THE HALF-MILE square of forest was cleared. With the carpenters remained the task of arranging in the form of a raft the many venerable trees which were lying on the strand1.
And an easy task it was. Under the direction of Joam Garral the Indians displayed their incomparable ingenuity2. In everything connected with house-building or ship-building these natives are, it must be admitted, astonishing workmen. They have only an ax and a saw, and they work on woods so hard that the edge of their tools gets absolutely jagged; yet they square up trunks, shape beams out of enormous stems, and get out of them joists and planking without the aid of any machinery3 whatever, and, endowed with prodigious4 natural ability, do all these things easily with their skilled and patient hands.
The trees had not been launched into the Amazon to begin with; Joam Garral was accustomed to proceed in a different way. The whole mass of trunks was symmetrically arranged on a flat part of the bank, which he had already leveled up at the junction5 of the Nanay with the great river.
There it was that the jangada was to be built; thence it was that the Amazon was to float it when the time came for it to start for its destination.
And here an explanatory note is necessary in regard to the geography of this immense body of water, and more especially as relating to a singular phenomenon which the riverside inhabitants describe from personal observation.
The two rivers which are, perhaps, more extensive than the great artery6 of Brazil, the Nile and the Missouri-Mississippi, flow one from south to north across the African continent, the other from north to south through North America. They cross districts of many different latitudes8, and consequently of many different climates.
The Amazon, on the contrary, is entirely9 comprised — at least it is from the point where it turns to the east, on the frontiers of Ecuador and Peru — between the second and fourth parallels of south latitude7. Hence this immense river system is under the same climatic conditions during the whole of its course.
In these parts there are two distinct seasons during which rain falls. In the north of Brazil the rainy season is in September; in the south it occurs in March. Consequently the right-hand tributaries10 and the left-hand tributaries bring down their floods at half-yearly intervals11, and hence the level of the Amazon, after reaching its maximum in June, gradually falls until October.
This Joam Garral knew by experience, and he intended to profit by the phenomenon to launch the jangada, after having built it in comfort on the river bank. In fact, between the mean and the higher level the height of the Amazon could vary as much as forty feet, and between the mean and the lower level as much as thirty feet. A difference of seventy feet like this gave the fazender all he required.
The building was commenced without delay. Along the huge bank the trunks were got into place according to their sizes and floating power, which of course had to be taken into account, as among these thick and heavy woods there were many whose specific gravity was but little below that of water.
The first layer was entirely composed of trunks laid side by side. A little interval12 had to be left between them, and they were bound together by transverse beams, which assured the solidity of the whole. “Pia?aba” ropes strapped13 them together as firmly as any chain cables could have done. This material, which consists of the ramicles of a certain palm-tree growing very abundantly on the river banks, is in universal use in the district. Pia?aba floats, resists immersion14, and is cheaply made — very good reasons for causing it to be valuable, and making it even an article of commerce with the Old World.
Above this double row of trunks and beams were disposed the joists and planks15 which formed the floor of the jangada, and rose about thirty inches above the load water-line. The bulk was enormous, as we must confess when it is considered that the raft measured a thousand feet long and sixty broad, and thus had a superificies of sixty thousand square feet. They were, in fact, about to commit a whole forest to the Amazon.
The work of building was conducted under the immediate16 direction of Joam Garral. But when that part was finished the question of arrangement was submitted to the discussion of all, including even the gallant17 Fragoso.
Just a word as to what he was doing in his new situation at the fazenda.
The barber had never been so happy as since the day when he had been received by the hospitable18 family. Joam Garral had offered to take him to Para, on the road to which he was when the liana, according to his account, had seized him by the neck and brought him up with a round turn. Fragoso had accepted the offer, thanked him from the bottom of his heart, and ever since had sought to make himself useful in a thousand ways. He was a very intelligent fellow — what one might call a “double right-hander”— that is to say, he could do everything, and could do everything well. As merry as Lina, always singing, and always ready with some good-natured joke, he was not long in being liked by all.
But it was with the young mulatto that he claimed to have contracted the heaviest obligation.
“A famous idea that of yours, Miss Lina,” he was constantly saying, “to play at ‘following the liana!’ It is a capital game even if you do not always find a poor chap of a barber at the end!”
“Quite a chance, Mr. Fragoso,” would laughingly reply Lina; “I assure you, you owe me nothing!”
