Photographic Establishment.—Indian Portraits.—Excursion to the “Great Cascade.”—Its Geological Formation.—Bathing Pool.—Parasitic Plants.—Return by the IgarapÉ.—Public Ball.—Severity in Recruiting, and its Effects.—Collecting Parties.—Scenes of Indian Life.—FÊte ChampÊtre at the “Casa dos Educandos.”—Prison at Manaos.—Prison Discipline on the Amazons.—Extracts from Presidential Reports on this Subject.—Prison at TeffÉ.—General Character of Brazilian Institutions.—Emperor’s Birthday.—Illuminations and Public Festivities.—Return of Collecting Parties.—Remarks on the Races.—Leave Manaos for Mauhes.

Saturday, November 4th.—Manaos. This week has been rather uneventful. Mr. Agassiz is prevented from undertaking new expeditions by the want of alcohol. The next steamer will bring a fresh supply from ParÁ; and meanwhile, being interrupted in his collections, he is making a study of the various intermixture of races, Indians and Negroes, with their crossings, of which a great number are found here. Our picturesque barrack of a room, which we have left for more comfortable quarters in Mr. Honorio’s house, serves as a photographic saloon, and here Mr. Agassiz is at work half the day with his young friend Mr. Hunnewell, who spent almost the whole time of our stay in Rio in learning photography, and has become quite expert in taking likenesses. The grand difficulty is found in the prejudices of the people themselves. There is a prevalent superstition among the Indians and Negroes that a portrait absorbs into itself something of the vitality of the sitter, and that any one is liable to die shortly after his picture is taken. This notion is so deeply rooted that it has been no easy matter to overcome it. However, of late the desire to see themselves in a picture is gradually gaining the ascendant, the example of a few courageous ones having emboldened the more timid, and models are much more easily obtained now than they were at first.

Yesterday our quiet life was interrupted by an excursion to the great cascade, where we went with a party of friends to breakfast and dine. We were called with the dawn, and were on the road at six o’clock, the servants following laden with baskets of provisions. The dewy walk through the woods in the early morning was very pleasant, and we arrived at the little house above the cascade before the heat of the day began. This house stands on a hill in a cleared ground entirely surrounded by forest; just below it the river comes rushing through the wood, and falls some ten feet over a thin platform of rock. By its formation, this cascade is a Niagara in miniature; that is, the lower layer of rock being softer than the upper, the water has worn it away until there now remains only a thin slab of harder rock across the river. Deprived of its support, this slab must break down eventually, as Table-rock has done, when the cascade will, of course, retreat by so much and begin the same process a little higher up. It has, no doubt, thus worn its way upward already from a distant point. The lower deposit is clay, the upper consists of the constantly recurring reddish sandstone,—in other words, drift worked over by water. Below the fall, the water goes tearing along through a narrow passage, over boulders, fallen trees, and decaying logs, which break it into rapids. At a little distance from the cascade there is a deep, broad basin in the wood, with a sand bottom, so overshadowed by great trees that it looks dark even in tropical midday. The bathing here, as we found by experience at a later hour, is most delicious. The shade over the pool is so profound and the current runs through it so swiftly that the water is exceedingly cold,—an unusual thing here,—and it seems very refreshing to those coming from the hot sun outside. At the side of this pool I saw a very large parasitic plant in flower. Since we have been on the Amazons most of these parasites have been out of bloom, and, though we have seen beautiful collections in private gardens, we have not met them in the woods. This one was growing in the lofty notch of a great tree, overhanging the water; a tuft of dark green leaves with large violet and straw-colored blossoms among them. It was quite out of reach, and the little garden looked so pretty in its airy perch, that I was almost glad we had no power to disturb it. After breakfast some of the guests, and Mr. Agassiz among them, were obliged to return to town on business. They rejoined us in time for a late dinner, arriving in a canoe instead of coming on foot, an experiment which we had been prevented from trying in the morning, because we had been told that, as the igarapÉ was low and the bottom very rocky, it would be impossible to ascend the whole distance in a boat. They