to the scattered houses of Indians on the mainland.The dell contracts gradually towards the head of the rivulet, and the forest then becomes denser; the waterpath also diminishes in width, and becomes more winding, on account of the closer growth of the trees.The boughs of some are stretched forth at no great height over one's head, and are seen to be loaded with epiphytes;one orchid I noticed particularly, on account of its bright yellow flowers growing at the end of flower-stems several feet long.Some of the trunks, especially those of palms, close beneath their crowns, were clothed with a thick mass of glossy shield-shaped Pothos plants, mingled with ferns.Arrived at this part we were, in fact, in the heart of the virgin forest.We heard no noises of animals in the trees, and saw only one bird, the sky-blue chatterer, sitting alone on a high branch.For some distance the lower vegetation was so dense that the road runs under an arcade of foliage, the branches having been cut away only sufficiently to admit of the passage of a small canoe.These thickets are formed chiefly of bamboos, whose slender foliage and curving stems arrange themselves in elegant, feathery bowers; but other social plants --slender green climbers with tendrils so eager in aspiring to grasp the higher boughs that they seem to be endowed almost with animal energy, and certain low trees having large elegantly-veined leaves-- contribute also to the jungly masses.Occasionally we came upon an uprooted tree lying across the path, its voluminous crown still held up by thick cables of sipo, connecting it with standing trees; a wide circuit had to be made in these cases, and it was sometimes difficult to find the right path again.
At length we arrived at our journey's end.We were then in a very dense and gloomy part of the forest-- we could see, however, the dry land on both sides of the creek, and to our right a small sunny opening appeared, the landing place to the native dwellings.The water was deep close to the bank, and a clean pathway ascended from the shady port to the buildings, which were about a furlong distant.My friend Cardozo was godfather to a grandchild of Pedro-uassu, whose daughter had married an Indian settled in Ega.He had sent word to the old man that he intended to visit him: we were therefore expected.
