1S50.] MA NA QUERY. 123
dead twigs, we soon made a fire, roasted our fish, and boiled some coffee. But we had intruded on a colony of stinging ants, who, not liking the vicinity of fire, and not choosing to take to the water, swarmed into our canoe and made us pay for our supper in a very unpleasant manner. Dusk soon came on, and we had to stay for the night ; but the mosquitoes made their presence known, and we lay uncomfortable and feverish till the morning. By the next night we had reached the mouth of the small stream that leads us to Manaquery, and had few mosquitoes to annoy us. In the morning we went on, and soon plunged again into the Gapd, passing through some small lakes so choked up with grass that the canoe could hardly be forced over it. Again we emerged into the igaripe — here about a quarter of a mile wide — and at ten in the morning reached Manaquery.
The estate is situated on the south side of the Solimoes, about a hundred miles above its junction with the Rio Negro. The whole tract of country round it consists of igaripes, or small streams, lakes, gapd, and patches of high and dry land, so scattered and mixed together that it is very difficult to tell whether any particular portion is an island or not. The land, for a short distance on the banks of the stream, rises in an abrupt, rocky cliff, thirty or forty feet above high-water mark : the rocks are of a volcanic nature, being a coarse and often vitreous scoria. On ascending by some rude steps, I found myself in a flat grassy meadow, scattered over with orange- trees, mangoes, and some noble tamarind and calabash trees, and at the back a thicket of guavas.
Cattle and sheep were grazing about, and pigs and poultry were seen nearer the house. This was a large thatched shed, half of which contained the cane-mill, and was only enclosed by a railing instead of a wall ; the other half had coarse mud walls, with small windows and thatch shutters. The floor was of earth only, and very uneven, yet here resided Senhor Brandao and his daughter, whom I had met at Barra. The fact was that some ten or twelve years before, during the Revolu- tion, a party of Indians burnt down his house, and completely destroyed his garden and fruit-trees, killing several of his servants and cattle, and would have killed his wife and children, had they not, at a moment's notice, escaped to the forest, where they remained three days, living on Indian corn