came, however, in perfect safety, and were delighted with the picturesque beauty of the row. After a very cheerful dinner, closing with a cup of coffee in the open air, we started at twilight for town, by different roads. Desirous to see the lower course of the igarapÉ, which Mr. Agassiz reported as so beautiful, and being assured that there was no real danger, I returned in the little canoe with Mr. Honorio. It was thought best not to overload it, so the others took the forest road by which we had come in the morning. I must say that as I went down the rough steps to the landing, in the very pool where we had bathed, it struck me that the undertaking was somewhat perilous; if this overshadowed nook was dark at noonday, it was black at nightfall, and the turbulent little stream, rushing along over rocks and logs, looked mischievous. The rest of the party went with us to the embarkation, and, as we disappeared in the darkness under the overhanging branches, one of them called after us, laughingly,

However, there was only danger enough to laugh at, none to give real concern, and I enjoyed the row through the narrow channel, where the trees met overhead, and where the boatmen were obliged to jump into the water to guide the canoe among the boulders and fallen trunks. We reached home in perfect safety, and in time to welcome the others when they arrived on foot.

November 8th.—Manaos has been in unwonted agitation, for the last few days, on the subject of a public ball to be given in honor of Mr. Tavares Bastos. Where it should take place, what should be the day and hour, and, among the Senhoras, what one should wear, have been the subjects of discussion. The doubtful questions were at last settled, and it was appointed for the fifth of the month, in the President’s palace. “Palace” is the name always given to the residence of the President of the province, however little the house may be in keeping with the title. The night was not so auspicious as could have been wished; it was very dark, and, as no such luxury as a carriage is known here, the different parties might be seen groping through the streets at the appointed hour, lighted with lanterns. Every now and then, as we were on our way, a ball-dress would emerge from the darkness of an opposite corner, picking its way with great care along the muddy ruts. When we had all assembled, however, I did not see that any toilet had suffered seriously on the road. The dresses were of every variety, from silks and satins to stuff gowns, and the complexions of all tints, from the genuine negro through paler shades of Indian and negro to white. There is absolutely no distinction of color here; a black lady, always supposing her to be free, is treated with as much consideration and meets with as much attention as a white one. It is, however, rare to see a person in society who can be called a genuine negro; but there are many mulattoes and mamelucos, that is, persons having black or Indian blood. There is little ease in Brazilian society, even in the larger cities; still less in the smaller ones, where, to guard against mistakes, the conventionalities of town life are exaggerated. The Brazilians, indeed, though so kind and hospitable, are a formal people, fond of etiquette and social solemnities. On their arrival, all the Senhoras were placed in stiff rows around the walls of the dancing-room. Occasionally an unfortunate cavalier would stray in and address a few words to this formidable array of feminine charms; but it was not until the close of the evening, when the dancing had broken up the company into groups, that the scene became really gay. At intervals, trays of “doces” and tea were handed round, and at twelve there was a more solid repast, at which all the ladies were seated, their partners standing behind their chairs and waiting upon them. Then began the toasts and healths, which were given and received with great enthusiasm. After supper the dancing was renewed and continued till after midnight, when the steamer from ParÁ was seen coming into port, throwing up rockets and burning blue-lights as she advanced, to announce that she was the bearer of good tidings from the war. This, of course, gave general satisfaction, and the ball broke up in great hilarity. There were some who did not sleep at all that night, for many of the gentlemen went from the ball-room to the steamer in search of the papers, which brought the news of a decided victory over the Paraguayans, at Uruguayana, where the Emperor commanded in person. It is said that seven thousand prisoners were taken. The next night the ball was renewed in honor of this victory; so that Manaos, whose inhabitants complain of the life as very dull, has had a most unwonted rush of gayety this week.

