Travels on the Amazon

CHAPTER XII

Start for the Uaupés—São Jeronymo and Jauarité—Indians run Away—Numerous Cataracts—Reach Carurú—Difficult Passage—Painted Malocca—Devil Music—More Falls—Ocokí—Curious Rocks—Reach Uarucapurí—Cobeu Indians—Reach Mucúra—An Indian's House and Family—Height above the Sea—Tenente Jesuino—Return to Uarucapurí—Indian Prisoners—Voyage to Jauarité—Correcting the Calendar—Delay at São Jeronymo.

At length, on the 16th of February, two months and twenty-three days after my arrival at São Joaquim, I left on my voyage up the Uaupés. I was still so weak that I had great difficulty in getting in and out of the canoe; but I thought I should be as well there as confined in the house; and as I now longed more than ever to return home, I wished first to make this voyage, and get a few living birds and animals to take with me. I had seven Uaupés Indians that Senhor L. had brought from São Jeronymo, in order to take me up the river. Three more, who had already received payment for the voyage, did not appear; and, though they knew very well the time of my leaving, had fixed on that very day to give a feast of fish and caxirí. Antonio, my former pilot to Barra, was one. I met him coming to the village from his sitio, and he flatly refused to come with me, unless I waited some days more for him; I therefore made him send his Macu boy, João, instead, to go and return, and so pay for what both owed. This he did, and we went on our way rejoicing, for Antonio was what they call an Indian "ladino," or crafty; he could speak Portuguese, and, strongly suspecting him of being an expert thief, I was not sorry to be without his company.

On Saturday evening, the 21st, we arrived at São Jeronymo, where I was cordially received by Senhor Augustinho. The next day was occupied in paying my men, and sending for Bernardo to conduct my canoe up the falls, and get me more Indians for the voyage.

On Monday he arrived, and I let him take the canoe, but did not go with him, as, for some days past, the ague had again attacked me, and this was the day of the fit; so I sent the two guardas, my head men, who could speak Portuguese, to take charge of the canoe and cargo, and remained myself till the next day. In the evening a small trader arrived from above, very tipsy, and an Indian informed Senhor Augustinho that it was with my caxaça, which the men whom I had brought specially to take charge of my cargo, had opened. This I next day found to be the case, as the seals had been broken, and clumsily refastened with a burning stick. These men were half-civilised Indians, who came with me as hunters, to interpret for me with the Indians and take charge of my goods, on account of which I paid them extra wages. They ate with me, and did not row with the other Indians; but the temptation of being left alone for nearly a day, with a garafão of caxaça, was too strong for them. Of course I passed all over in silence, appearing to be perfectly ignorant of what had taken place, as, had I done otherwise, they would probably both have left me, after having received the greater part of their payment beforehand, and I should have been unable to proceed on my voyage.

With Bernardo's assistance, I soon got ten paddles in my canoe; and having paid most of them out of my stock of axes, mirrors, knives, beads, etc., we went along very briskly to Jauarité, where we arrived on the morning of the 28th. I was anxious to pass the caxoeira immediately, but was delayed,—paying two Indians, who left me here, and procuring others; so my ague fit fell upon me before we left the village, and I was very weak and feverish when we went to pass the falls. We unloaded the whole of the cargo, which had to be carried a considerable distance through the forest; and even then, pulling the canoe up the falls was a matter of great difficulty. There are two falls, at some distance from each other, which make the land-carriage very long.

We then re-embarked, when Bernardo coolly informed me that he could go no further, after having received payment for the whole voyage. His brother, he said, should go in his place; and when I returned, he would pay me what he owed me. So I was forced to make the best of it; but shortly after I found that his brother would only go to Jacaré caxoeira, and thus I was a second time deceived.

On starting, I missed João, and found that he had left us in the village, telling the guardas that he had only agreed with me to come so far, and they had never said a word to me about it till now, that it was too late. Antonio's debt therefore still remained unpaid, and was even increased by a knife which João had asked for, and I had given him, in order that he might go on the voyage satisfied.

