THE GARRAL family were in high glee. The magnificent journey on the Amazon was to be undertaken under conditions as agreeable as possible. Not only were the fazender and his family to start on a voyage for several months, but, as we shall see, he was to be accompanied by a part of the staff of the farm.
In beholding1 every one happy around him, Joam forgot the anxieties which appeared to trouble his life. From the day his decision was taken he had been another man, and when he busied himself about the preparations for the expedition he regained2 his former activity. His people rejoiced exceedingly at seeing him again at work. His moral self reacted against his physical self, and Joam again became the active, energetic man of his earlier years, and moved about once more as though he had spent his life in the open air, under the invigorating influences of forests, fields, and running waters.
Moreover, the few weeks that were to precede his departure had been well employed.
At this period, as we have just remarked, the course of the Amazon was not yet furrowed3 by the numberless steam vessels5, which companies were only then thinking of putting into the river. The service was worked by individuals on their own account alone, and often the boats were only employed in the business of the riverside establishments.
These boats were either “ubas,” canoes made from the trunk of a tree, hollowed out by fire, and finished with the ax, pointed6 and light in front, and heavy and broad in the stern, able to carry from one to a dozen paddlers, and of three or four tons burden: “egariteas,” constructed on a larger scale, of broader design, and leaving on each side a gangway for the rowers: or “jangada,” rafts of no particular shape, propelled by a triangular7 sail, and surmounted8 by a cabin of mud and straw, which served the Indian and his family for a floating home.
These three kinds of craft formed the lesser9 flotilla of the Amazon, and were only suited for a moderate traffic of passengers or merchandise.
Larger vessels, however, existed, either “vigilingas,” ranging from eight up to ten tons, with three masts rigged with red sails, and which in calm weather were rowed by four long paddles not at all easy to work against the stream; or “cobertas,” of twenty tons burden, a kind of junk with a poop behind and a cabin down below, with two masts and square sails of unequal size, and propelled, when the wind fell, by six long sweeps which Indians worked from a forecastle.
But neither of these vessels satisfied Joam Garral. From the moment that he had resolved to descend10 the Amazon he had thought of making the most of the voyage by carrying a huge convoy11 of goods into Para. From this point of view there was no necessity to descend the river in a hurry. And the determination to which he had come pleased every one, excepting, perhaps, Manoel, who would for very good reasons have preferred some rapid steamboat.
But though the means of transport devised by Joam were primitive12 in the extreme, he was going to take with him a numerous following and abandon himself to the stream under exceptional conditions of comfort and security.
It would be, in truth, as if a part of the fazenda of Iquitos had been cut away from the bank and carried down the Amazon with all that composed the family of the fazender — masters and servants, in their dwellings13, their cottages, and their huts.
The settlement of Iquitos included a part of those magnificent forests which, in the central districts of South America, are practically inexhaustible.
Joam Garral thoroughly14 understood the management of these woods, which were rich in the most precious and diverse species adapted for joinery, cabinet work, ship building, and carpentry, and from them he annually15 drew considerable profits.
The river was there in front of him, and could it not be as safely and economically used as a railway if one existed? So every year Joam Garral felled some hundreds of trees from his stock and formed immense rafts of floating wood, of joists, beams, and slightly squared trunks, which were taken to Para in charge of capable pilots who were thoroughly acquainted with the depths of the river and the direction of its currents.
This year Joam Garral decided16 to do as he had done in preceding years. Only, when the raft was made up, he was going to leave to Benito all the detail of the trading part of the business. But there was no time to lose. The beginning of June was the best season to start, for the waters, increased by the floods of the upper basin, would gradually and gradually subside17 until the month of October.
The first steps had thus to be taken without delay, for the raft was to be of unusual proportions. It would be necessary to fell a half-mile square of the forest which was situated18 at the junction19 of the Nanay and the Amazon — that is to say, the whole river side of the fazenda, to form the enormous mass, for such were the jangadas, or river rafts, which attained20 the dimensions of a small island.
It was in this jangada, safer than any other vessel4 of the country, larger than a hundred egariteas or vigilingas coupled together, that Joam Garral proposed to embark21 with his family, his servants, and his merchandise.
“Excellent idea!” had cried Minha, clapping her hands, when she learned her father’s scheme.
“Yes,” said Yaquita, “and in that way we shall reach Belem without danger or fatigue22.”
“And during the stoppages we can have some hunting in the forests which line the banks,” added Benito.
