passed, and then we came to a region of domed rocks
showing along the river bank. At all the _baracaos_, or trading sheds
where the _seringueiros_ bought their supplies, the same rubbish was for
sale: condemned, quite uneatable ship biscuits sold at 5_s._ a kilo;
Epsom salts at the rate of L2 sterling a kilo; putrid tinned meat at the
rate of 10_s._ a tin; 1-lb. tins of the commonest French salt butter
fetched the price of 10_s._ each. The conversation at all those
halting-places where the trading boats stopped was dull beyond words, the
local scandal--there was plenty of it always--having little interest for
me.

At one place we were met by a charming girl dressed up in all her finery,
singing harmonious songs to the accompaniment of her guitar. So great was
her desire to be heard that she kept on the music incessantly during the
whole time we stopped--some three hours--although nobody paid the
slightest attention to it after the first song or two.

Farther down the river, there 800 m. wide, hills and undulations were to
be seen on each side. At sunset that day we arrived at S. Isabel or
Castanho, where I had the pleasure of meeting the greatest man upon that
river--Col. R. E. Brazil, a man of immense strength of will and
enterprise. He went under the name, which he well deserved, of the "King
of the Tapajoz"; for it was he who indeed held the key of that river,
nearly the entire commerce on that great waterway being, directly or
indirectly, in his hands.

October 20th was spent at S. Isabel, where a great fleet of boats was
waiting to be loaded with thousands upon thousands of kilos of
magnificent rubber.

Both Col. Brazil and his employes treated me with great deference, and
made preparations to get a boat ready at once for me to continue my
journey down the stream. In fact, Col. Brazil, who would not hear of my
paying for being conveyed down stream, insisted upon my being his guest,
and declared that he himself would take me to a point where I might be
able to get a steamer.

When all the boats were ready, at 4 p.m. on October 20th, we proceeded on
our journey down the Tapajoz by a small channel on the right side of the
river, in order to visit some of the trading sheds belonging to Col.
Brazil, especially those at the mouth of the Crepore River, which was 100
m. wide where it entered the Tapajoz on the right side. The scenery was
beautiful, the hills getting higher as we proceeded north, some of the
islands w