The Naturalist on the River Amazons. A record of adventures, habits of animals, sketches of Brazilian and Indian life, and aspects of nature under the Equator, during eleven years of travel

Front matter

ADVENTURE WITH CURL- CRESTED sCUCANS. Frontispiece tc Vol. I. THE NATUEALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS, A RECORD OF ADVENTURES, HABITS OF ANIMALS, SKETCHES OF BRAZILIAN AND INDIAN LIFE, AND ASPECTS OF NATURE UNDE1 THE EQUATOR, DURING ELEVEN \ EARS OF TRAVEL. By HENRY WALTER BATES Bauba Ant -l i ni.ii IN TWO VOLUMES.— VOL. 1. LONDON : JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1863. [The Eight of Translation is Reserved,] PEEFACE. In the autumn of 1847 Mr. A. R. Wallace, who has since acquired wide fame in connection with the Dar winian theory of Natural Selection, proposed to me a joint expedition to the river Amazons, for the purpose of exploring the Natural History of its banks ; the plan being to make for ourselves a collection of objects, dis pose of the duplicates in London to pay expenses, and gather facts, as Mr. Wallace expressed it in one of his letters, "towards solving the problem of the origin of species," a subject on which we had conversed and corresponded much together.

We met in London, early in the following year, to study South American animals and plants at the principal collections ; and in the month of April, as related in the following narrative, commenced our journey. My companion left the country at the end of four years ; and, on arriving in England, published a narrative of his voyage, under the title of " Travels on the Amazons and Rio Negro." I remained seven years longer, returning home in July, 1859 ; and having taken, vol. i. b

Preface

. after the first two years, a different route from that of my friend, an account of my separate travels and ex periences seems not an inappropriate offering to the public. When I first arrived in England, being much depressed in health and spirits after eleven years' residence within four degrees of the equator, the last three of which were spent in the wild country 1400 miles from the sea-coast, I saw little prospect of ever giving my narrative to the world ; and indeed, after two years had elapsed, had almost abandoned the intention of doing so. At that date I became acquainted with Mr. Darwin, who, having formed a flattering opinion of my ability for the task, strongly urged me to write a book, and reminded me of it months afterwards, when, after having made a commencement, my half-formed resolution began to give way.

Under this encouragement the arduous task is at length accomplished. It seems necessary to make this statement, as it explains why so long a time has intervened between my arrival in England and the publication of my book. The collections that I made during the whole eleven years were sent, at intervals of a few months, to London for distribution, except a set of species reserved for my own study, which remained with me, and always accompanied me in my longer excursions. With the exception of a few living plants and specimens in illustration of

PREFACE.

. V Economical and Medicinal Botany, these collections embraced only the Zoological productions of the region- The following is an approximative enumeration of the total number of species of the various classes which I obtained : — Mammals ...... 52 Birds 360 Keptiles 140 Fishes 120 Insects 14,000 Mollusks 35 Zoophytes 5 14,712 The part of the Amazons region where I resided longest being unexplored country to the Naturalist, no less than 8000 of the species here enumerated were new to science, and these are now occupying the busy pens of a number of learned men in different parts of Europe to describe them. The few new mammals have been named by Dr. Gray ; the birds by Dr. Sclater ; the zoophytes by Dr. Bowerbank ; and the more numerovis novelties in reptiles and fishes are now in course oi publication by Dr. Giinther.

A word will perhaps be here in place with reference to what has become of these large collections. It will be an occasion for regret to many Naturalists to leam that a complete set of the species has nowhere been preserved, seeing that this would have formed a fair

PREFACE.

. VI illustration of the Fauna of a region not likely to be explored again for the same purpose in our time. The limited means of a private traveller do not admit of his keeping, for a purely scientific end, a large collection. A considerable number, from many of the consign ments which arrived in London from time to time, were chosen for the British Museum, so that the largest set next to my own is contained in our National Collection ; but this p-obably comprises less than half the total number of species obtained. My very complete private collection of insects of nearly all the orders, which was especially valuable as containing the various connecting varieties, ticketed with their exact localities for the purpose of illustrating the formation of races, does not now exist in its entirety, a few large groups having passed into private hands in different parts of Europe.