The river now became full of rocks, to a degree to which even the rockiest part of the Rio Negro was a trifle. All were low, and would be covered at high-water, while numbers more remained below the surface, and we were continually striking against them. That afternoon we passed four more falls, the "Uacú" (a fruit), "Uacará" (Egret), "Mucúra" (Opossum), and "Japóna" (oven) caxoeiras. At Uacará there was a malocca of the same name; and at Japóna another, where we passed the night. All these rapids we ascended without unloading; but the Uacará was very bad, and occasioned us much trouble and delay. The next morning, when about to start, we found that another Indian was missing: he had absconded in the night, and it was useless attempting to seek him, though we knew he had gone to Uacará Malocca, where he wished to stay the day before, but where all knowledge of him would be denied and he well hidden, had we returned to fetch him. He was one who had received full payment, making three who had already gone away in my debt; a not very encouraging beginning for my voyage.

We passed the "Tyeassu" (Pig) caxoeira early, and then had a good stretch of quiet water till midday, when we reached the "Oomarie" (a fruit) caxoeira, where there is a sitio. Here we dined off a fine fresh Tucunaré which an old man sold me; and I agreed with his son, by the temptation of an axe, to go with me. We pulled the canoe up this rapid without unloading, which is seldom done, except when the river is low, as it now was. The rest of the day we had quiet water, and stopped at a rock to make our supper and sleep.

March 1st.—We passed the "Macáco" (monkey) caxoeira early. The rocks here, and particularly about Oomarie caxoeira, were so full of parallel veins, as to give them the appearance of being stratified and thrown up nearly vertically; whereas they are granitic, and similar to those we had already seen. We then soon reached the "Irá" (Honey) and "Baccába" (a Palm) caxoeiras; at both of which there are figures or picture-writings on the rocks, which I stayed to sketch. In passing the latter rapid, we knocked off one of the false keels I had had put to the canoe previous to starting, to preserve the bottom in the centre, where it was worn very thin by being dragged over the rocks by its former owner. We therefore stopped at a sandbank, unloaded the canoe, and plugged up the nail-holes, which were letting in water very fast.

The next day we passed in succession the "Arára Mirí" (Little Macaw), "Tamaquerié" (Gecko), "Paroquet," "Japoó" (a bird), "Arára" (Macaw), "Tatú" (Armadillo), "Amána" (Rain), "Camóa" (?), "Yauti" (Tortoise); and, finally, about three P.M., arrived at "Carurú" (a water-plant) caxoeira. The last five of these, before arriving at Carurú, were exceedingly bad; the passage being generally in the middle of the river, among rocks, where the water rushes furiously. The falls were not more than three or four feet each; but, to pull a loaded canoe up these, against the foaming waters of a large river, was a matter of the greatest difficulty for my dozen Indians, their only resting-place being often breast-deep in water, where it was a matter of wonder that they could stand against the current, much less exert any force to pull the canoe. At Arára fall, the usual passage is over the dry rock, and we unloaded for that purpose; but all the efforts of the Indians could not get the heavy canoe up the steep and rugged ascent which was the only pathway. Again and again they exerted themselves, but to no purpose; and I was just sending by an old man, who was passing in a small canoe, to Carurú for assistance, when he suggested that by getting a long sipó (the general cable in these rivers) we might obtain a good purchase, to pull the canoe up the margin of the fall, which we had previously tried without success. We accordingly did so, and by great exertions the difficulty was passed,—much to my satisfaction, as sending to Carurú would have occasioned a great and very annoying delay.