“Won’t it take rather long?” observed Manoel; “could we not hit upon some quicker way of descending23 the Amazon?”
It would take some time, obviously, but the interested observation of the young doctor received no attention from any one.
Joam Garral then called in an Indian who was the principal manager of the fazenda.
“In a month,” he said to him, “the jangada must be built and ready to launch.”
“We’ll set to work this very day, sir.”
It was a heavy task. There were about a hundred Indians and blacks, and during the first fortnight in May they did wonders. Some people unaccustomed to these great tree massacres24 would perhaps have groaned25 to see giants many hundred years old fall in a few hours beneath the axes of the woodmen; but there was such a quantity on the banks of the river, up stream and down stream, even to the most distant points of the horizon, that the felling of this half-mile of forest would scarcely leave an appreciable26 void.
The superintendent27 of the men, after receiving the instructions of Joam Garral, had first cleared the ground of the creepers, brushwood, weeds, and arborescent plants which obstructed28 it. Before taking to the saw and the ax they had armed themselves with a felling-sword, that indispensable tool of every one who desires to penetrate29 the Amazonian forests, a large blade slightly curved, wide and flat, and two or three feet long, and strongly handled, which the natives wield30 with consummate31 address. In a few hours, with the help of the felling-sword, they had cleared the ground, cut down the underwood, and opened large gaps into the densest32 portions of the wood.
In this way the work progressed. The ground was cleared in front of the woodmen. The old trunks were divested33 of their clothing of creepers, cacti34, ferns, mosses35, and bromelias. They were stripped naked to the bark, until such time as the bark itself was stripped from off them.
Then the whole of the workers, before whom fled an innumerable crowd of monkeys who were hardly their superiors in agility36, slung37 themselves into the upper branches, sawing off the heavier boughs38 and cutting down the topmost limbs, which had to be cleared away on the spot. Very soon there remained only a doomed39 forest, with long bare stems, bereft40 of their crowns, through which the sun luxuriantly rayed on to the humid soil which perhaps its shots had never before caressed41.
There was not a single tree which could not be used for some work of skill, either in carpentry or cabinet-work. There, shooting up like columns of ivory ringed with brown, were wax-palms one hundred and twenty feet high, and four feet thick at their base; white chestnuts42, which yield the three-cornered nuts; “murichis,” unexcelled for building purposes; “barrigudos,” measuring a couple of yards at the swelling43, which is found at a few feet above the earth, trees with shining russet bark dotted with gray tubercles, each pointed stem of which supports a horizontal parasol; and “bombax” of superb stature44, with its straight and smooth white stem. Among these magnificent specimens45 of the Amazonian flora46 there fell many “quatibos” whose rosy47 canopies48 towered above the neighboring trees, whose fruits are like little cups with rows of chestnuts ranged within, and whose wood of clear violet is specially49 in demand for ship-building. And besides there was the ironwood; and more particularly the “ibiriratea,” nearly black in its skin, and so close grained that of it the Indians make their battle-axes; “jacarandas,” more precious than mahogany; “c?salpinas,” only now found in the depths of the old forests which have escaped the woodman’s ax; “sapucaias,” one hundred and fifty feet high, buttressed50 by natural arches, which, starting from three yards from their base, rejoin the tree some thirty feet up the stem, twining themselves round the trunk like the filatures of a twisted column, whose head expands in a bouquet51 of vegetable fireworks made up of the yellow, purple, and snowy white of the parasitic52 plants.
Three weeks after the work was begun not one was standing53 of all the trees which had covered the angle of the Amazon and the Nanay. The clearance54 was complete. Joam Garral had not even had to bestir himself in the demolition55 of a forest which it would take twenty or thirty years to replace. Not a stick of young or old wood was left to mark the boundary of a future clearing, not even an angle to mark the limit of the denudation56. It was indeed a clean sweep; the trees were cut to the level of the earth, to wait the day when their roots would be got out, over which the coming spring would still spread its verdant57 cloak.
This square space, washed on its sides by the waters of the river and its tributary58, was destined59 to be cleared, plowed60, planted, and sown, and the following year fields of manioc, coffee-shrubs, sugar-canes, arrowroot, maize61, and peanuts would occupy the ground so recently covered by the trees.
The last week of the month had not arrived when the trunks, classified according to their varieties and specific gravity, were symmetrically arranged on the bank of the Amazon, at the spot where the immense jangada was to be guilt62 — which, with the different habitations for the accommodation of the crew, would become a veritable floating village — to wait the time when the waters of the river, swollen63 by the floods, would raise it and carry it for hundreds of leagues to the Atlantic coast.