With regard to the illustrations with which my book is adorned, it requires to be mentioned that the Natural History subjects have been drawn chiefly from specimens obtained by me, and the others by able artists partly from my own slight sketches. Messrs. Wolf and Zwecker have furnished most of the larger ones, which give an accurate idea of the objects and scenes they represent: for the smaller ones, many of which, for example the fishes, reptiles, and insects, are drawn with extreme care, I am indebted to Mr. E. W. Robinson. Leicester, January, 1863. CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

Chapter I. Para

Arrival — Aspect of the country — the Pani River — First walk in the Suburbs of Para — Free Negroes — Birds, Lizards, and Insects of the Suburbs — Leaf-cutting Ant — Sketch of the climate, history, and present condition of Para 1

Chapter II. Para

— continued. The Swampy forests of raid — A Portuguese landed proprietor — Country house at Nazareth — Life of a Naturalist under the equator — The drier virgin forests — Magoary — Retired creeks — Aborigines 44

Chapter III. Para

— concluded. Religious holidays— Marmoset Monkeys — Serpents — Insects of the forest — Relations of the fauna of the Para District

Chapter IV. The Tocantins And Cameta

Preparations for the journey — The bay of Goajara — Grove of fan-leaved palms — The lower Tocantins — Sketch of the river — Vista alegre — Baiao — Rapids — Boat journey to the Guariba falls — Native life on the Tocantins — Second journey to Cameta . CONTENTS. VIII 168 212 266

Chapter V

CARIPf AND THE BAY OF MARAJO. River Para and Bay of Marajo— Journey to Caripi — Negro observance of Christmas— A German Family — Bats— Ant-eaters — Humming-birds — Excursion to the Murucupi — Domestic Life of the Inhabitants — Hunting Excursion with Indians — Natural History of the Paca and Cutia — Insects .....

Chapter VI. The Lower

-AMAZONS— PARA TO OBYDOS. Modes of travelling on the Amazons — Historical Sketch of the early explorations of the River — Preparations for Voyage — Life on board a large Trading-vessel— The narrow Channels joining the Para to the Amazons —First Sight of the gieat River — Gurupa — The Great Shoal — Flat-topped Mountains — Contraction of the River Valley — Santarem — Obydos — Natural History of Obydos — Origin of Species by Segregation of Local Varieties .

Chapter VII. The Lower

AMAZONS— OBYDOS TO MANAOS, OR THE BARRA OF THE RIO NEGRO. Departure from Obydos — River banks and by-channels— Cacao planters — Daily life on board our vessel— Great Storm— Sand-island and its birds — Hill of Parentins — Negro trader and Mauhds Indians — Villa Nova, its inhabitants, climate, forest, and animal productions — Cararaucii — A rustic festival — Lake of Cararaucu — Motuca flies — Serpa — Christmas holidays — River Madeira — A mameluco farmer — Mura Indians — Rio Negro Description of Barra— Descent to Para — Yellow fever LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. VOL. I. PAGE adventure with curl-crested toucans . . Frontispiece. SAUBA OR L5EAF-CAERYING ANT 24 SAUBA ANT — FEMALE 33 CLIMBING PALM (D5ESM0NCUS) 48 INTERIOR OF PRIMÆVAL FOREST ON THE AMAZONS . . . 72 AMPHISBÆNA 101 ACROSOMA ARCUATUM 106 ASSAI PALM (ELTERI'E OLERACEA) 123 BIRD-KILLING SPIDER (MTGALE AVICTLAKIa) ATTACKING FINCHES 161 ANT-EATER GRAPPLING WITH DOG ]/7 HUMMING-BIRD AND HUMMING-BIRD HAWK-MOTH . . . 181 ACARI FISH (LORICARIA DUODECIMAL^) ... . 228 FLAT-TOPPED MOUNTAINS OF PARAFAQUARA, LOWER AMAZONSv. 232 MUSICAL CRICKET (CHLOROCŒLVS TANANA) .... 251 HELICONir.S MELPOMENE 256 HELICONITJS THELXIOPE 257 TRANSITION FORMS BETWEEN HELICONIUS MELPOMENE AND H. THELXIOPE 259 PETJRIRfMA PALM (BACTEIS) THE NATURALIST ON THE AMAZONS.