November 9th.—The severity in recruiting, of which we heard so much at the Lake of Hyanuary, is beginning to bear its fruits in general discontent. Some of the recruits have made their escape, and, on Tuesday and Wednesday, before the steamer in which they were to go down to ParÁ sailed, the disturbance was so great among them that they were kept under lock and key. The impression seems to be general here that the province of the Amazonas has been called upon to bear more than its share of the burden, and that the defencelessness of the Indians in the scattered settlements has made them especially victims. As there was no other armed force here, several of the crew of the “Ibicuhy” were taken to go down to ParÁ as guard over the unruly troops. Partly in consequence of this, we have resolved to remain at Manaos till the end of the month; a delay which Mr. Agassiz does not regret, as it enables him to continue the comparison of the races which he has begun, and for which the circumstances here are unusually favorable. In the mean time the President has provided him with canoes and men for three separate expeditions, on which he sends off three parties this week: Mr. Talisman and Mr. Dexter to the Rio Negro and Rio Branco, to be absent six weeks; Mr. Thayer and Mr. Bourget to Lake Cudajas, to be gone ten days; Mr. James to Manacapuru, for about the same time. We feel the generosity of this conduct the more, knowing how greatly the administration stands in need of men and of all the resources at its command in the present disturbed state of things.

November 18th.—One can hardly walk in any direction out of the town without meeting something characteristic of the people and their ways of living. At seven o’clock, to-day, I took my morning walk through the wood near the house to an igarapÉ, which is the scene of much of the out-of-doors life here,—fishing, washing, bathing, turtle-shooting. As I returned along the little path leading by the side of the stream, two naked Indian boys were shooting fish with bow and arrows from a fallen tree which jutted out into the stream. Like bronze statues they looked, as they stood quiet and watchful, in attitudes full of grace and strength, their bows drawn ready to let the arrow fly the moment they should catch sight of the fish. The Indian boys are wonderfully skilful in this sport, and also in shooting arrows through long blow-pipes (Sarabatanas) to kill birds. This is no bad way of shooting, for the report of the gun startles the game so effectually in these thick forests, that after a few shots the sportsman finds the woods in his immediate neighborhood deserted; whereas the Indian boy creeps stealthily up to the spot from which he takes aim and discharges his noiseless arrow with such precision, that the bird or monkey drops down from among its companions, without their perceiving the cause of its disappearance. While I was watching the boys, a canoe came up the stream, paddled by women, and loaded with fruit and vegetables, on the top of which sat two bright green parrots. Two of the women were old and hideous, very wrinkled and withered, as these people usually are in old age; but the third was the handsomest Indian woman I have ever seen, with a tinge of white blood to be sure, for her skin was fairer and her features more regular than those of the Indians generally. They were coming from their sitio, as I learned afterwards. When they had moored their boat to a tree, the younger woman began to unload, tucking her petticoat about her hips, and wading to and fro with baskets of fruit and vegetables on her head. Her hair was dressed with flowers, as is usual with these women; however scanty their clothing, they seldom forget this ornament.

