The Naturalist on the River Amazons | Page 8

toys beneath the lofty walls of dark forest. The air was
excessively close, the sky overcast, and sheet lightning played almost
incessantly around the horizon-- an appropriate greeting on the
threshold of a country lying close under the equator! The evening was
calm, this being the season when the winds are not strong, so we glided
along in a noiseless manner, which contrasted pleasantly with the
unceasing turmoil to which we had been lately accustomed on the
Atlantic. The immensity of the river struck us greatly, for although
sailing sometimes at a distance of eight or nine miles from the eastern
bank, the opposite shore was at no time visible. Indeed, the Para river is
thirty-six miles in breadth at its mouth; and at the city of Para, nearly
seventy miles from the sea, it is twenty miles wide; but at that point, a
series of islands commences which contracts the riverview in front of
the port.
On the morning of the 28th of May, we arrived at our destination. The
appearance of the city at sunrise was pleasing in the highest degree. It
is built on a low tract of land, having only one small rocky elevation at
its southern extremity; it, therefore, affords no amphitheatral view from
the river; but the white buildings roofed with red tiles, the numerous
towers and cupolas of churches and convents, the crowns of palm trees
reared above the buildings, all sharply defined against the clear blue
sky, give an appearance of lightness and cheerfulness which is most
exhilarating. The perpetual forest hems the city in on all sides
landwards; and towards the suburbs, picturesque country houses are
seen scattered about, half buried in luxuriant foliage. The port was full
of native canoes and other vessels, large and small; and the ringing of
bells and firing of rockets, announcing the dawn of some Roman
Catholic festival day, showed that the population was astir at that early
hour.
We went ashore in due time, and were kindly received by Mr. Miller,

the consignee of the vessel, who invited us to make his house our home
until we could obtain a suitable residence. On landing, the hot moist
mouldy air, which seemed to strike from the ground and walls,
reminded me of the atmosphere of tropical stoves at Kew. In the course
of the afternoon a heavy shower fell, and in the evening, the
atmosphere having been cooled by the rain, we walked about a mile out
of town to the residence of an American gentleman to whom our host
wished to introduce us.
The impressions received during this first walk can never wholly fade
from my mind. After traversing the few streets of tall, gloomy,
convent-looking buildings near the port, inhabited chiefly by merchants
and shopkeepers, along which idle soldiers, dressed in shabby uniforms
carrying their muskets carelessly over their arms, priests, negresses
with red water-jars on their heads, sad-looking Indian women carrying
their naked children astride on their hips, and other samples of the
motley life of the place, we passed down a long narrow street leading to
the suburbs. Beyond this, our road lay across a grassy common into a
picturesque lane leading to the virgin forest. The long street was
inhabited by the poorer class of the population. The houses were of one
story only, and had an irregular and mean appearance. The windows
were without glass, having, instead, projecting lattice casements. The
street was unpaved, and inches deep in loose sand. Groups of people
were cooling themselves outside their doors-- people of all shades in
colour of skin, European, Negro and Indian, but chiefly an uncertain
mixture of the three. Amongst them were several handsome women
dressed in a slovenly manner, barefoot or shod in loose slippers, but
wearing richly- decorated earrings, and around their necks strings of
very large gold beads. They had dark expressive eyes, and remarkably
rich heads of hair. It was a mere fancy, but I thought the mingled
squalor, luxuriance and beauty of these women were pointedly in
harmony with the rest of the scene-- so striking, in the view, was the
mixture of natural riches and human poverty. The houses were mostly
in a dilapidated condition, and signs of indolence and neglect were
visible everywhere. The wooden palings which surrounded the
weed-grown gardens were strewn about and broken; hogs, goats, and
ill-fed poultry wandered in and out through the gaps.

But amidst all, and compensating every defect, rose the overpowering
beauty of the vegetation. The massive dark crowns of shady mangos
were seen everywhere amongst the dwellings, amidst fragrant
blossoming orange, lemon, and many other tropical fruit trees, some in
flower, others in fruit, at varying stages of ripeness. Here and there,
shooting above the more dome-like and sombre trees, were the smooth
columnar stems of