CHAPTER XVII

Summary

After twenty days had passed delightfully we prepared to leave the Barra upon the 28th of July, in the galliota, which was to return for Dr. Costa, who was probably awaiting us at Pará. Senhor Pinto, the delegarde, had promised us some Indians, and another official had assured us of others; but it was discovered when upon the beach, at the last moment, that both had counted upon the same men. These were three of the Villa Nova police, who happened to be up, and with our Gentio, Pedro, and one other whom Senhor Henriquez lent us, were all we could muster. They were less than half our complement, and none of them were to go below Villa Nova. We had letters to the commandante of that place, and he was to provide men for our further advance, in consideration of our being the bearers of his majesty's mail and of despatches from Venezuela. This mail proved a great acquisition, and I would advise all travellers upon the Amazon to secure the same charge.

It was three o'clock in the afternoon when our friends gathered upon the beach to bid us adieu. From all of them, although our acquaintance had been so very brief, we were sorry to part; but from Senhor Henriquez, to whom we had been under a thousand obligations, and from Mr. Bradley and Mr. Williams, who had so long been our companions, and to whom we were the more closely drawn from our being strangers together in a strange land, the last embrace was peculiarly painful.