140
THE AMAZON AND MADEIRA RIVERS.
shores of the main stream are tolerably safe now for many a weary day's voyage, as one may readily conjecture from the cottages of the peaceable seringueiros thinly scattered along, until one has reached the domain of the ill-famed Parentintins, anthropophagous hordes, always ready for robbery and murder, and evidently the closest guardians of the rich seringaes (caoutchouc woods) on their territory, for the chances of being murdered and roasted are heavy odds against the acquisition of a few pounds of india-rubber.
Usually the traveller sees so little of these dangerous neighbours, the Araras and Parentintins, that he might be tempted to take the fearful tales of the caoutchouc gatherers for mere inventions of their awe-stricken fancy; but a few light pirogues of the former, which drifted down a lateral affluent, and the total absence of any settlement on the domain of the latter, disposed us to think otherwise. Moreover, the black corner-posts of a burnt cottage near Crato (marked as a town on the geographical maps, but in reality but one house and a few sheds), told their own tale of a whole family having been murdered and roasted there a few years ago by the Parentintins.* As in such cases nothing at all is done by the Brazilian Government, whose principle (very different from the fire-and-sword policy of the Portuguese) it is to spare the natives as much as possible, the few unprotected settlers must make room if they would not incur the danger of sharing the fate of their neighbours. The only mode of evading the difficulty thus created, of uniting humanity towards the natives with a sound protection of the settlers, so necessary for the future prosperity of the country, is to found Indian colonies—Aldeamentos or Missions —among the Indians themselves. But this gigantic work, as is well known, has been undertaken successfully only by the Jesuits, and even by them under particularly favourable conditions.
* As I write, I learn from the President of the Madeira and Mamore Eailway Company that a small number of Englishmen in the service of the Company have been attacked by the Parentintins at St. Antonio; and a few days afterwards an outpost a little higher up, consisting of a few Mojos Indians, headed by an engineer, were driven back by another troop of savages. As in both cases these escaped without any loss, not one shot having been fired at them, while the Company had. two Mojos Indians killed, they are sure soon to return, and will not, by their visits, add to the comfort of the little colony. However, the hiring of a larger number of workmen, principally Europeans—say to the extent of two thousand—and of as many Mojos Indians from Bolivia (which might easily be effected), besides being absolutely necessary for the prosecution of the works, will finally have the effect of putting- down these attacks.