Chapter I

rARi. .\rrival — Aspect of the Country — The Para River— First walk in the Suburbs of Pard — Free Negroes — Birds, LUards, and Insects of the Suburbs — Leaf-carrying Ant — Sketch of the climate, history, and present condition of Pard. I EMB.VRKED at Liverpool, with Mr. Wallace, in a small trading vessel, on the 2Cth of April, 1848 ; and, after a swift passage from the Irish Channel to the equator, arrived, on the 26th of May, off Salinas. This is the pilot-station for vessels bound to Para, the only port of entry to the vast region watered by the .Amazons. It is a small village, formerly a missionary settlement of the Jesuits, situated a few miles to the eastward of the Pard river. Here the ship anchored in the open sea, at a distance of six miles from the shore, the shallowness of the water far out around the mouth of the great river not per mitting in safety a nearer approach ; and the signal was hoisted for a pilot.

It was with deep interest that my VOL. I. B SA. PARA. Chap* *■* companion and myself, both now about to see and ex amine the beauties of a tropical country for the first time, gazed on the land, where I, at least, eventually spent eleven of the best years of my life. To the east ward the country was not remarkable m appearance, being slightly undulating, with bare sand-hills and scattered trees ; but to the westward, stretching towards the mouth of the river, we could see through the captain's glass a long line of forest, rising apparently out of the water ; a densely-packed mass of tall trees, broken into groups, and finally into single trees, as it dwindled away in the distance. This was the frontier, in this direction, of the great primæval forest character istic of this region, which contains so many wonders in its recesses, and clothes the whole surface of the country for two thousand miles from this point to the foot of the Andes.

On the following day and night we sailed, with a light wind, partly aided by the tide, up the Pard, river. Towards evening we passed Vigia and Colares, two fishing villages, and saw many native canoes, which seemed like toys beneath the lofty walls of dark forest. The air was excessively close, the sk}^ overcast, and sheet lightning played almost incessantly around the horizon, an appropriate greeting on the threshold of a country lying close under the equator ! The evening was calm, this being the season when the winds are not strong, so we glided along in a noiseless manner, which contrasted pleasantly with the unceasing turmoil to which we had been lately accustomed on the Atlantic. The immensity of the river struck us greatly, for Chap. I. THE PARA RIVEK. 3 although sailing sometimes at a distance of eight or nine miles from the eastern bank, the opposite shore was at no time visible.

Indeed, the Para river is 36 miles in breadth at its mouth ; and at the city of Par&, nearly 70 miles from the sea, it is 20 miles wide ; but at that point a series of islands commences which contracts the river view in front of the city. It will be well to explain here that the Para river is not, strictly speaking, one of the mouths of the .Amazons. It is made to appear so on many of the maps in common use, because the channels which connect it with the main river are there given much broader than they are in reality, conveying the impression that a large body of water finds an outlet from the main river into the Para. It is doubtful, however, if there be any considerable stream of water flowing constantly downward through these channels. The whole of the district traversed by them consists of a complex group of low islands formed of river deposit, between which is an intricate net-work of deep and narrow channels.

The land probably lies somewhat lower here than it does on the sea coast, and the tides meet about the middle of the channels ; but the ebb and flow are so complicated that it is difficult to ascertain whether there is a constant fine of current in one direction. A flow down one of the channels is in some cases diverted into an ebb through other ramifications. In travelling from the Par& to the main Amazons, I have always followed the most easterly channel, and there the flow of the tide always causes a strong upward current ; it is said that this is not so perceptible in other channels, and b Chap. I 4 PARA that the flow never overpowers the stream of water coming from the main river ; this would seem to favour the opinion of those geographers who believe the Para to be one of the mouths of the King of Kivers.

The channels of which we are speaking, at least those straighter ones which trading vessels follow in the voyage from Para to the Amazons, are about 80 miles in length ; but for many miles of their course they are not more than 100 yards in breadth. They are of great depth, and in many places are so straight and regular that they appear like artificial canals. The great river steamers which now run regularly to the interior, in some places brush the overhanging trees with their paddle-boxes on each side as they pass. The whole of the region is one vast wilderness of the most luxuriant tropical vegetation, the strangest forms of palm trees of some score of different species forming a great pro portion of the mass. I shall, however, have to allude again to the wonderful beauty of these romantic chan nels, when I arrive at that partof my narrative.

