William Lewis Herndon, Lieutenant, U.S.N.

“ About fifty-five miles below Prainha we passed the mouth of the small river Parú, which enters the Amazon on the left bank. It is a quarter of a mile wide at its mouth, and has clear dark water. It is very difficult to get any information from the Indian pilots on the river. When questioned regarding any stream, the common reply is, “It runs a long way up; it has rapids; savages live upon its banks; everything grows there;” (Vai longe, tern caxoieras, tem gentios, term tudo.)
GURUPÁ. 327 ”

“ Fifty miles below Almeirim we steered across the river for Gurupá, running under sail from island to island, The river here is about ten miles wide. Large islands divide it into the Macapá and Gurupá channels; the latter conducting to Pará, the former running out to sea by the shores of Guyana. ”

“ He thought that a military force should be employed to reduce them to a more perfect system of subjection, and that they should, by all means, be compelled to work. I told him that a Portuguese had said that the best reform that could be made would be to hang all the Indians. ”

“ The reason, I think, is this: when persons leave their homes to ascend the tributaries, they break up their usual habits of life, live in canoes exposed to the weather, with bad and insufficient food, and are engaged in an occupation (the collection of India-rubber or sarsaparilla) which compels them to be nearly all the time wet. ”

“ Water boiled at Santarem at 210.5, indicating a height of eight hundred and forty-six feet above the level of the sea.
I left Santarem at 7 p.m., March 28, 1852. The Delegado could only muster me three tapuios and a pilot, and I shipped a volunteer. I believe he could have given me as many as I desired, (eleven,) but that he had many employed in the building of his new house, and, moreover, he had no conception that I would sail on the day that I appointed; people in this country never do, I believe, by any chance. ”

“ Departure from Santarem — Monte Allegre — Prainha — Almeirim — Gurupá — River Xingu — Great estuary of the Amazon — India-rubber country — Method of collecting and preparing the India-rubber — Bay of Limoeiro — Arrival at Pará. ”