The whole time the work was going on Joam Garral had been engaged in superintending it. From the clearing to the bank of the fazenda he had formed a large mound64 on which the portions of the raft were disposed, and to this matter he had attended entirely65 himself.
Yaquita was occupied with Cybele with the preparations for the departure, though the old negress could not be made to understand why they wanted to go or what they hoped to see.
“But you will see things that you never saw before,” Yaquita kept saying to her.
“Will they be better than what I see now?” was Cybele’s invariable reply.
Minha and her favorite for their part took care of what more particularly concerned them. They were not preparing for a simple voyage; for them it was a permanent departure, and there were a thousand details to look after for settling in the other country in which the young mulatto was to live with the mistress to whom she was so devotedly66 attached. Minha was a trifle sorrowful, but the joyous67 Lina was quite unaffected at leaving Iquitos. Minha Valdez would be the same to her as Minha Garral, and to check her spirits she would have to be separated from her mistress, and that was never thought of.
Benito had actively68 assisted his father in the work, which was on the point of completion. He commenced his apprenticeship69 to the trade of a fazender, which would probably one day become his own, as he was about to do that of a merchant on their descent of the river.
As for Manoel, he divided his time between the house, where Yaquita and her daughter were as busy as possible, and the clearing, to which Benito fetched him rather oftener than he thought convenient, and on the whole the division was very unequal, as may well be imagined.
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1
beholding
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| v.看，注视( behold的现在分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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furrowed
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| v.犁田，开沟( furrow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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triangular
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| adj.三角（形）的，三者间的 | |
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surmounted
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| 战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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9
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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10
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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11
convoy
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| vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队 | |
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12
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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13
dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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14
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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annually
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| adv.一年一次，每年 | |
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16
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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17
subside
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| vi.平静，平息；下沉，塌陷，沉降 | |
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18
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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20
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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21
embark
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| vi.乘船，着手，从事，上飞机 | |
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22
fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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23
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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24
massacres
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| 大屠杀( massacre的名词复数 )； 惨败 | |
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25
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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26
appreciable
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| adj.明显的，可见的，可估量的，可觉察的 | |
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27
superintendent
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| n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长 | |
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28
obstructed
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| 阻塞( obstruct的过去式和过去分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止 | |
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29
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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30
wield
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| vt.行使，运用，支配；挥，使用(武器等) | |
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31
consummate
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| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
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32
densest
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| 密集的( dense的最高级 )； 密度大的； 愚笨的； （信息量大得）难理解的 | |
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33
divested
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| v.剥夺( divest的过去式和过去分词 )；脱去（衣服）；2。从…取去…；1。（给某人）脱衣服 | |
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34
cacti
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| n.（复）仙人掌 | |
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35
mosses
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| n. 藓类, 苔藓植物 名词moss的复数形式 | |
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agility
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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37
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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38
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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39
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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40
bereft
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| adj.被剥夺的 | |
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41
caressed
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| 爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
chestnuts
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| n.栗子( chestnut的名词复数 )；栗色；栗树；栗色马 | |
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43
swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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44
stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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45
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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46
flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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47
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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48
canopies
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| （宝座或床等上面的）华盖( canopy的名词复数 )； （飞行器上的）座舱罩； 任何悬于上空的覆盖物； 森林中天棚似的树荫 | |
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49
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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50
buttressed
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| v.用扶壁支撑，加固( buttress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51
bouquet
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| n.花束，酒香 | |
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52
parasitic
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| adj.寄生的 | |
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53
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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54
clearance
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| n.净空；许可(证)；清算；清除，清理 | |
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55
demolition
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| n.破坏,毁坏,毁坏之遗迹 | |
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56
denudation
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| n.剥下；裸露；滥伐；剥蚀 | |
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57
verdant
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| adj.翠绿的，青翠的，生疏的，不老练的 | |
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58
tributary
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| n.支流；纳贡国；adj.附庸的；辅助的；支流的 | |
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59
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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60
plowed
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| v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
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61
maize
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| n.玉米 | |
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62
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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63
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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64
mound
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| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
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65
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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66
devotedly
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| 专心地； 恩爱地； 忠实地； 一心一意地 | |
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67
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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68
actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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69
apprenticeship
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| n.学徒身份；学徒期 | |
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