The Para river, on this view, may be looked upon as the common fresh-water estuary of the numerous rivers which flow into it from the south ; the chief of which is the Tocantins, a stream 1600 miles in length, and about 10 miles in breadth at its mouth. The estuary forms, then, a magnificent body of water 160 miles in length, and eight miles in breadth at its abrupt commencement, where it receives the channels just described. There is a great contrast in general appearance between the Para and the main Amazons. In the former the flow of the tide always creates a strong current upwards, Chap. I. THE AMAZONS DELTA. 5 whilst in the Amazons the turbid flow of the mighty stream overpowers all tides, and produces a constant downward current The colour of the water is different, that of the Para being of a dingy orange-brown, whilst the .Amazons has an ochreous or yellowish clay tint.

The forests on their banks have a different aspect. On the Para the infinitely diversified trees seem to rise directly out of the water ; the fores c frontage is covered with greenery, and wears a placid aspect, whilst the shores of the main Amazons are encumbered with fallen trunks, and are fringed with a belt of broad-leaved grasses. The difference is partly owing to the currents, which on the main river tear away the banks, and float out to sea an almost continuous line of dead trees and other debris of its shores. We may. however, regard the combined mouths of the Para and the .Amazons with their archipelago of islands as forming one immense river delta, each side of which measures 180 miles — an area about equal to the southern half of England and Wales. In the middle of it lies the island of Marajo, which is as large as Sicily.

The land is low and flat, but it does not consist entirely of alluvium or river deposit ; in many parts the surface is rocky ; rocks also form reefs in the middle of the Para river. The immense volumes of fresh water which are poured through these broad embouchures, the united contributions of innumerable streams, fed by drenching tropical rains, prevent them from becoming salt water estuaries. The water is only occasionally a little brackish near Para, at high spring tides. Indeed, the fresh water tinges the sea along the shores of Guiana to a distance of nearly 200 miles from the mouth of the river. On the morning of the 28th of May we arrived at Para. The appearance of the city at sunrise was pleasing in the highest degree. It is built on a low tract of land, having only one small rocky elevation at its southern extremity ; it therefore affords no amphi theatral view from the river ; but the white buildings roofed with red tiles, the numerous towers and cupolas of churches and convents, the crowns of palm trees reared above the buildings, all sharply defined against the clear blue sky, give an appearance of lightness and cheerfulness which is most exhilarating.

The perpetual forest hems the city in on all sides landwards ; and towards the suburbs, picturesque country houses are seen scattered about, half buried in luxuriant foliage. The port was full of native canoes and other vessels, large and small ; and the ringing of bells and firing of rockets, an nouncing the dawn of some Roman Catholic festival day, showed that the population was astir at that early hour. We went ashore in due time, and were kindly received by Mr. Miller, the consignee of the vessel, who invited us to make his house our home until we could obtain a suitable residence. On landing, the hot moist mouldy air, which seemed to strike from the ground and walls, reminded me of the atmosphere of tropical stoves at Kew. In the course of the afternoon a heavy shower fell, and in the evening, the atmosphere having been cooled by the rain, we walked about a mile out of town to the residence of an American gentleman to whom our host wished to introduce us.

Chap. I. OUR FIRST WALK ASHORE. 7 The impressions received during this first walk can never wholly fade from my mind. After traversing the few streets of tall, gloomy, convent-looking buildings near the port, inhabited chiefly by merchants and shopkeepers, along which idle soldiers, dressed in shabby uniforms, carrying their muskets carelessly over their arms, priests, negresses with red water-jars on their heads, sad-looking Indian women carrying their naked children astride on their hips, and other samples of the motley life of the place, were seen, we passed down a long narrow street leading to the suburbs. Beyond this, our road lay across a grassy common into a picturesque lane leading to the virgin forest. The long street was inhabited by the poorer class of the population. The houses were of one story only, and had an irregular and mean appearance.

