We dined rather earlier than usual, our chief dish being a stew of parrots and toucans, and left the sitio at about five o’clock, in three canoes, the music accompanying us in the smaller boat. Our Indian friends stood on the shore as we left, giving us farewell greetings, waving their hats and hands, and cheering heartily. The afternoon row through the lake and igarapé was delicious; but the sun had long set as we issued from the little river, and the Rio Negro, where it opens broadly out into the Amazons, was a sea of silver. The boat with the music presently joined our canoe, and we had a number of the Brazilian “modinhas,” as they call them,—songs which seem especially adapted for the guitar. These modinhas have a quite peculiar character. They are little graceful, lyrical snatches of song, with a rather melancholy cadence; even those of which the words are gay not being quite free from this undertone of sadness. This put us all into a somewhat dreamy mood, and we approached the end of our journey rather silently. But as we drew near the landing, we heard the sound of a band of brass instruments, effectually drowning our feeble efforts, and saw a crowded canoe coming towards us. They were the boys from the Indian school which we visited on our previous stay at Manaos. The canoe looked very pretty as it came towards us in the moonlight; it seemed full to overflowing, the children all dressed in white uniforms and standing up. This little band comes always on Sunday evenings and festa-days to play before the President’s house. They were just going home, it being nearly ten o’clock; but the President called to them to turn back, and they accompanied us to the beach, playing all the while. Thus our pleasant three days’ picnic ended with music and moonlight. ----- Footnote 77: The most accurate information upon the industrial resources of the Valley of the Amazons may be found in a work published by Senhor Tavares Bastos, on his return to Rio de Janeiro, after this journey, entitled “O Valle do Amazonas—Estudo sobre a livre Navegaçaō do Amazonas, Estatistica, Producçöes, Commercio, Questöes Fiscaes do Valle do Amazonas.” Rio de Janeiro, 1866. Footnote 78: This relation is a much nearer one throughout Brazil than with us. A god-child is treated as a member of their own family by its sponsors. Footnote 79: In the course of our journey on the Amazons, Mr. Burkhardt made more than eight hundred paintings of fishes, more or less finished.—L. A. Footnote 80: The fruit of the Persea gratissima. Footnote 81: