Chapter 15 Chapter Fifteen

It was the evening of the fifth of July, and the air had been very dull since the night before, foretelling an approaching storm.A few big rust-like bats spread their wide wings and flew back and forth on the surface of the Amazon River.Among them are several Bello.Frador bats, dark gray except for a tuft of lighter fur on their stomachs, Mina and the young half-breed woman had an instinctive dislike for them. They are indeed fearsome vampires who specialize in feeding on the blood of livestock and even attacking those who fall asleep in the campsite. O vile beast!Mina covered her eyes and exclaimed, they make me sick!

And, they're terrible, added the girl, aren't they, Manoel? It is indeed very scary, the young man replied that these vampire bats have a special ability: they will suck blood where the blood circulation is most comfortable, mainly behind the ears, and at the same time, they keep flapping their wings to produce a pleasant cool breeze, Make people sleep more deeply.It is said that some people have been sucked blood for several hours, but they are unconscious and still sleep soundly. Stop talking about these things, Manoel, said Yaquita, otherwise Mina and Lina won't be able to sleep tonight!

Don't worry, said Manoel, we can keep a vigil for them if necessary! Be quiet!Benito said. What happened?asked Manoel. Don't you hear a strange noise over there?Benito said, pointing to the right bank. Yes.Yaquita said. Where is the sound coming from?Mina asked, as if some pebbles were rolling in the sand good!I know what that sound is!Those who like turtle eggs and fresh juvenile meat will be in for a treat at dawn, Benito said. He was right.These sounds are indeed made by countless turtles, large and small, who come to the island to lay their eggs. The amphibians choose a suitable spot in the sand and lay their eggs, starting at sunset and ending at sunrise.

The turtle king first climbed to the shore and chose a treasure land.Then tens of thousands of tortoises used their hind paws to dig a moat six hundred feet long, twelve feet wide, and six feet deep; To the Indians along the Amazon and its tributaries, turtle spawning was a big deal.They waited for the arrival of the tortoise, and when the drum beat, they began to dig the eggs. The prey was divided into three parts, one for the night watchmen, one for the Indians, and one for the government. , they are in charge of collecting taxes along with the police.In some places, due to the reduction of water volume, large shoals are exposed, which can attract more turtles. This kind of place is called Wangtan.After the harvest, the Indians celebrated with games, dances, and toasts.At the same time, this is also a festival for crocodiles in the river, and they can feast on the remaining turtle eggs.

In the Amazon region, turtles or their eggs are an extremely profitable commodity, and people live off them.After the turtles have laid their eggs, they are turned on their backs, and to keep them alive, they can be kept in a fenced tank, such as an aquarium, or tied to a stake with a long rope that keeps them alive. They can travel freely between land and water.In this way, there is always fresh turtle meat to eat. Use other methods for newborn tortoises.There is no need for captivity and tethering.The shells of the young turtles are very soft, and the meat is extremely tender. After being boiled, they can be eaten as oysters.The consumption of this hatchling is staggering.

However, these are not the most common ways of eating turtles in the provinces of Amazonas and Pará.Manufacturing Mandana.De.Tartaga, that is, the production of tortoise butter, consumes between 250 and 300 million eggs a year (this tortoise butter is comparable to the best products in Normandy or Brittany).Fortunately, there are countless tortoises in the Amazon Basin, and the eggs they lay in the sand are countless. However, not only Indians consume tortoises, shore waders, aerial raptors, and river crocodiles also attack them.Due to the above reasons, the number of tortoises has been greatly reduced, so now a hatchling is worth a Brazilian Batak.

The next day, at dawn, Benito, Fragoso, and some Indians got into canoes and headed for a large island that they had passed in the night. There are many small bulges on the beach. This is where the turtles laid their eggs last night. Each clutch contains about 160 to 190 eggs.They cannot be dug up yet.But the batch of eggs laid two months ago has hatched thanks to the heat accumulated in the sand, and thousands of hatchlings are already running on the sand. The hunters were rewarded.The canoe was loaded with these interesting amphibians, and they were back on the big raft just in time for lunch.The spoils were shared between master and servant, and by dinner time there was little left.