The windows were without glass, having, instead, projecting lattice casements. The street was unpaved and inches deep in loose sand. Groups of people were cooling themselves outside their doors : people of all shades in colour of skin, European, Negro and Indian, but chiefly an uncertain mixture of the three. Amongst them were several handsome women, dressed in a slovenly manner, barefoot or shod in loose slippers ; but wearing richly-decorated ear-rings, and around their necks strings of very large gold beads. They had dark expressive eyes, and remarkably rich heads of hair. It was a mere fancy, but I thought the mingled squalor, luxuriance and beauty of these women were pointedly in harmony with the rest of the scene ; so striking, in the view, was the mixture of natural riches and human poverty.

The houses were mostly in a dilapidated condition, and signs of indolence and neglect were everywhere visible. The wooden palings which surrounded the weed-grown gardens were strewn about, broken ; and hogs, goats and ill-fed poultry, wandered in and out through the gaps. But amidst all, and compensating every defect, rose the overpowering beauty of the vegetation. The massive dark crowns of shady mangos were seen everywhere amongst the dwellings, amidst fragrant blossoming orange, lemon, and many other tropical fruit trees ; some in flower, others in fruit, at varying stages of ripeness. Here and there, shooting above the more dome-like and sombre trees, were the smooth columnar stems of palms, bearing aloft their magnificent crowns of finely-cut fronds. Amongst the latter the slim assai-palm was especially noticeable ; growing in groups of four or five ; its smooth, gently-curving stem, twenty to thirty feet high, terminating in a head of feathery foliage, inexpressibly light and elegant in out line.

On the boughs of the taller and more ordinary looking trees sat tufts of curiously-leaved parasites. Slender woody lianas hung in festoons from the branches, or were suspended in the form of cords and ribbons ; whilst luxuriant creeping plants overran alike tree-trunks, roofs and walls, or toppled over palings in copious profusion of foliage. The superb banana (Musa paradisiaca), of which I had always read as forming one of the charms of tropical vegetation, here grew with great luxuriance : its glossy velvety green leaves, twelve feet in length, curving over the roofs of verandahs in the rear of every house. The Chap. I. EVENING CHORUS OF ANIMALS. 9 shape of the leaves, the varying shades of green which they present when lightly moved by the wind, and especially the contrast they afford in colour and form to the more sombre hues and more rounded out line of the other trees, are quite sufficient to account for the charm of this glorious tree.

Strange forms of vegetation drew our attention at almost every step. .Amongst them were the different kinds of Bromelia, or pine-apple plants, with their long, rigid, sword-shaped leaves, in some species jagged or toothed along their edges. Then there was the bread-fruit tree — an impor tation, it is true ; but remarkable from its large, glossy, dark green, strongly digitated foliage, and its interesting history. Many other trees and plants, curious in leaf, stem, or manner of growth, grew on the borders of the thickets along which lay our road ; they were all attractive to new comers, whose last country ramble of quite recent date was over the bleak moors of Derbyshire on a sleety morning in ApriL As we continued our walk the brief twilight com menced, and the sounds of multifarious life came from the vegetation around The whirring of cicadas ; the shrill striclulation of a vast number and variety of field crickets and grasshoppers, — each species sounding its peculiar note ; the plaintive hooting of tree frogs — all blended together in one continuous ringing sound, — the audible expression of the teeming profusion of Nature.

As night came on, many species of frogs and toads in the marshy places joined in the chorus : their croaking and drumming, far louder than anything I had before Chap. I. PARA. 10 heard in the same fine, being added to the other noises, created an almost deafening din. This uproar of life, I afterwards found, never wholly ceased, night or day: in course of time I became, like other residents, accustomed to it. It is, however, one of the peculi arities' of a tropical— at least, a Brazilian— climate which is most likely to surprise a stranger. After my return to England the death-like stillness of summer days in the country appeared to me as strange as the ringing uproar did on my first arrival at Para. The object of our visit being accomplished, we returned to the city. The fire flies were then out in great num bers, flitting about the sombre woods, and even the frequented streets.

