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Cornugaya Directory 08
Page 06
As they had not been able to spend a single penny since we had left
Diamantino they had accumulated a considerable sum of cash. I warned
them, as I had done with Benedicto, to be careful and not waste their
money. They went out for a walk. Some hours later they returned, dressed
up in wonderful costumes with fancy silk ties, patent leather shoes, gold
chains and watches, and gaudy scarf-pins. In a few hours they had wasted
away nearly the entire sum I had paid out to them. Everything was
extremely expensive in Para--certainly three or four times the price
which things would fetch in London or New York.
Considering the amount of navigation that went through, it was amazing to
see how badly lighted that river was--the two lights, such as the one at
Buyussu, and the one at Mandy, at the entrance of the bay of Marajo,
being no bigger than and not so brilliant as the ordinary street oil-lamp
in an English or French village. I understand that all ships navigating
the Amazon have to pay a large tax on each journey for the maintenance of
the lighthouses on that immense waterway. It is quite criminal that no
proper lights are constructed in order to protect the safety of the
passengers and the valuable cargoes which go by that important water
route.
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