November 20th.—The President, Dr. Epaminondas, added yesterday to the many kindnesses by which he has rendered our stay here doubly pleasant, in giving an exceedingly pretty fÊte in honor of Mr. Agassiz. The place chosen was the asylum for Indian children already described, well adapted for the purpose on account of its large, airy rooms and beautiful situation; and the invitation was given out in the name of the “Province of the Amazonas.”^[82] The day was most propitious; a rain during the night had cooled the air, and a slightly overcast sky, combined with the freshness of the atmosphere, gave just the conditions most desirable for any such excursion in this climate. When we reached the beach from which we were to leave, people were beginning to assemble, and a number of canoes were already on their way, looking very gay with their white awnings above and the bright dresses inside. Twenty minutes’ row brought us to our destination. The scene was very pretty; the path from the landing to the main house was lined with flags and with palm-trees brought from the forest for the occasion, and the open sides of the large rooms outside, usually working-rooms, but now fitted up for the breakfast, were all filled in with green arches built of trees and flowers, so that the whole space was transformed, for the time being, into an arbor. We were received with music and conducted to the main building, where all the guests gradually assembled, some two hundred in number. At about one o’clock the President led the way to the green arcades which, as yet, we had seen only from a distance. Nothing could be more tasteful than the arrangements. The tables were placed around a hollow square, in the centre of which was the American flag, with the Brazilian on either side of it; while a number of other flags draped the room and made the whole scene bright with color. The landscape, framed in the open green arches, made so many pictures, pretty glimpses of water and wood, with here and there a palm-thatched roof among the trees on the opposite side of the river. A fresh breeze blew through the open dining-room, stirring the folds of the flags, and making a pleasant rustle in the trees, which added their music to that of the band outside. Since we are on the Amazons, a thousand miles from its mouth, it is worth while to say a word of the breakfast itself. There is such an exaggerated idea of the hardships and difficulty of a voyage on the Amazons, (at least so I infer from many remarks made to us, not only at home, but even in Rio de Janeiro by Brazilians themselves, when we were on the eve of departure for this journey,) that it will hardly be believed that a public breakfast, given in Manaos, should have all the comforts, and almost all the luxuries, of a similar entertainment in any other part of the world. It is true, that we had neither ices nor champagne, the former being of course difficult to obtain in this climate; but these two exceptions were more than compensated for by the presence of tropical fruits not to be had elsewhere at any price,—enormous Pineapples, green and purple Abacatys (alligator pears), crimson Pitangas, Attas (fruta do Conde), Abios, Sapotis, Bananas of the choicest kinds and in the greatest profusion, and a variety of Maracujas (the fruit of the passion-flower).^[83] The breakfast was gay, the toasts were numerous, the speeches animated, and long after the Senhoras had left the table the room still echoed with Vivas, as health followed health. At the close of the dinner there was a little scene which struck us as very pretty; I do not know whether it is a custom here, but, as it excited no remark, I suppose it may be. When the gentlemen returned to the house, bringing the music with them, all the waiters assembled in line before the door, decanter and glass in hand, to finish the remains of the wine with a toast on their own account. The head-waiter then stood in front of them and gave the health, first, of the persons for whom the banquet was given, followed by that of the President, all of which were answered with Vivas as they filled their glasses. Then one of the gentlemen stepping forward gave, amid shouts of laughter, the health of the head-waiter himself, which was drank in a closing bumper with perhaps more animation than either of the others. The afternoon closed with dancing, and at sunset the canoes assembled and we returned to the city, all feeling, I believe, that the festival had been a very happy one. It certainly was so for those to whom it was intended to give pleasure, and could hardly fail to be likewise for those who had planned and executed it. It will seem strange to many of my readers that Sunday should be chosen for such a fÊte; but here, as in many parts of continental Europe, even in Protestant districts, Sunday is a holiday and kept as such.

