Para, Or, Scenes and Adventures on the Banks of the Amazon (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: P A B A . CHAPTER I. Evening on the Amazon?The Harbor of Para?Promiscuous Bathing?A Brazilian Dinner?Beautiful Garden?Manufacture of India Rubber Shoes?First Night Ashore. The shades of evening were gathering fast upon the waters, when the little bark, in which we had safely crossed the wide expanse of ocean, now quietly anchored in the mighty river of the Amazons. Through the rich twilight we were able to discern the white sandy shore, skirting a dense forest of perennial luxuriance and beauty. Gentle zephyrs, fraught with the most delightful fragrance from the wilderness of flowers, softly saluted our senses; while occasionally the soft and plaintive voices of southern nightingales came with mellowed sweetness to our ears. The queenly moon, unobscured by a single cloud, threw an indescribable charm over the enchanting scene, -t A. R A . reflecting her brilliant rays upon the placid surface of the river, and shrouding the beautiful foliage of the forest in a drapery of gold. Innumerable stars brightly glittered in the azure firmament, and the constellation of the " Southern Cross" gleamed above us like a diadem. All around seemed to be wrapped in the most profound repose. Not a sound disturbed the silence of the interminable solitude save the hushed and mournful notes of evening birds, the distant howling of prowling jaguars, or the rustling of the wind through the forest trees. Nature appeared to us, for the first time, in all her pristine loveliness, and seemed indeed, to our excited imagination, to present but a dreamy picture of fairy land. At an early hour in the morning we weighed anchor, and with a fresh breeze and strong tide rapidly moved up the noble river, gliding by the most beautiful scenery that fancy can conceive. The nearly impenetrab...