Remember the Rainforest 1

Home

Expedition Index

Itinerary

Etchings

Maps

Plants

Animals

People / Scenes

Green Girl's Eco Club

Lessons

Free Posters

Authors / Artists

Contact us

We came to this river after sunrise as the water was changing, becoming more and more clear, as we travelled southwest to the south, climbing the river.

Close to midnight, we anchored in Port of Moz, the southern bank of the river.

This village, consisting of an irregular street with low huts covered with palm leaves, are inhabited almost only by Indians and Mesticos, whose missionaries were the Capuchins of Belem do Para. They are descendants of the Tacunhapes and Jurunas, of which there were still wandering hordes between Tocantins and Esteves. There is now attributed to the parish of Porto de Moz, which also forms part of the village of Boa Vista, the population of 210 inhabitants and some 50 houses (1). The men, who provide service on the armed force, form a company of militia.

Porto de Moz

The Xingu rolls its pure green waters, through the width of the river. This abundance of mountain waters, in the depths of the Amazon, is explained because the Xingu River comes from high regions to the south, without receiving tributaries in what is considered its lower course.

Clear waters of the Rio Xingu

The banks of the river are bright white sands; Farther inland, enormous virgin forest rises, whose dark green contrasts, in a singular way, with flowering trees and flowering shrubs reflecting on the water’s edge.

Rio Xingu beach

In the entire Amazon basin, we were not able to find any place more pleasant than this. The sand dunes on the shore, where the traveler can disembark barefooted, the grouping of the woods in the mode of parks, both delight the eye as it remembers at the sad and theatrical forest of Igapo, flooded, wild and ravished by the flood.

Igapo or swamp

In the house of the Vicar, we saw a large shipment of cloves of Maranhao (Cassia caryophyllata), already ready to be shipped to Belem do Para.

Cassia caryophyllata, cloves

The pious priest had commanded his Indians to reap these cloves in the upper basin of the river. This pleasant spice, whose flavor mediates between the cinnamon and the carnation of India and called by the Portuguese of Pau-Cravo (in the general language, of Ibyra or Moira Quiynha). The bark of the clove tree (Persea caryophyllata, M.),

which rises to thirty and more feet, has dense glossy foliage. It likely belongs to the family of the Loureiros. In general, the chunky are two feet long and, at the corner, wrapped in several concentrated layers, until the thickness of an inch. Twenty or more of these pieces weighing from 50 to 60 pounds, are tied with strips of glossy black bark of a cipo, probably the Cissus; These bundles are dispatched for trade,

(1) This data, as well as all the lists of Populations, are here, in this country, taken from the settlements of the parish books. They include, therefore, only those who do not attend the church, but also those who participate in the sacraments, and therefore only a minimal part of Indians who, in general, are only baptized by the priests, because they are friends of the padre. The population total amounts to some 1,000 souls.

92