Eight Hundred Leagues on the Am

e, reckoning from the Paris meridian. It is some four hundred and twenty le

emarkable of all the tributaries of the great artery of Brazil, that the capital of the province, wi

the province of Popayan, on the flanks of the mountains which separate Brazil from New Grenada

se their distinctive character. Hereabouts the ends of both its banks trend off and form a huge bay fifteen leagues across, extending to the islands of Anavilhanas; and in one of its indentations the port of Manaos is situated. Vessels of a

ocoa, caoutchouc, coffee, sarsaparilla, sugar-canes, indigo, muscado nuts, salt fish, turtle butter, and other commodities, are brought here from all parts, down the innumerab

s the name of the great river at whose mouth it is placed; but since 1826 it has been the capital of the large province

ire of El Dorado, whose monarch, if we are to believe the fables of the district, was every morning covered with powder of gold, there being so much of the precious metal abounding in this privileged locality that it was swept up with the very

nd a hospital erected in 1851. When with these is also mentioned a cemetery on the south side of a hill, on which, in 1669, a fortress, which has since been demolished, was thrown up against the pirates of the Amazon, some idea can be gained as to the importance of the official establishments of the city. Of religious buildings it would be difficult to find more than two, the small Church of the Conception and the Chapel of Notre Dame des R

and they bear names highly characteristic of the tone of thought prevalent in the

f unpaved alleys, intersected every now and then by four canals, which are occasionally crossed by wooden bridges. In a few places these iguarapes flow with their brownish waters through large vacant spaces covered with straggling w

ary type, some roofed with tiles, others with interlaced branches of the palm-tree, and wit

imney-pot hats, patent-leather boots, highly-colored gloves, and diamond pins in their necktie bows; and women in loud, imposing toilets, with flounced dressed and headgear of th

he giant raft, so tragically interrupted, had just come to a pause in the midst of its long journey, a