November 27th.—Yesterday I visited the prison where the wife of the chief of police had invited me to see some of the carved articles, straw work, &c., made by the prisoners. I had expected to be pained, because I thought, from the retrograde character of things in general here, the prison system would be bad. But the climate in these hot countries regulates the prison life in some degree. Men cannot be shut up in close, dark cells, without endangering not only their own lives, but the sanitary condition of the establishment also. Therefore the prison is light and airy, with plenty of doors and windows, secured by bars, but not otherwise closed. I infer, however, from a passage on the prisons of the province, contained in one of the able reports of President Adolfo de Barros (1864), that within the last year there has been a great improvement, at least in the prison of Manaos. He says: “The state of the prisons exceeds all that can be said to their disadvantage. Not only is it true that there is not to be found throughout the province a prison which fulfils the conditions imposed by the law, but there is not one which deserves the name of prison with the exception of that in the capital. And even this one, while it does not possess one of the conditions exacted by similar institutions, contains so disproportionate a number of prisoners of all classes, so indiscriminately mingled, that, setting aside the other difficulties arising from this association, it is only by the mercy of Providence that the jail has not been converted into a focus of epidemics during the great heat prevailing in this city for a great part of the year. In four small rooms, insufficiently ventilated and lighted, are assembled forty prisoners (including the sick) of various classes and conditions. Without air, without cleanliness, almost without room to move in their smothered and damp enclosure, these unhappy beings, against all precepts of law and humanity, suffer far more than the simple and salutary rigor of punishment.” These strictures must have led to a great amendment, for the prison does not now appear to be deficient in light or in ventilation, and there is a hospital provided apart for the sick. Some of the prisoners, especially those who were there for political offences, having been concerned in a recent revolt at Serpa, were very heavily ironed; but, excepting this, there were no signs, visible at least to the transient observer, of cruelty or neglect. After some remarks on the best modes of reforming these abuses and the means to be employed for that object, Dr. Adolfo goes on to speak of the ruinous condition of the prisons in other cities of the province. “Such is the state of the prison in the town of TeffÉ. The edifice in which it is established is an old and crumbling house, belonging to the municipality, thatched with straw, and so ruinous, that it seemed to me, when I visited it, rather like a deserted habitation than like a building destined for the detention of criminals. There were but a few prisoners, some of whom were already condemned. I formed a favorable judgment of them all, for it seemed to me they must have either great confidence in their own innocence, or scruples as to compromising the few soldiers who acted as guards. In no other way could I explain the fact that they remained in prison, when flight seemed so easy.” I well remember one evening when walking in TeffÉ seeing a number of men leaning against the wooden grating of a dimly lighted room in a ruinous thatched house, and being told that this was the prison. I asked myself the same question which presented itself to the President’s mind,—why these wild-looking, half-naked creatures had not long ago made their escape from a prison whose bars and bolts would hardly have imposed restraint upon a child. The report continues: “A more decent and, above all, a more secure prison at this point, the most important in the whole Solimoens, is an urgent and even indispensable necessity. Of the sixteen prisons in the whole province, only two, that of the capital and of Barcellos, have their own buildings. With these exceptions, the prisoners occupy either a part of the houses of the legislative chambers, or are placed in private houses hired for the purpose, or in the quarters of the military detachments. In these different prisons 538 prisoners were received during the current year, inclusive of recruits and deserters.” This last clause, “inclusive of recruits and deserters,” and the association of the two classes of men together, as if equally delinquent, touches upon a point hardly to be overlooked by the most superficial observer, and which makes a very painful impression on strangers. The system of recruiting, or rather the utter want of system, leads to the most terrible abuse of authority in raising men for the army. I believe that the law provides for a constitutional draft levied equally on all classes, excluding men below or above a certain age, or having certain responsibilities at home. But if such a law exists it is certainly not enforced; recruiting parties, as bad as the old “press-gangs” of England, go out into the forest and seize the Indians wherever they can find them. All who resist this summary treatment or show any inclination to escape are put into prison till the steamer leaves, by which they are despatched to ParÁ and thence to the army. The only overcrowded room I saw at the prison was that where the recruits were confined. Coming from a country where the soldier is honored, where men of birth and education have shown that they are not ashamed to serve in the line if necessary, it seemed to me strange and sad to see these men herded with common criminals. The record of the province of the Amazonas will read well in the history of the present war, for the number of troops contributed is very large in proportion to the population. But as most of them are obtained in this way, it may be doubted whether the result is a very strong evidence of patriotism. The abuses mentioned above are not, however, confined to these remote regions.^[84] It is not uncommon, even in the more populous and central parts of Brazil, to meet recruits on the road, so-called volunteers, chained two and two by the neck like criminals, under an armed guard. When we first met a squad of men under these circumstances, on the Juiz de Fora road, we supposed them to be deserters, but the Brazilians who were with us, and who seemed deeply mortified at the circumstance, said that they were no doubt ordinary recruits, arrested without inquiry on the one side, or power of resistance on the other. They asserted that this mode of recruiting was illegal, but that their chains would be taken off before entering the city, and no questions asked. A Brazilian told me that he had known an instance in which a personal pique against an enemy had been gratified by pointing out its object to the recruiting officer, who had the man at once enlisted, though a large family was entirely dependent upon him. Our informant seemed to know no redress for tyranny like this.