On the morning of July 7th, the big raft arrived at St.Jose.The town of Dematura, which is located on the banks of the grassy river, is said to have been inhabited by long-tailed Indians on both sides of the river. On the morning of July 8, I passed St.The village of Antonio, with two or three huts hidden among the green trees, then passes the mouth of the 900-meter-wide Issa River (also known as the Pitumayo River). The Pitumayo River is an important tributary of the Amazon River.In the 16th century, the Spaniards first established an English mission here, which was later destroyed by the Portuguese. At present, there is no trace of this history.All we see are residents of many Indian tribes, who can easily identify the tribe they belong to by the patterns on their bodies.

The Issa River originates from Mount Pasto, northeast of Kito, and flows east, passing through many beautiful wild cocoa forests along the way.There are one hundred and forty ancient miles [Note: French ancient miles are about four kilometers. ]’s waterway can navigate steamships with a draft of less than six feet. One day, it will become the second important waterway in western South America. After that, bad weather came.It didn't rain continuously; but the frequent downpours spoiled the atmosphere.However, this short period of bad weather does not prevent the big raft from sailing, it is not afraid of the wind; facing the rapids on the Amazon River, the extremely long big raft is indifferent, but when the torrential rain pours down, the Galar family must Hide in the house.Therefore, entertainment is needed to pass the time.So, everyone chatted and told each other about their experiences. In short, the tongue will never be idle.

It was in this context that Torres became actively involved in the conversation.His varied travels in northern Brazil provided him with many topics to talk about.The man was well-informed indeed; but he always looked at things with a skeptical eye, and so often hurt the honest people who listened to him.Besides, he was more courteous to Mina.While this displeased Manoel, it was not so obvious that the young man felt compelled to intervene.Besides, Mina had an instinctive dislike for Torres, which she made no secret of. On the 9th of July the great raft passed the mouth of the Tuantin River on the left bank of the Amazon, a triangular bay four hundred feet wide.The Tuanting River flows from west to north, and turns west again halfway, irrigating the land of the Kasna Indians all the way, and finally, the black river flows into the Amazon River through this bay.