“What! nothing! I owe you my life, and I want it prolonged for a hundred years, and that my recollection of the fact may endure even longer! You see, it is not my trade to be hanged! If I tried my hand at it, it was through necessity. But, on consideration, I would rather die of hunger, and before quite going off I should try a little pasturage with the brutes19! As for this liana, it is a lien20 between us, and so you will see!”
The conversation generally took a joking turn, but at the bottom Fragoso was very grateful to the mulatto for having taken the initiative in his rescue, and Lina was not insensible to the attentions of the brave fellow, who was as straightforward21, frank, and good-looking as she was. Their friendship gave rise to many a pleasant, “Ah, ah!” on the part of Benito, old Cybele, and others.
To return to the Jangada. After some discussion it was decided22, as the voyage was to be of some months’ duration, to make it as complete and comfortable as possible. The Garral family, comprising the father, mother, daughter, Benito, Manoel, and the servants, Cybele and Lina, were to live in a separate house. In addition to these, there were to go forty Indians, forty blacks, Fragoso, and the pilot who was to take charge of the navigation of the raft.
Though the crew was large, it was not more than sufficient for the service on board. To work the jangada along the windings23 of the river and between the hundreds of islands and islets which lay in its course required fully24 as many as were taken, for if the current furnished the motive25 power, it had nothing to do with the steering26, and the hundred and sixty arms were no more than were necessary to work the long boathooks by which the giant raft was to be kept in mid-stream.
In the first place, then, in the hinder part of the jangada they built the master’s house. It was arranged to contain several bedrooms and a large dining-hall. One of the rooms was destined27 for Joam and his wife, another for Lina and Cybele near those of their mistresses, and a third room for Benito and Manoel. Minha had a room away from the others, which was not by any means the least comfortably designed.
This, the principal house, was carefully made of weather-boarding, saturated28 with boiling resin29, and thus rendered water-tight throughout. It was capitally lighted with windows on all sides. In front, the entrance-door gave immediate access to the common room. A light veranda30, resting on slender bamboos, protected the exterior31 from the direct action of the solar rays. The whole was painted a light-ocher color, which reflected the heat instead of absorbing it, and kept down the temperature of the interior.
But when the heavy work, so to speak, had been completed, Minha intervened with:
“Father, now your care has inclosed and covered us, you must allow us to arrange our dwelling32 to please ourselves. The outside belongs to you, the inside to us. Mother and I would like it to be as though our house at the fazenda went with us on the journey, so as to make you fancy that we had never left Iquitos!”
“Do just as you like, Minha,” replied Joam Garral, smiling in the sad way he often did.
“That will be nice!”
“I leave everything to your good taste.”
“And that will do us honor, father. It ought to, for the sake of the splendid country we are going through — which is yours, by the way, and into which you are to enter after so many years’ absence.”
“Yes, Minha; yes,” replied Joam. “It is rather as if we were returning from exile — voluntary exile! Do your best; I approve beforehand of what you do.”
On Minha and Lina, to whom were added of their own free will Manoel on the one side and Fragoso on the other, devolved the care of decorating the inside of the house. With some imagination and a little artistic33 feeling the result was highly satisfactory.
The best furniture of the fazenda naturally found its place within, as after arriving in Para they could easily return it by one of the igariteos. Tables, bamboo easy-chairs, cane34 sofas, carved wood shelves, everything that constituted the charming furniture of the tropics, was disposed with taste about the floating home. No one is likely to imagine that the walls remained bare. The boards were hidden beneath hangings of most agreeable variety. These hangings were made of valuable bark, that of the “tuturis,” which is raised up in large folds like the brocades and damasks and softest and richest materials of our modern looms35. On the floors of the rooms were jaguar36 skins, with wonderful spots, and thick monkey furs of exquisite37 fleeciness. Light curtains of the russet silk, produced by the “sumauma,” hung from the windows. The beds, enveloped38 in mosquito curtains, had their pillows, mattresses39, and bolsters40 filled with that fresh and elastic41 substance which in the Upper Amazon is yielded by the bombax.
Throughout on the shelves and side-tables were little odds42 and ends, brought from Rio Janeiro or Belem, those most precious to Minha being such as had come from Manoel. What could be more pleasing in her eyes than the knickknacks given by a loving hand which spoke43 to her without saying anything?