The hospitality we have received in Brazil, the sympathy shown to Mr. Agassiz in his scientific undertakings, as well as our own sentiments of gratitude and affection for our many friends here, forbid us to enter into any criticism of Brazilian manners or habits which could have a personal application. Neither do I believe that a few months’ residence in a country entitles any one to a judgment upon the national character of its people. Yet there are certain features of Brazilian institutions and politics which cannot but strike a stranger unfavorably, and which explain the complaints one constantly hears from foreign residents. The exceedingly liberal constitution, borrowed in great part from our own, prepares one to expect the largest practical liberty. To a degree this exists; there is no censorship of the press; there is no constraint upon the exercise of any man’s religion; nominally, there is absolute freedom of thought and belief. But in the practical working of the laws there is a very arbitrary element, and a petty tyranny of the police against which there seems to be no appeal. There is, in short, an utter want of harmony between the institutions and the actual condition of the people. May it not be, that a borrowed constitution, in no way the growth of the soil, is, after all, like an ill-fitting garment, not made for the wearer, and hanging loosely upon him? There can be no organic relation between a truly liberal form of government and a people for whom, taking them as a whole, little or no education is provided, whose religion is administered by a corrupt clergy, and who, whether white or black, are brought up under the influence of slavery. Liberty will not abide in the laws alone; it must have its life in the desire of the nation, its strength in her resolve to have and to hold it. Another feature which makes a painful impression on the stranger is the enfeebled character of the population. I have spoken of this before, but in the northern provinces it is more evident than farther south. It is not merely that the children are of every hue; the variety of color in every society where slavery prevails tells the same story of amalgamation of race; but here this mixture of races seems to have had a much more unfavorable influence on the physical development than in the United States. It is as if all clearness of type had been blurred, and the result is a vague compound lacking character and expression. This hybrid class, although more marked here because the Indian element is added, is very numerous in all the cities and on the large plantations; perhaps the fact, so honorable to Brazil, that the free negro has full access to all the privileges of any free citizen, rather tends to increase than diminish the number.^[85]

December 3d.—Yesterday was the Emperor’s birthday, always kept as a holiday throughout Brazil, and this year with more enthusiasm than usual, because he has just returned from the army, and has made himself doubly dear to his people, not only by the success which attended his presence there, but by his humanity toward the soldiers. We had our illuminations, bouquets, music, &c., as well as the rest of the world; but as Manaos is not overflowing with wealth, the candles were rather few, and there were long lapses of darkness alternating with the occasional brilliancy. We went out in the evening to make a few calls, and listen to the music in the open ground dignified by the name of the public square. Here all the surrounding buildings were brightly illuminated; there was a very pretty tent in the centre, where the band of Indian children from the Casa dos Educandos was playing; preparations were making for the ascension of a lighted balloon at a later hour, and so on. But whenever we have been present at public festivities in Brazil,—and our observation is confirmed by other foreigners,—we have been struck with the want of gayety, the absence of merriment. There is a kind of lack-lustre character in their fÊtes, so far as any demonstration of enjoyment is concerned. Perhaps it is owing to their enervating climate, but the Brazilians do not seem to work or play with a will. They have not the activity which, while it makes life a restless fever with our people, gives it interest also; neither have they the love of amusement of the continental Europeans.

