Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-09-10

IL
N-~6 desires to stay; whoever
above the doors Of saloons. painted on sign
boards, carved on stone bridges. and in our
case. as that of most visiting foreigners. the
first line Of it at least is true. though not on
account Of the magical virtues of assai 1t
may as well be explained right here that assai
is the national beverage Of Brazil chicha is
Of Chile and. pulque of Mexico, the name being
that of a certain species Of palm, from whose
dark. plum-Iike fruit mild. Notwithstanding
sort of sherbet IL made by rubbing the pulp
through sleeves into jars Of water. There are
assai stands at every step in all the streets OF
the city and the natives never tire of the sweet
ish luke-warm stuff. which is drunk on the spot.
served in small. round gourd shells. az the rate
of twenty refs about one cent? per gourd.
FULL MAKE OF THE CITY.
The full name OF this rubber emporium is
Santa Maria do Belem do Gram Para. but in
this busy nineteenth century nobody has tirae
10 say it all. The outer world has shortened it
TO Para pronounced Pah-rah, with the accent
heavy on the last syllabie). but Braziians. who
insis. on other than the modern geographical
names for all their cities-as Pernsmbuco is
called "Recife. Bahia. San Salvador. and so on
10 the end of the chapter-put it down on their
charts and maps rs Belem- As city its history
dates back TO the year in which Shakespeare died
(15l5). when Don Francesca Caldeira erected
the queer old fort whose foundations still
main with the intention Of closing the Amazon
river for all time TO come against foreigners.
mutitudes of whom had already begun to trade
with the tribes of its upper waters, for Para is
not a seaport, "a Is generally supposed, but Is
situated eighty miles above the ocean on the
mighty Amazon. OF. rather, on one of the sew
eral ''mOuths' of this hydra-like father of
waters, that called the Rio do Gram Para. At
this point several lesser rivers flow into the
larger one and the city Is built upon a long.
narrow peninsula formed bv the debouchment
of two Of them, its extensive anchorage almost
completely land-locked by denselv wooded
islands.
SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY CORRECTED.
To reach Para from Pcrnar1buco YOU may
take an American stesmer-one of the l. ). and
and Brazilian Mail 5. S. line bound fo- New
York With a cargo of coffee and sugar picked up
ut Bio dc Janeiro. Bahia and Pernambuco- and
for five days enjoy the luxury OF hearing again
from your own venacuiar. with the doubtful
advantage of Yankee food including pie three
times day. BY the way. when Cape Saint
Rogue was rounded. few hours out from Per-
nanlbaco. we were reluctantly compelled by the
captains char: and all the maps on board
sisted by our own visual organs. to admit that
the school Biographies are IN error in teaching
that Saint Rogue j. the most easterly point of
South America Cape Saint Angus tine. half de-
gree 10 the southwark. ought properly TO enjoy
that distinction. The latter point was that frs.
sighted BY Europeans the southern CONT
nert-by Pincon. in the year 1900. To the right
OF it. but invisible. except on the clearest Of
days. is the tiny Island of Fernando lie Soronha
BraZns penal colony-a mere barren rock amid
q waste of waters more than u hundred miles
from the main land. Iol do not need u be
informed when the good ship turns into the
Atlantic. for lts turbid. chocOlate-coiored
tide, utterly refusing to mix with that OF the
Atlantic, tells Its own story. and the yoya5er,
while yet far out Of light % land the bolster
Gus ocean, may actually dip I'D fresh water.
Gram Para and aptly described b. Joa-
GUM Miller Dark AMI dreadful:
wide like an Ccsan, much Ike river.
but more like q sea-. separates to 0ircie the
great Island OF Marajo. which is lar ger than the
whole state OF New York with towns and rich
plan tations along its shores and al une xpiCred
forest in the interior. IL il diffir-.lt 70 con-
ceiye Of the enormous extent Of this greatest
river of the world. with its tangled network OF
tributaries. channels. densely wooded islands,
lakes and creeks, which penetrate every coun-
try Of South America except Chile and PGta-
gonis and has been likened bv some travellers
20 a vast archipelago and BY others dubbed the
Mediterranean Of the western hemisphere
Rising as il does within sixty miles of the
Pacific il crosses the continent to the Atlantic
and with its sfiuents furnishes more than
so 900 miles of navigable water, half Of which Is
available for steamers.
TRIBUTARIES OF The AMAZON.
Its eight principal tributaries each over
1000 miles long and more than $50 other
branches unite to form its main stream. The
largest ship that bGilt could sail straight
up from It's mouth 1000 miles while for hun
dreds and hundreds of miles along its lower
course are lateral channels, technically called
igaripes tcanoe paths, in which boats may
travel without ever entering the main stream
the bayOus OF the lower Mississippi valley du-
pEcated on a greatly enlarged scale. The ANA
zon basin Is more than three times as large
that of the Mississippi. including a vast IN
trodden forest fully 100 miles long by 900
miles broad, whose edges only have been ex-
plored BY few adventurous rubber hunters
and seekers after tortoise shell wood mahogany
and other valuable timbers. At its mouth the
river - $50 miles from shore to shore and $40
feet deep: AZ Santaren. the most important in
terror city Of Brazil il il ten miles wide: away
Of on the Brazilian frontier il is seventy feet
deep. and $500 miles above the sea il is almost
mile across. Naturally big a river could
hardly be CONTEXT with one name. The native
Indians still call 1t. ss their ancestors did the
Parana-tinSa, or Parana-uassu. Its European
discoveries, believing IL TO be a fresh water sea
named il Santa Maria de la Mer Dulce and no;
until l540 was its name changed to Amazon by
one Of Pizarros sOliiers-that champion liar
Don OrellsnA, who descended il from Peru and
told marvellous tales anent his adventures with
the female warriors he found along its banks
The name "Amazons." by the way. which il
properly put in the plural. TO indicate its width
rather than as we generally render IL without
che final belongs only 70 that portion of it bsr
tween its mouth and the Rio Negro. From the
"Black river 10 the Per Ivian frontier il is the
RIO SalimOens. and that portion of it in Peru
1s locally known as tie Maranon. Its most
eoutherly tributary, the Mandelra. rises in
Bolivia, close to the source of the Rio de la
Plata, and its greatest northern tributary, the
Rto Negro. Is connected with the Venezuelan
Orinoco BY navigable canal called the
Csssiquari.
IFS FLOW, CURRENT AND TIDE.
Thirty million cubic feet Of water flow out of
the Amazon in every sixty seconds, its ordinary
cure Mt is about four miles an hour and its tide
IS perceptible 500 miles from the sea- Nature
favors the navigator on this fiuvial highway for
the current 10 eastward, while tide winds blow
westward from the Atlantic. so that ships going
either way are assisted by stream or wind. Its
annual rise and fall is another curiosity. Its
tributaries are subject TO a constant succession
Of freshets, so that the main stream never runs
low. As most Of the affiuents are in the south
ern hemisphere the river has its greatest food
when the sun is south Of the equator. The
gradual rise begins in September, increasing
less than foot in twenty-four hours. The dif-
ference between its highest and lowest levels is
abont ffty feet and at food time enormous