第42章

I stayed at Cameta until the 16th of July, and made a considerable collection of the natural productions of the neighbourhood.The town in 1849 was estimated to contain about 5000 inhabitants, but the municipal district of which Cameta is the capital numbered 20,000; this, however, comprised the whole of the lower part of the Tocantins, which is the most thickly populated part of the province of Para.The productions of the district are cacao, india-rubber, and Brazil nuts.The most remarkable feature in the social aspect of the place is the hybrid nature of the whole population, the amalgamation of the white and Indian races being here complete.The aborigines were originally very numerous on the western bank of the Tocantins, the principal tribe having been the Camutas, from which the city takes its name.They were a superior nation, settled, and attached to agriculture, and received with open arms the white immigrants who were attracted to the district by its fertility, natural beauty, and the healthfulness of the climate.The Portuguese settlers were nearly all males, the Indian women were good-looking, and made excellent wives; so the natural result has been, in the course of two centuries, a complete blending of the two races.There is now, however, a considerable infusion of negro blood in the mixture, several hundred African slaves having been introduced during the last seventy years.The few whites are chiefly Portuguese, but there are also two or three Brazilian families of pure European descent.The town consists of three long streets, running parallel to the river, with a few shorter ones crossing them at right angles.The houses are very plain, being built, as usual in this country, simply of a strong framework, filled up with mud, and coated with white plaster.Afew of them are of two or three stories.There are three churches, and also a small theatre, where a company of native actors at the time of my visit were representing light Portuguese plays with considerable taste and ability.The people have a reputation all over the province for energy and perseverance; and it is often said that they are as keen in trade as the Portuguese.The lower classes are as indolent and sensual here as in other parts of the province, a moral condition not to be wondered at in a country where perpetual summer reigns, and where the necessities of life are so easily obtained.But they are light-hearted, quick-witted, communicative, and hospitable.Ifound here a native poet, who had written some pretty verses, showing an appreciation of the natural beauties of the country, and was told that the Archbishop of Bahia, the primate of Brazil, was a native of Cameta.It is interesting to find the mamelucos displaying talent and enterprise, for it shows that degeneracy does not necessarily result from the mixture of white and Indian blood.The Cametaenses boast, as they have a right to do, of theirs being the only large town which resisted successfully the anarchists in the great rebellion of 1835-6.While the whites of Para were submitting to the rule of half-savage revolutionists, the mamelucos of Cameta placed themselves under the leadership of a courageous priest, named Prudencio.They armed themselves, fortified the place, and repulsed the large forces which the insurgents of Para sent to attack the place.The town not only became the refuge for all loyal subjects, but was a centre whence large parties of volunteers sallied forth repeatedly to attack the anarchists in their various strongholds.

The forest behind Cameta is traversed by several broad roads, which lead over undulating ground many miles into the interior.

They pass generally under shade, and part of the way through groves of coffee and orange trees, fragrant plantations of cacao, and tracts of second-growth woods.The narrow brook-watered valleys, with which the land is intersected, alone have remained clothed with primaeval forest, at least near the town.The houses along these beautiful roads belong chiefly to Mameluco, mulatto, and Indian families, each of which has its own small plantation.

There are only a few planters with larger establishments, and these have seldom more than a dozen slaves.Besides the main roads, there are endless bypaths which thread the forest and communicate with isolated houses.Along these the traveller may wander day after day without leaving the shade, and everywhere meet with cheerful, simple, and hospitable people.

Soon after landing, I was introduced to the most distinguished citizen of the place, Dr.Angelo Custodio Correia, whom I have already mentioned.This excellent man was a favourable specimen of the highest class of native Brazilians.He had been educated in Europe, was now a member of the Brazilian Parliament, and had been twice president of his native province.His manners were less formal, and his goodness more thoroughly genuine, perhaps, than is the rule generally with Brazilians.He was admired and loved, as I had ample opportunity of observing, throughout all Amazonia.