The river was so wide that we could not see anything
on either side. We steamed up day after day, occasionally passing islands
of some beauty rising above the muddy waters of the Solimoes. Navigation
of that river was difficult, as the navigable channels were constantly
changing, islands disappearing and new islands forming all the time.
Elich Island, in the Timbuctuba group, was fast disappearing, while
another island was forming just below it.

We passed the mouth of the Putumayo River at sunset one day, a most
wonderful effect of clouds being produced over a brilliant cadmium yellow
and vermilion sky, shining with great brightness above the dark green
trees upon a high reddish cliff.

In a drenching morning at five o'clock we reached Esperanca, the
Brazilian frontier post, which consisted of half a dozen one-storied
houses with red-tiled roofs, situated on a grassy expanse. Grassy hills
of no great height rose at the mouth of the Javari River, a southern
tributary of the Solimoes River, forming there the boundary between
Brazil and Peru. Dark green foliage perched high up on asparagus-like
stems of trees formed a background to that wretchedly miserable place.

Tabatinga, on the left side of the stream, was the Brazilian military
post on the frontier. A neatly-built, loopholed, square blockhouse,
painted white, was situated some fifty feet above the level of the river
on the summit of the bank. It was reached by a long flight of white
cement steps. The Brazilian flag flew gaily upon a flagstaff at this most
westerly point of the great Brazilian Republic on the Amazon (Solimoes)
River.

A few soldiers dressed in khaki stood, with their legs wide apart,
watching the arrival of the steamer, while their officers in speckless
white clothes hastily descended the long flight of steps and came on
board, bringing bouquets of flowers to the captain.

There was a pretty garden near the blockhouse. Three mountain guns
pointed viciously at the river from the most exposed position in
Tabatinga at the top of the staircase. According to the account of a
non-commissioned officer, there was a force there of 240 soldiers
"_escondido no matto_"--that is to say, kept hidden in the forest!

After we had passed the frontier on the north side of the river, a tiny
tributary brook, almost hidden by the vegetation and only identified by a
white-barked tree on the left bank and huts on either side, the scenery
made a change for the better.