It was in 1770 that this mission was founded by the Jesuit
missionaries. The Ticuma Indians, who inhabit the territories on the
north of the river, are natives with ruddy skins, bushy hair, and
striped designs on their faces, making them look like the lacquer on
a Chinese table. Both men and women are simply clothed, with cotton
bands bound round their things and stomachs. They are now not more
than two hundred in number, and on the banks of the Atacoari are
found the last traces of a nation which was formerly so powerful
under its famous chiefs.
At Loreto there also live a few Peruvian soldiers and two or three
Portuguese merchants, trading in cotton stuffs, salt fish, and
sarsaparilla.
Benito went ashore, to buy, if possible, a few bales of this smilax,
which is always so much in demand in the markets of the Amazon. Joam
Garral, occupied all the time in the work which gave him not a
moment’s rest, did not stir. Yaquita, her daughter, and Manoel also
remained on board. The mosquitoes of Loreto have a deserved
reputation for driving away such visitors as do not care to leave
much of their blood with the redoubtable diptera.
Manoel had a few appropriate words to say about these insects, and
they were not of a nature to encourage an inclination to brave their
stings.
“They say that all the new species which infest the banks of the
Amazon collect at the village of Loreto. I believe it, but do not
wish to confirm it. There, Minha, you can take your choice between
the gray mosquito, the hairy mosquito, the white-clawed mosquito, the
dwarf mosquito, the trumpeter, the little fifer, the urtiquis, the
harlequin, the big black, and the red of the woods; or rather they
make take their choice of you for a little repast, and you will come
back hardly recognizable! I fancy these bloodthirsty diptera guard
the Brazilian frontier considerably better than the poverty-stricken
soldiers we see on the bank.”
“But if everything is of use in nature,” asked Minha, “what is the
use of mosquitoes?”
“They minister to the happiness of entomologists,” replied Manoel;
“and I should be much embarrassed to find a better explanation.”
What Manoel had said of the Loreto mosquitoes was only too true. When
Benito had finished his business and returned on board, his face and
hands were tattooed with thousands of red points, without counting
some chigoes, which, in spite of the leather of his boots, had
introduced themselves beneath his toes.
“Let us set off this very instant,” said Benito, “or these wretched
insects will invade us, and the jangada will become uninhabitable!”
“And we shall take them into Para,” said Manoel, “where there are
already quite enough for its own needs.”
And so, in order not to pass even the night near the banks, the
jangada pushed off into the stream.
On leaving Loreto the Amazon turns slightly toward the southwest,
between the islands of Arava, Cuyari, and Urucutea. The jangada then
glided along the black waters of the Cajaru, as they mingled with the
white stream of the Amazon. After having passed this tributary on the
left, it peacefully arrived during the evening of the 23d of June
alongside the large island of Jahuma.
The setting of the sun on a clear horizon, free from all haze,
announced one of those beautiful tropical nights which are unknown in
the temperate zones. A light breeze freshened the air; the moon arose
in the constellated depths of the sky, and for several hours took the
place of the twilight which is absent from these latitudes. But even
during this period the stars shone with unequaled purity. The immense
plain seemed to stretch into the infinite like a sea, and at the
extremity of the axis, which measures more than two hundred thousand
millions of leagues, there appeared on the north the single diamond
of the pole star, on the south the four brilliants of the Southern
Cross.
The trees on the left bank and on the island of Jahuma stood up in
sharp black outline. There were recognizable in the undecided
_silhouettes_ the trunks, or rather columns, of _”copahus,”_ which