these settlements, and adapted to the navigation. Any such prophetic vision was, however, no doubt very far from their thoughts; if they had any idea as to the object of our coming, it was probably a fear lest we should be on a recruiting expedition. If so, it is certainly a very innocent one, fishes being the only recruits we aim at entrapping. From the Ramos we turned into the Mauhes, ascending to the town of the same name, where to-day we are enjoying the hospitality of Mr. Michelis. If any of my readers are as ignorant as I was myself before making this voyage, a bit of geography may not be out of place here. As everybody knows, the river Madeira, that great affluent of the Amazons, all whose children are giants, except when compared with their royal father, enters the main stream on its southern side at a point nearly opposite Serpa. But this is not its only connection with the Amazons. The river Mauhes starting about twenty-five leagues from its mouth, runs from the river Madeira almost parallel with the Amazons until it joins the river Ramos, which continues its course in the same direction to a lower point, where it empties into the main stream. The district of land thus enclosed between four rivers, having the Madeira on the west, the Amazons on the north, and the Ramos and the Mauhes on the south, is known on the map as the island of Tupinambaranas. It is a network of rivers, lakes, and islands; one of those watery labyrinths which would be in itself an extensive river system in any other country, but is here absolutely lost in the world of waters of which it forms a part. Indeed, the vastness of the Amazons is not felt chiefly when following its main course, but rather on its lesser tributaries, where streams to which a place on the map is hardly accorded are found to be in fact large rivers.