The region of Mauhes is comparatively little known, because it is off the line of steam navigation; but, thanks to the efforts of its most prominent citizen, Mr. Michelis, who has made his home there for twenty-five years, and contributed, by his energy, intelligence, and honorable character, to raise the tone of the whole district, it is one of the most prosperous in the province. It is melancholy to see how little is done in other districts, when an instance like this shows what one man can do to improve the forest population along the banks of the Amazons. His example and its successful results should be an encouragement to all intelligent settlers on the Amazons. The little village of Mauhes stands on a sort of terrace, in front of which, at this season when the waters are still considerably below high-water mark, runs a broad, white beach, rendered all the prettier at the moment of our arrival by a large party of Bolivian Indians, who had built their camp-fires on its sands. We looked at these people with a kind of wonder, thinking of the perilous voyages they constantly make in their heavily-laden canoes, forced to unload their cargo over and over again as they shoot the cataracts of the Madeira on their way down, or drag their boats wearily up them on their return. It seems strange, when this river is the highway of commerce from Bolivia, Matto-Grosso, and through Matto-Grosso from Paraguay to the Amazons, that the suggestion made by Major Coutinho in his interesting account of his journey on the Rio Madeira, has not been adopted. He says that a road carried along the shore of the river for a distance of forty leagues would obviate all the difficulty and danger of this arduous journey. [Illustration: Mauhes River.]