December 6th.—Manaos. Mr. Thayer returned to-day from Lake Alexo, bringing a valuable collection of fish, obtained with some difficulty on account of the height of water; it is rapidly rising now, and the fish are in consequence daily scattered over a wider space. This addition with the collections brought in by Mr. Bourget and Mr. Thayer from Cudajas, by Mr. James from Manacapuru, and by Major Coutinho from Lake Hyanuary, JosÉ-Fernandez, Curupira, &c., &c., brings the number of Amazonian species up to something over thirteen hundred. Mr. Agassiz still carries out his plan of dispersing his working force in such a manner as to determine the limits of the distribution of species; to ascertain, for instance, whether those which are in the Amazons at one season may be in the Solimoens at another or at the same time, and also whether those which are found about Manaos extend higher up in the Rio Negro. For this reason, as we have seen, while at TeffÉ himself he kept parties above in various localities,—at Tabatinga and on the rivers IÇa and Hyutahy; and now, while he and some of his assistants are collecting in the immediate neighborhood of Manaos, Mr. Dexter and Mr. Talisman are on the Rio Negro and Rio Branco. Following the same plan in descending the river, he intends to establish one station at Serpa, another at Obydos, another at Santarem, while he will go himself to the river Mauhes, which connects the Amazons with the Madeira.

December 10th.—To-day Mr. Dexter and Mr. Talisman returned from their canoe excursion to the Rio Branco. They are rather disappointed in the result of their expedition, having found the state of the waters most extraordinary for the season and very unfavorable for their purpose. The Rio Negro was so full that the beaches had entirely disappeared, and it was impossible to draw the nets; while on the Rio Branco the people stated that the water had not fallen during the whole year,—an unheard-of phenomenon, and unfortunate for the inhabitants, who were dreading famine for want of their usual supply of dried and salted fish, on which they so largely depend for food. This provision is always made when the waters are lowest, and when the large fish, driven into shallower and narrower basins, are easily caught. Though their collection of fish is therefore small, including only twenty-eight new species, Mr. Dexter and Mr. Talisman bring several monkeys, a very large alligator, some beautiful birds, among them the blue Mackaw, and a number of very fine palms. To-morrow we leave Manaos in the Ibicuhy, on an excursion to the little town of Mauhes, where we are to pass a week or ten days. Though we return for a day or two on our way to the Rio Negro, yet we feel that our permanent stay in Manaos is over. The six weeks we have passed here have been very valuable in scientific results. Not only has Mr. Agassiz largely increased his knowledge of the fishes, but he has had an opportunity of accumulating a mass of new and interesting information on the many varieties of the colored races, produced by the crossing of Indians, negroes, and whites, which he has recorded not only in notes, but in a very complete series of photographs. Perhaps nowhere in the world can the blending of types among men be studied so fully as in the Amazons, where mamelucos, cafuzos, mulattoes, cabocos, negroes, and whites are mingled in a confusion that seems at first inextricable. I insert below a few extracts from his notes on this subject, which he purposes to treat more in detail, should he find time hereafter to work up the abundant material he has collected.

“However naturalists may differ respecting the origin of species, there is at least one point on which they agree, namely, that the offspring from two so-called different species is a being intermediate between them, sharing the peculiar features of both parents, but resembling neither so closely as to be mistaken for a pure representative of the one or the other. I hold this fact to be of the utmost importance in estimating the value and meaning of the differences observed between the so-called human races. I leave aside the question of their probable origin, and even that of their number; for my purpose, it does not matter whether there are three, four, five, or twenty human races, and whether they originated independently from one another or not. The fact that they differ by constant permanent features is in itself sufficient to justify a comparison between the human races and animal species. We know that, among animals, when two individuals of different sex and belonging to distinct species produce an offspring, the latter does not closely resemble either parent, but shares the characteristics of both; and it seems to me of the highest significance that this fact is equally true of any two individuals of different sexes, belonging to different human races. The child born of negro and white parents is neither black nor white, but a mulatto; the child born of white and Indian parents is neither white nor Indian, but a mameluco; the child born of negro and Indian parents is neither a negro nor an Indian, but a cafuzo; and the cafuzo, mameluco, and mulatto share the peculiarities of both parents, just as the mule shares the characteristics of the