The river from Jauarité may be said to average about a third of a mile wide, but the bends and turns are innumerable; and at every rapid it almost always spreads out into such deep bays, and is divided into channels by so many rocks and islands, as to make one sometimes think that the water is suddenly flowing back in a direction contrary to that it had previously been taking. Carurú caxoeira itself is greater than any we had yet seen,—rushing amongst huge rocks down a descent of perhaps fifteen or twenty feet. The only way of passing this, was to pull the canoe over the dry rock, which rose considerably above the level of the water, and was rather rugged, being interrupted in places by breaks or steps two or three feet high. The canoe was accordingly unloaded, quantities of poles and branches cut and laid in the path to prevent the bottom being much injured by the rocks, and a messenger sent to the village on the other side of the river to request the Tushaúa to come with plenty of men to our assistance. He soon arrived with eleven Indians, and all hands set to work pushing the canoe, or pulling at the sipós; and even then, the strength of five-and-twenty persons could only move it by steps, and with great difficulty. However, it was at length passed, and we then proceeded to the village, where the Tushaúa lent us a house.

The canoe was so weak in the bottom in one place, that I was fearful of some accident in my descent, so I determined to stay here two or three days, to cut out the weak part and put in a strong board. I now also saw that this canoe was much too heavy to proceed further up the river, as at many of the falls there was no assistance to be obtained, even in places as difficult to pass as Carurú; so I opened negotiations to purchase a very large "obá" of the Tushaúa, which, before leaving, I effected for an axe, a shirt and trousers, two cutlasses, and some beads. We were delayed here five entire days, owing to the difficulty of finding a tree of good wood sufficiently large to give a board of twelve or fourteen inches wide; and at last I was obliged to be content with two narrow boards, clumsily inserted, rather than be exposed to more delay.

There was a large malocca here, and a considerable number of houses. The front of the malocca was painted very tastefully in diamonds and circles, with red, yellow, white, and black. On the rocks were a series of strange figures, of which I took a sketch. The Indians were of the "Ananás" or Pineapple tribe; I bought some dresses and feather ornaments of them; and fish, mandiocca-cakes, etc., were brought me in considerable quantities, the articles most coveted in return being fish-hooks and red beads, of both of which I had a large stock. Just below the fall, the river is not more than two or three hundred yards wide; while above, it is half a mile, and contains several large islands.

The large black pacu was abundant here, and, with other small fish, was generally brought us in sufficient quantity to prevent our recurring to fowls, which are considered by the traders to be the most ordinary fare a man can live on. I now ate for the first time the curious river-weed, called carurú, that grows on the rocks. We tried it as a salad, and also boiled with fish; and both ways it was excellent;—boiled, it much resembled spinach.

Here, too, I first saw and heard the "Juriparí," or Devil-music of the Indians. One evening there was a caxirí-drinking; and a little before dusk a sound as of trombones and bassoons was heard coming on the river towards the village, and presently appeared eight Indians, each playing on a great bassoon-looking instrument. They had four pairs, of different sizes, and produced a wild and pleasing sound. They blew them all together, tolerably in concert, to a simple tune, and showed more taste for music than I had yet seen displayed among these people. The instruments are made of bark spirally twisted, and with a mouthpiece of leaves.

In the evening I went to the malocca, and found two old men playing on the largest of the instruments. They waved them about in a singular manner, vertically and sideways, accompanied by corresponding contortions of the body, and played along while in a regular tune, accompanying each other very correctly. From the moment the music was first heard, not a female, old or young, was to be seen; for it is one of the strangest superstitions of the Uaupés Indians, that they consider it so dangerous for a woman ever to see one of these instruments, that having done so is punished with death, generally by poison. Even should the view be perfectly accidental, or should there be only a suspicion that the proscribed articles have been seen, no mercy is shown; and it is said that fathers have been the executioners of their own daughters, and husbands of their wives, when such has been the case. I was of course anxious to purchase articles to which such curious customs belong, and spoke to the Tushaúa on the subject. He at length promised to sell them me on my return, stipulating that they were to be embarked at some distance from the village, that there might be no danger of their being seen by the women.