azon River, a
regular sea of fresh water, where we tossed about in a strong
north-easterly gale. Unless one knew, one never could have imagined
oneself on a river, as the stream was so wide at that point that the
opposite bank could not be seen at all.

Things were a little better when we entered the channel of Monte Alegre.
On that channel was the little town of the same name, half of the
buildings being along the water's edge, the other half on the summit of a
low hill near by. There is a sulphur spring there with wonderful
medicinal properties, and coal is also said to be found.

A colony of Spaniards had been imported to work, but they were
dissatisfied and had left. Tobacco, made up into fusiform sticks 6 ft.
long and tied into bundles, was exported from that place in considerable
quantities; the inhabitants were also engaged in breeding cattle, growing
Indian corn, and drying fish--the _pirarucu_ (_Vastres gigas_), a
salmonoid vulgarly called the cod-fish of the Amazon. A big trade was
done in that dried fish all over that region.

In the full moon of a glorious night we could discern to the north a
mountain region with elevations of over 3,000 ft. Between those
mountains--the Serra de Almerin--and ourselves, lay a long flat island,
the vegetation on which was, for that particular region, comparatively
sparse. That island of mud had formed during the last fifteen or twenty
years, and was at the time of my visit several kilometres in length. It
was called the Pesqueiro. Islands have a way of forming in a very short
time in the Amazon, while others change their shape or disappear
altogether.

On November 7th we were facing the principal outlet of the Amazon to the
north-east. That main estuary is, however, not as navigable as the one
south of it, through which most of the big ships pass. An archipelago had
formed at that spot. The fortress of Matapa, very ancient, stood on the
largest outlet.

We went through the channel called the Itoquara. Another, the
Tajapurozinho, was to the south, forming a boundary on that side of the
large island, which we skirted to the north in the Itoquara channel. The
beautiful island of Uruttahi was now in sight, to the north of the
largest outlet. Like all other islands in that neighbourhood, it was flat
and of alluvial formation.

In order to avoid the open waters, where the small ship upon which I was
tossed about considerably, we kept to the smaller channels between the
isla