The destruction of turtle eggs every year by these proceedings is enormous.At least 6000 jars, holding each three gallons of the oil, are exported annually from the Upper Amazons and the Madeira to Para, where it is used for lighting, frying fish, and other purposes.It may be fairly estimated that 2000 more jars-full are consumed by the inhabitants of the villages on the river.Now, it takes at least twelve basketsful of eggs, or about 6000 by the wasteful process followed, to make one jar of oil.The total number of eggs annually destroyed amounts, therefore, to 48,000,000.As each turtle lays about 120, it follows that the yearly offspring Of 400,000 turtles is thus annihilated.A vast number, nevertheless, remain undetected; and these would probably be sufficient to keep the turtle population of these rivers up to the mark, if the people did not follow the wasteful practice of lying in wait for the newly-hatched young, and collecting them by thousands for eating-- their tender flesh and the remains of yolk in their entrails being considered a great delicacy.The chief natural enemies of the turtle are vultures and alligators, which devour the newly-hatched young as they descend in shoals to the water.These must have destroyed an immensely greater number before the European settlers began to appropriate the eggs than they do now.It is almost doubtful if this natural persecution did not act as effectively in checking the increase of the turtle as the artificial destruction now does.If we are to believe the tradition of the Indians, however, it had not this result; for they say that formerly the waters teemed as thickly with turtles as the air now does with mosquitoes.The universal opinion of the settlers on the Upper Amazons is, that the turtle has very greatly decreased in numbers, and is still annually decreasing.
We left Shimuni on the 20th with quite a flotilla of canoes, and descended the river to Catua, an eleven hours' journey by paddle and current.Catua is about six miles long, and almost entirely encircled by its praia.The turtles had selected for their egg-laying a part of the sand-bank which was elevated at least twenty feet above the present level of the river; the animals, to reach the place, must have crawled up a slope.As we approached the island, numbers of the animals were seen coming to the surface to breathe, in a small shoaly bay.Those who had light montarias sped forward with bows and arrows to shoot them.Carepira was foremost, having borrowed a small and very unsteady boat, of Cardozo, and embarked in it with his little son.After bagging a couple of turtles, and while hauling in a third, he overbalanced himself; the canoe went over, and he with his child had to swim for their lives in the midst of numerous alligators, about a mile from the land.The old man had to sustain a heavy fire of jokes from his companions for several days after this mishap.Such accidents are only laughed at by this almost amphibious people.
The number of persons congregated on Catua was much greater than on Shimuni, as the population of the banks of several neighbouring lakes were here added.The line of huts and sheds extended half a mile, and several large sailing vessels were anchored at the place.The commandante was Senor Macedo, the Indian blacksmith of Ega before mentioned, who maintained excellent order during the fourteen days the process of excavation and oil manufacture lasted.There were also many primitive Indians here from the neighbouring rivers, among them a family of Shumanas, good-tempered, harmless people from the Lower Japura.All of them were tattooed around the mouth, the bluish tint forming a border to the lips, and extending in a line on the cheeks towards the ear on each side.They were not quite so slender in figure as the Passes of Perdo-uassu's family; but their features deviated quite as much as those of the Passes from the ordinary Indian type.This was seen chiefly in the comparatively small mouth, pointed chin, thin lips, and narrow, high nose.One of the daughters, a young girl of about seventeen years of age, was a real beauty.The colour of her skin approached the light tanned shade of the Mameluco women; her figure was almost faultless, and the blue mouth, instead of being a disfigurement, gave quite a captivating finish to her appearance.Her neck, wrists, and ankles were adorned with strings of blue beads.She was, however, extremely bashful, never venturing to look strangers in the face, and never quitting, for many minutes together, the side of her father and mother.The family had been shamefully swindled by some rascally trader on another praia; and, on our arrival, came to lay their case before Senor Cardozo, as the delegado of police of the district.The mild way in which the old man, without a trace of anger, stated his complaint in imperfect Tupi quite enlisted our sympathies in his favour.But Cardozo could give him no redress; he invited the family, however, to make their rancho near to ours, and in the end gave them the highest price for the surplus oil which they manufactured.
