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Cornugaya Directory 08
Page 08
On October 25th we went down first the Limao rapid, and then the Burbure
rapid. The river was beautiful all along, with low hills on both sides.
We eventually arrived at Pimental, a fiendishly hot, steamy, unhealthy
place, where across a streamlet was a station for the transhipment of
rubber. The place was on low ground, which became inundated at high
water. Another station was built some 200 m. off on high ground, which
was used as a winter station. The second station was at the beginning of
an excellent mule track which Col. Brazil had cut as far as a place lower
down the river called Bella Vista, a distance of some 20 kil. He had
imported at much expense a number of mules for the service. All the
rubber was conveyed from that spot on mule-back, as between Pimental and
Bella Vista was a dangerous rapid, on which many boats had been lost.
There were three passages there, called respectively the Casson, near the
left bank; the Dos Ananas, in the centre; and the channel da Terra Preta,
which we followed, on the right. At Lua Nova, the end of the Mangabel
rapid, the river turned in a sweeping curve to the north, the rocks
getting fewer and fewer until eventually the river became quite clear of
them, with only high hills along both banks. Lua Nova was a little
settlement of five houses and a shed, some of them whitewashed, with
doors and windows painted green. A small plantation of Indian corn,
sugar-cane, and _mandioca_ had been made, the soil being extremely
fertile at that spot. We enjoyed a magnificent view to the west and
north-north-west, the river there forming an elbow.
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