nds, going first through the channel of Limao and after that through
the Tajapuru. It was practically the same course as the Itoquara, which
was called by different names in different parts. It was narrow and
tortuous, and required great skill in the navigation of it; but it was
extraordinarily deep--so deep that all the big ocean steamers entering
the Amazon followed this channel in preference to the main outlet of the
river, which is not navigable owing to many sandbanks.

We were there in a regular maze of islands, composed mostly of mud and of
recent formation, not more than one or two feet above the water. For
Brazil, they were fairly thickly inhabited, miserable huts being visible
every few hundred metres or so.

On our right as we went through we had a luxuriant growth of _mirichi_
palms, some of great height and close together--a regular forest of them.
At the first glance as you looked at those islands, it seemed as if all
along the coast-line a low palisade had been erected. It was indeed a
natural palisade of _aninga_, an aquatic plant growing in profusion on
the edge of mud-banks. The _aninga_ is said to contain a powerful poison,
the touch of which produces violent itching.

All the houses and huts on those islands necessarily had to be built on
high piles, as the country was constantly inundated, the tide rising and
falling some three feet in that particular channel.

[Illustration: Campas Indian Children.]

As we neared the mouth of the river, with Para as our objective, we first
saw the lighthouse of Buyussu in the immense bay which takes its name
from the little town of Coralhina. Both this town and that of Boa Vista
were on the left side of us, on the great island of Marajo. On the right
the island of Oya was visible, and the island of Araras. Between the
light of Buyussu and the island of Oya opened the great bay of Melgasso.

Considering the amount of navigation that went through, it was amazing to
see how badly lighted that river was--the two lights, such as the one at
Buyussu, and the one at Mandy, at the entrance of the bay of Marajo,
being no bigger than and not so brilliant as the ordinary street oil-lamp
in an English or French village. I understand that all ships navigating
the Amazon have to pay a large tax on each journey for the maintenance of
the lighthouses on that immense waterway. It is quite criminal that no
proper lights are constructed in order to protect the safety of the
passe