Brazil, the Amazons and the coast . ;but after awhile I had a house of my own, and picked up aman to work for me. This fellow, Pedro, was my factotumfor a long time. He was a young Indian, rather wxak-minded, but he served me so faithfully and was so ready andaffectionate, that I became much attached to him. He wasin debt, of course, and his creditor made him work at inter-vals by way of payment; I persuaded this creditor to makeout an account, and advised Pedro to leave half of his wagesin my hands for its payment; in this way, I had the satisfac- 296 BRAZIL. tion of seeing the debt cancelled
Brazil, the Amazons and the coast . ;but after awhile I had a house of my own, and picked up aman to work for me. This fellow, Pedro, was my factotumfor a long time. He was a young Indian, rather wxak-minded, but he served me so faithfully and was so ready andaffectionate, that I became much attached to him. He wasin debt, of course, and his creditor made him work at inter-vals by way of payment; I persuaded this creditor to makeout an account, and advised Pedro to leave half of his wagesin my hands for its payment; in this way, I had the satisfac- 296 BRAZIL. tion of seeing the debt cancelled before Pedro left me:though I have no doubt that he made another one as soon aspossible. Alenquer lies several miles away from the main Amazons,on a side channel, the Igarapc dAlenquer; or rather, justwithin the mouth of a small affluent, the Igarape de Itaearard,which enters the Alenquer from the north. This IgarapedAlenquer is, as we shall see, the outlet of the river Curua;but it contains Amazonian water also. It is wide enough. Village Scene, Alenquer. and deep enough for any of the river steamers ; in the dryseason they receive cargo directly at the bank, but in Januaryand February the water overflows the great grass-plot beforethe village, almost up to the streets ; then the steamers mustbe loaded from canoes. Alenquer has a thriving trade inBrazil-nuts, cacao and dried pirarucu-fish. There are a THE CURUA. 297 dozen stores, with groceries and dry-goods ; a few work-shops, and so on. The place may have eight hundred in-habitants. Like most of the river towns, it is well laid out,with wide streets, and a square before the church ; the housesare modern, very well built, of adobe or brick, and with tile-roofs ; only a few, in the outskirts, are palm-thatched. The people are unceremonious and hospitable. The mer-chants are shrewd money-makers ; most of them own cattle-farms or cacao-plantations away from the town ; these aretheir best securities, and the starting-points with
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