In a few days the interior was completed, and it looked just like the interior of the fazenda. A stationary44 house under a lovely clump45 of trees on the borders of some beautiful river! Until it descended46 between the banks of the larger stream it would not be out of keeping with the picturesque47 landscape which stretched away on each side of it.
We may add that the exterior of the house was no less charming than the interior.
In fact, on the outside the young fellows had given free scope to their taste and imagination.
From the basement to the roof it was literally48 covered with foliage49. A confused mass of orchids50, bromelias, and climbing plants, all in flower, rooted in boxes of excellent soil hidden beneath masses of verdure. The trunk of some ficus or mimosa was never covered by a more startlingly tropical attire51. What whimsical climbers — ruby52 red and golden yellow, with variegated53 clusters and tangled54 twigs55 — turned over the brackets, under the ridges56, on the rafters of the roof, and across the lintels of the doors! They had brought them wholesale57 from the woods in the neighborhood of the fazenda. A huge liana bound all the parasites58 together; several times it made the round of the house, clinging on to every angle, encircling every projection59, forking, uniting, it everywhere threw out its irregular branchlets, and allowed not a bit of the house to be seen beneath its enormous clusters of bloom.
As a delicate piece of attention, the author of which can be easily recognized, the end of the cipo spread out before the very window of the young mulatto, as though a long arm was forever holding a bouquet60 of fresh flowers across the blind.
To sum up, it was as charming as could be; and as Yaquita, her daughter, and Lina were content, we need say no more about it.
“It would not take much to make us plant trees on the jangada,” said Benito.
“Oh, trees!” ejaculated Minha.
“Why not?” replied Manoel. “Transported on to this solid platform, with some good soil, I am sure they would do well, and we would have no change of climate to fear for them, as the Amazon flows all the time along the same parallel.”
“Besides,” said Benito, “every day islets of verdure, torn from the banks, go drifting down the river. Do they not pass along with their trees, bushes, thickets61, rocks, and fields, to lose themselves in the Atlantic eight hundred leagues away? Why, then, should we not transform our raft into a floating garden?”
“Would you like a forest, miss?” said Fragoso, who stopped at nothing.
“Yes, a forest!” cried the young mulatto; “a forest with its birds and its monkeys ——”
“Its snakes, its jaguars62!” continued Benito.
“Its Indians, its nomadic63 tribes,” added Manoel, “and even its cannibals!”
“But where are you going to, Fragoso?” said Minha, seeing the active barber making a rush at the bank.
“To look after the forest!” replied Fragoso.
“Useless, my friend,” answered the smiling Minha. “Manoel has given me a nosegay and I am quite content. It is true,” she added, pointing to the house hidden beneath the flowers, “that he has hidden our house in his betrothal64 bouquet!”
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strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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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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artery
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| n.干线，要道；动脉 | |
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latitude
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| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
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latitudes
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| 纬度 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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tributaries
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| n. 支流 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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immersion
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| n.沉浸；专心 | |
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planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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brutes
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| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
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lien
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| n.扣押权，留置权 | |
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straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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windings
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| （道路、河流等）蜿蜒的，弯曲的( winding的名词复数 )； 缠绕( wind的现在分词 )； 卷绕； 转动（把手） | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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saturated
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| a.饱和的，充满的 | |
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resin
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| n.树脂，松香，树脂制品；vt.涂树脂 | |
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veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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looms
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| n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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jaguar
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| n.美洲虎 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mattresses
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| 褥垫，床垫( mattress的名词复数 ) | |
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bolsters
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| n.长枕( bolster的名词复数 )；垫子；衬垫；支持物v.支持( bolster的第三人称单数 )；支撑；给予必要的支持；援助 | |
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elastic
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| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
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odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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stationary
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| adj.固定的，静止不动的 | |
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clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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46
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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50
orchids
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| n.兰花( orchid的名词复数 ) | |
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51
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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ruby
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| n.红宝石，红宝石色 | |
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variegated
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| adj.斑驳的，杂色的 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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wholesale
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| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
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parasites
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| 寄生物( parasite的名词复数 )； 靠他人为生的人； 诸虫 | |
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projection
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| n.发射，计划，突出部分 | |
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bouquet
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| n.花束，酒香 | |
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thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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jaguars
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| n.（中、南美洲的）美洲虎( jaguar的名词复数 ) | |
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nomadic
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| adj.流浪的；游牧的 | |
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betrothal
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| n. 婚约, 订婚 | |
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