dustry, which had brought much wealth to the place. Col. Brazil
and his family have dedicated much time and energy to embellishing the
town, and no doubt some day, when Itaituba is connected with proper
telegraphic and postal services, it will become an important city, being
the key, as it were, of the Tapajoz River.

On November 5th I bade good-bye to my good friend Col. Brazil, whose
guest I had been since leaving the forest, and for whose thoughtful
hospitality I feel deeply grateful. I presented him with my best rifle, a
very handsome weapon, which had accompanied me on several previous
journeys, and which was the only valuable thing remaining in my
possession.

It was a new sensation for me to be steaming down comfortably on a
beautifully-kept steamer, as spick-and-span as a private yacht. Her
captain and co-proprietor with Col. Brazil was Captain Macedo, a man who
had spent much time in Europe, and was one of the most polished gentlemen
I met in Brazil.

Now that my work was practically over, it was a great relief to me to be
basking in a cane chair upon the deck, looking at the wonderful scenery
opening up before me as we went on. We passed a lovely sand-beach,
Capitary, then the immense bay of Boin, and farther on the great rocks of
Surucua. Then came in sight the headland called Punta de Cururu, with the
Serra of the same name upon it. Once or twice the ship stopped at
different sheds in order to take up merchandise, but we only halted long
enough to get the cargo on board, and once more we proceeded gaily down
stream. It was wonderful how one appreciated civilized ways of locomotion
after travelling for months and months, as we had done, in the manner of
prehistoric man.

In the evening, while we were sitting at dinner, there was a big bump. We
had run aground somewhat heavily on a sand-dune. The captain rather
frightened me as he said that on a previous occasion they had stuck on a
sand-bank for several days before they could get off. As luck would have
it that night, partly by the aid of a steel cable several hundred metres
long, which had been fastened to a number of big trees on the shore,
partly by her own power, we were able to back out and get her free. Only
six hours were wasted. The tide, which reaches a long way up the Tapajoz
River when the latter is low, helped us a great deal. At high tide the
level of the water is raised more than one foot. It seemed amazing that
the tide of the ocean could e