The Amazon River in this area is indeed magnificent, and there are more islands in the river than elsewhere.Therefore, the driver must be extremely dexterous in order to pass through this island group to the opposite bank safely. Along the way, he must bypass the shallows, avoid the vortex, and stabilize the course. Maybe you can drive into Awadi.Parana River.It is a natural canal, which breaks away from the great river a little downstream from the mouth of the Tuantin, and joins the Amazon through the Jabra, a hundred and twenty leagues away; One hundred and fifty feet, and only sixty feet at the narrowest point, it is very difficult for a large raft to pass. In short, on the 13th of July the raft passed Caboro Island and then passed the mouth of the Jutati River.The river flows from east to south, and then turns west, and the black water flows into the Amazon River through the mouth of the 1,500-foot-wide estuary.On the way, we also saw many beautiful monkeys, their hair white like sulfur, their faces red like cinnabar, they greedily eat palm fruit.The river got its name from these palm trees.Finally, the travelers arrived in the small town of Fonteboa on the eighteenth of July. The big raft has been moored here for twelve hours, allowing everyone to rest for a while. The inhabitants of Fonteboa, like the inhabitants of most of the missionary settlements along the Amazon River, have maintained the habit of migrating and nomadic for a long period of time.However, the residents here are likely to have ended their nomadic state and started to settle down.It was better for them, because the town looked very charming.More than 30 houses are covered with greenery, and there are also churches dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Black Virgin of Mexico in the city.There are more than a thousand residents in Fonteboa, all from Indian tribes on both sides of the river.They keep a large herd of cattle in the fertile pastures nearby, but this is not their only activity, they are also intrepid hunters, or, in other words, manatee hunters. So, on the evening of their arrival, a few young men watched an interesting capture battle. Two of these herbivorous cetaceans have just been spotted in the black water of the Kayaratu River, a tributary of the Fonteboa River.I saw six brown dots swimming on the water.These are the two beaks and four fins of manatees. Less experienced hunters may initially mistake these moving dots for flotsam.But the Indians of Fonteboa were not mistaken.And, before long, loud breathing sounds indicated that the nostriled animals were exhaling exhausted forcefully. Two small boats, each carrying three hunters, sailed away from the bank and approached the manatees, who fled immediately.The little black dot first broke through the waves and then disappeared without a trace. The hunters proceeded cautiously.One of them stood on the boat, holding a very primitive fish mark with a nail on the top, and the other two rowed.They waited for the manatees to come to the surface of the water near them to breathe.Within ten minutes, the two animals were bound to resurface on the water not far away. Indeed, just ten minutes later, a few black spots emerged from the water not far from them, and two plumes of hookah smoke blew loudly. The skiff came swiftly closer, and at the same time, fish marks flew out; one missed the target, and the other hit a manatee's tailbone. This is enough to knock it unconscious, and the animal is defenseless once hit by a fish mark.People used ropes to slowly pull it closer to the boat and dragged it to the sandy beach at the foot of the village. It's just a baby manatee, because it's only three feet long.Manatee populations in the Amazon and its tributaries are already quite scarce due to heavy hunting, and many are hunted before they reach adulthood.Today the large manatees are no more than seven feet long, and are hardly compared with the species that proliferate in the rivers and lakes of Africa, which are generally twelve to fifteen feet long. But it's hard to stop this devastating hunt.In fact, sea beef tastes even better than pork.The oil fat is as thick as three inches, and the refined oil is very valuable.Smoked sea meat can be stored for a long time and is good for health.Plus, manatees are relatively easy to catch, so it's no surprise that the animal has drifted toward extinction. In the past, an adult manatee could refine two tanks of oil weighing one hundred and eighty catties, but now it can only refine oil weighing four Spanish arobes, which is equivalent to one hundred catties. On the nineteenth of July, at sunrise, the raft left Fonteboa and drifted down the river between the two banks.The shore is deserted, and the beautiful islands are planted with patches of coconut groves, covering the ground with thick shade.The sky is always cloudy, and it seems that the rainstorm is coming again. The Julua River flows from the southeast and flows into the Amazon River from the left bank. Going up the river, boats can cross the white water to reach Peru. Numerous tributaries provide it with a steady stream of water. Manoel said: Perhaps the descendants of the warlike woman who had awed Ohra lived here.It should be noted, however, that they followed the example of their ancestors and did not form tribes alone.They were just ordinary wives fighting alongside their husbands, and among the Jurua women have always been known for their bravery. The great raft sailed on, but how confused the Amazon had become by this time!The Jabra River, whose mouth is eighty miles away, is an important tributary of the Amazon River and flows almost side by side with the Great River. Between the two rivers, there are some canals, small tributaries, lagoons, and seasonal lakes, forming a series of crisscross water networks; therefore, the hydrogeographical conditions in this area are extremely complicated. Although Aloro doesn't have a map as a guide, his experience is more reliable for him.I really want to be amazed that he can change all kinds of maneuvers in this chaotic terrain, take charge of one's own side, and never deviate from the channel. All in all, everything went well.In this way, on the afternoon of July 25th, sailed through Palani.After Tapela Village, the big raft is moored at the mouth of Lake Ega (also called Lake Tefi). The city of Ega is very important, and it is necessary to disembark for a tour.It was therefore agreed that the raft would stay here until the twenty-seventh of July, and that on the morning of the twenty-sixth a canoe would take the Galars to Ega. And, in this way, the hard-working crew can also take a break. The big raft was moored beside a plateau.As night fell, everything was silent.A few bolts of lightning illuminated the horizon, and in the distance it rained heavily, but the mouth of the lake was calm.