horse and ass. With reference to their offspring, the races of men stand, then, to one another in the same relation as different species among animals; and the word races, in its present significance, needs only to be retained till the number of human species is definitely ascertained and their true characteristics fully understood. I am satisfied that, unless it can be shown that the differences between the Indian, negro and white races are unstable and transient, it is not in keeping with the facts to affirm a community of origin for all the varieties of the human family, nor in keeping with scientific principles to make a difference between human races and animal species in a systematic point of view. In these various forms of humanity there is as much system as in anything else in nature, and by overlooking the thoughtful combinations expressed in them we place ourselves at once outside of the focus from which the whole may be correctly seen. In consequence of their constancy, these differences are so many limitations to prevent a complete melting of normal types into each other and consequent loss of their primitive features. That these different types are genetically foreign to one another, and do not run together by imperceptible, intermediate degrees, appears plain when their mixtures are compared. White and negro produce mulattoes, white and Indian produce mamelucos, negro and Indian produce cafuzos, and these three kinds of half-breeds are not connecting links between the pure races, but stand exactly in that relation to them in which all hybrids stand to their parents. The mameluco is as truly a half-breed between white and Indian, the cafuzo as truly a half-breed between negro and Indian, as is the mulatto, commonly so called, a half-breed between white and negro. They all share equally the peculiarities of both parents, and though more fertile than half-breeds in other families of the animal kingdom, there is in all a constant tendency to revert to the primary types in a country where three distinct races are constantly commingling, for they mix much more readily with the original stocks than with each other.^[86] Children between mameluco and mameluco, or between cafuzo and cafuzo, or between mulatto and mulatto, are seldom met with where the pure races occur; while offspring of mulattoes with whites, Indians and negroes, or of mamelucos with whites, Indians, and negroes, or of cafuzos with whites, Indians, and negroes, form the bulk of these mixed populations. The natural result of an uninterrupted contact of half-breeds with one another is a class of men in which pure type fades away as completely as do all the good qualities, physical and moral, of the primitive races, engendering a mongrel crowd as repulsive as the mongrel dogs, which are apt to be their companions, and among which it is impossible to pick out a single specimen retaining the intelligence, the nobility, or the affectionateness of nature which makes the dog of pure type the favorite companion of civilized man. The question respecting the relation of the human races to each other is complicated by the want of precision in the definition of species. Naturalists differ greatly in their estimation of the characters by which species are to be distinguished, and of their natural limitations. I have published elsewhere my own views on this subject. I believe the boundaries of species to be precise and unvarying, based upon a category of characters quite distinct from those on which the other groups of the animal kingdom, as genera, families, orders, and classes, are founded. This category of characters consists chiefly in the relation of individuals to one another and to their surroundings, and in the relative dimensions and proportions of parts. These characters are no less permanent and constant in the different species of the human family than in those of any other family in the animal kingdom, and my observations upon the cross-breeds in South America have convinced me that the varieties arising from contact between these human species, or so-called races, differ from true species just as cross-breeds among animals differ from true species, and that they retain the same liability to revert to the original stock as is observed among all so-called varieties or breeds.”

Our visit to Mauhes will be the pleasanter and doubtless the more successful, because Dr. Epaminondas, who has already done so much to facilitate the objects of the expedition, takes this opportunity of visiting a region with which, as President of the province, he is desirous of becoming acquainted. He is accompanied by our host, Mr. Honorio, whose house has been such a pleasant home for us during our stay in Manaos, and also by Mr. Michelis, Lieutenant-Colonel of the National Guard of Mauhes, returning to his home there, after a stay of several weeks in Manaos. Besides these, our party consists of Major Coutinho, Mr. Burkhardt, and ourselves. The position of Mauhes, on the southern side of the Amazons, and its proximity to Manaos and Serpa, may make this excursion especially instructive, with reference to the study of the geographical distribution of the Fishes in the great network of rivers connecting the Rio Madeira and the Rio Tapajoz with the Amazons.