Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-11-16
ANANERICAS- In CaMETA.

/ AN AMERICAN In CAMETA.
Strange Scenes In Brazilian Town
A correspondent of the Cleveland Herald
writes as follows, under date of Septem
Der 1st. from Cameta, Brazil: GF
| ''Cameta is the largest place on the To-
cantius river, below the rapids. It has a
population of about twenty-five hundred,
though the township Of Cameta, as it may
be called, contains something like five
1 thousand persons. The town is very COM
| pactly built. and lies, as it were, in nook
in the forest, that is to say, there is but
little cleared land on the edges of the town,
except an indispensable square behind it,
which is fast returning to its original state.
The buildings are, to very large extent,
| of brick, rooted with tiles, while several
have porcelain fronts. There seems to be
more enterprise among the Inhabitants
than would be expected but this is pro-
badly owing largely to the fact that large
proportion of the people are Portuguese
and not Braziians.
f'For a long time after the insurrection
of 1885 at Para, at which time the Portu-
guese residents were driven from the city,
| they did not dare to return, and it is very
probable that many of them permanently
located themselves at Cameta. Be this as
! III Slhys tuSy dTS buGIO HOW, huu GuoiT SuOps
are we'll stored With domestic and foreign
products, at reasonable prices For so
small town, the stores are quite numer-
GUS, the residences being mostly in the
upper story of the buildings. The streets
are wider than the majority of these of
| Para, but the roads are very uneven, and
we did not see a cart or carriage at either
| visit, though on two occasions several of
| the party claim to have seen two packages
of calcareous matter Of shape similar to
| that of diminutive horse. Neither of
| these were seen to move, and, as ons-half
| of each package was placed inside of q
corner grocery, it is presumed that they
were merely used as sign-boards. We
were informed. however, that one of the
leading gentlemen of the town was the
happy owner of two or three specimens of
! the animal under consideration, in the
latter stages ct consumption. We certainly
hope so.
| ''Camela can scarcely be said to be noted
for anything in particular, unless it should
be the readiness with which it adopts new
customs, if they ever reach it, and the
general good feeling which seems to exist
among the people.
'The town is certainly very pleasantly
situated, and it is capable of being made
city of great Importance in the future. 1t
is located on the first spot of high land
above the mouth of the river, and it is
within easy reach of the outside world by
water. Nature has bountifully supplied
| the surrounding country with good things,
and ere long the harvest will begin to be
| reaped.
Zone thing which made us quite sensi-
| BILE of the fact that We are in a foreign
| country is the great curiosity with which
we were here regarded by the population.
Men, women and children followed us
wherever we went, crowding by dozens
into the stores at which we stopped, max
| ing comments upon our actions, Offering
| their advice in making purchases, and af-
ter bestowing compliments, and otherwise
aiding us, kindly taking pity upon us IN
our forlorn condition.
"The products of Cameta are neither
many nor extensive. The seeds of cacao,
| for the manufacture of chocolate, are
| exported to considerable extent and
! jelly from the pulp of the same fruit is
made in small quantity. This is expensive
here, and consequently is little exported
| from this town.
| ''It was very amusing to see the excite
ment around a billiard table, which is evi
IDENTIFY an importation of q recent date.
One evening We passed before the door OF
small roo ~ in one OF the principal streets,
| about which we noticed gathering some
what similar to q country caucus in q thin
| ly settled district at home. Here were
gathered, apparently, representatives in
every walk of life, from the town official
down to the smallest slave. Two men
were engaged in the game, which seemed
to be to them q novelty, for the shots,
caroms, &C., were wonderfully intermixed
with scratches and ali sorts of mistakes
An old gentleman with spectacles seemed
to have q faculty of poing what was not in
tended, the result often turning out not ex-
actly to his advantage. -.e.-s. ssa
"Chere are no Americans at this place.
as far as I could learn; hence the curiosity
displayed. We We're frequently asked
whether we were English or French. Many
of the people distinguish in some unac-
counta Die manner between our language
and that Of the English people. While at
Para we were sometimes asked whether we
spoke English or American, and one ma
tive, who claimed to speak some English,
declared that ne could not understand us
because we spoke American"