We turned into our hammocks, well pleased with what we had seen, and full of antici pation with regard to the wealth of natural objects we had come to explore. During the first few days, we were employed in landing our baggage and arranging our extensive apparatus. We then accepted the invitation of Mr. Miller to make use of his rocinha, or country-house in the suburbs, until we finally decided on a residence. Upon this we made our first essay in house-keeping. We bought cotton hammocks, the universal substitute for beds in this country, cooking utensils and crockery, and then engaged a free negro, named Isidoro, as cook and servant-of-all-work. Isidoro had served Englishmen in this capacity before, and, although he had not picked up two words of English, he thought he had a great talent for understanding and making himself under- Chap. I. FREE NEGROES. 11 stood ; in his efforts to do which he was very amusing.

Having no other medium through which we could make known our wants, we progressed rapidly in learning Portuguese. I was quite surprised to find little or no trace in Isidoro of that baseness of character which I had read of as being the rule amongst negroes in a slave country. Isidoro was an old man, with an anxious, lugubrious expression of countenance, and exhibited signs of having been overworked in his younger days, which I understood had been passed in slavery. The first traits I perceived in him were a certain degree of self-respect and a spirit of independence : these I found afterwards to be by no means rare qualities among the free negroes. Some time after he had entered our service, I scolded him one morning about some delay in getting breakfast. It happened that it was not his fault, for he had been detained, much against his will, at the shambles.

He resented the scolding, not in an insolent way, but in a quiet, respectful manner, and told me how the thing had occurred ; that I must not expect the same regularity in Brazil which is found in England, and that " paciencia' was a necessary accomplishment to a Brazilian traveller. There was nothing ridiculous about Isidoro ; there was a gravity of demeanour and sense of propriety about him which would have been considered becoming in a serving-man in any country This spirit of self-respect is, I think, attributable partly to the lenient treatment which slaves have generally received from their white masters in this part of Brazil, and partly to the almost total absence of prejudice against coloured people amongst the inhabitants. This latter is a very hopeful state of things. It seems to be encouraged by the governing class in Brazil ; and, by drawing together the races and classes of the hetero geneous population, will doubtless lead to the most happy results.

I had afterwards, as I shall have to relate in the course of my narrative, to number free negroes amongst my most esteemed friends : men of temperate, quiet habits, desirous of mental and moral improvement, observant of the minor courtesies of life, and quite as trustworthy, in more important matters, as the whites and half-castes of the province. Isidoro was not, per haps, scrupulously honest in small matters : scrupulous honesty is a rare quality in casual servants anywhere. He took pains to show that he knew he had made a contract to perform certain duties, and he tried, evidently, to perform them to the best of his ability. Our first walks were in the immediate suburbs of Para. The city lies on a corner of land formed by the junction of the liver Guama with the Para. As I have said before, the forest, which covers the whole country, extends close up to the city streets ; indeed, the town is built on a tract of cleared land, and is kept free from the jungle only by the constant care of the Government.

The surface, though everywhere low, is slightly undulating, so that areas of dry land alternate throughout with areas of swampy ground, the vegetation and animal tenants of the two being widely different Our residence lay on the side of the city nearest the Guama, on the borders of one of the low and swampy areas which here extend over a portion of the suburbs. The tract of land is intersected by well-macadamized Chap. I. SUBURBS OF PARA. 1 3 suburban roads, the chief of which, the Estrada das Mongubeiras (the Monguba road), about a mile long, is a magnificent avenue of silk-cotton trees (Bombax mon guba and B. ceiba), huge trees whose trunks taper rapidly from the ground upwards, and whose flowers before opening look like red balls studding the branches. This fine road was constructed under the governorship of the Count dos .Arcos, about the year 1812.

At right angles to it ran a number of narrow green lanes, and the whole district is drained by a system of small canals or trenches through which the tide ebbs and flows, showing the lowness of the site. Before I left the country, other enterprising presidents had formed a number of avenues lined with cocoa-nut palms, almond and other trees, in continuation of the Monguba road, over the more elevated and drier ground to the north east of the city. On the high ground the vegetation has an aspect quite different from that which it presents in the swampy parts. Indeed, with the exception of the palm trees, the suburbs here have an aspect like that of a village green at home. The soil is sandy, and the open commons are covered with a short grassy and shrubby vegetation. Beyond this, the land again descends to a marshy tract, where, at the bottom of the moist hollows, the public wells are situated Here all the linen of the city is washed by hosts of noisy negresses, and here also the water-carts are filled — painted hogsheads on wheels, drawn by bullocks.