one wing to another. By a kind of optical illusion it appeared as
though the raft was motionless between two moving pathways.
Benito had no shooting on the banks, for no halt was made, but game
was very advantageously replaced by the results of the fishing.
A great variety of excellent fish were taken–_”pacos,” “surubis,”
“gamitanas,”_ of exquisite flavor, and several of those large rays
called _”duridaris,”_ with rose-colored stomachs and black backs
armed with highly poisonous darts. There were also collected by
thousands those _”candirus,”_ a kind of small silurus, of which many
are microscopic, and which so frequently make a pincushion of the
calves of the bather when he imprudently ventures into their haunts.
The rich waters of the Amazon were also frequented by many other
aquatic animals, which escorted the jangada through its waves for
whole hours together.
There were the gigantic _”pria-rucus,”_ ten and twelve feet long,
cuirassed with large scales with scarlet borders, whose flesh was not
much appreciated by the natives. Neither did they care to capture
many of the graceful dolphins which played about in hundreds,
striking with their tails the planks of the raft, gamboling at the
bow and stern, and making the water alive with colored reflections
and spurts of spray, which the refracted light converted into so many
rainbows.
On the 16th of June the jangada, after fortunately clearing several
shallows in approaching the banks, arrived near the large island of
San Pablo, and the following evening she stopped at the village of
Moromoros, which is situated on the left side of the Amazon.
Twenty-four hours afterward, passing the mouths of the Atacoari or
Cocha–or rather the _”furo,”_ or canal, which communicates with the
lake of Cabello-Cocha on the right bank–she put in at the rising
ground of the mission of Cocha. This was the country of the Marahua
Indians, whose long floating hair, and mouths opening in the middle
of a kind of fan made of the spines of palm-trees, six inches long,
give them a cat-like look–their endeavor being, according to Paul
Marcoy, to resemble the tiger, whose boldness, strength, and cunning
they admire above everything. Several women came with these Marahuas,
smoking cigars, but holding the lighted ends in their teeth. All of
them, like the king of the Amazonian forests, go about almost naked.
The mission of Cocha was then in charge of a Franciscan monk, who was
anxious to visit Padre Passanha.
Joam Garral received him with a warm welcome, and offered him a seat
at the dinner-table.
On that day was given a dinner which did honor to the Indian cook.
The traditional soup of fragrant herbs; cake, so often made to
replace bread in Brazil, composed of the flour of the manioc
thoroughly impregnated with the gravy of meat and tomato yelly;
poultry with rice, swimming in a sharp sauce made of vinegar and
_”malagueta;”_ a dish of spiced herbs, and cold cake sprinkled with
cinnamon, formed enough to tempt a poor monk reduced to the ordinary
meager fare of his parish. They tried all they could to detain him,
and Yaquita and her daughter did their utmost in persuasion. But the
Franciscan had to visit on that evening an Indian who was lying ill
at Cocha, and he heartily thanked the hospitable family and departed,
not without taking a few presents, which would be well received by
the neophytes of the mission.
For two days Araujo was very busy. The bed of the river gradually
enlarged, but the islands became more numerous, and the current,
embarrassed by these obstacles, increased in strength. Great care was
necessary in passing between the islands of Cabello-Cocha, Tarapote,
and Cacao. Many stoppages had to be made, and occasionally they were
obliged to pole off the jangada, which now and then threatened to run
aground. Every one assisted in the work, and it was under these
difficult circumstances that, on the evening of the 20th of June,
they found themselves at Nuestra-Senora-di-Loreto.
Loreto is the last Peruvian town situated on the left bank of the
river before arriving at the Brazilian frontier. It is only a little
village, composed of about twenty houses, grouped on a slightly
undulating bank, formed of ocherous earth and clay.