a handsome young fellow, full of life and spirit. He had on board
a wire guitar or viola, as it is here called; and in the bright
moonlight nights, as we lay at anchor hour after hour waiting for
the tide, he enlivened us all with songs and music. He was on the
best of terms with the cabo, both sleeping in the same hammock
slung between the masts. I passed the nights wrapped in an old
sail outside the roof of the cabin. The crew, five in number,
were Indians and half-breeds, all of whom treated their two
superiors with the most amusing familiarity, yet I never sailed
in a better managed vessel than the St. John.

In crossing to Cameta we had to await the flood-tide in a channel
called Entre-as-Ilhas, which lies between two islands in mid-
river, and John Mendez, being in good tune, gave us an extempore
song, consisting of a great number of verses. The crew lay about
the deck listening, and all joined in the chorus. Some stanzas
related to me, telling how I had come all the way from
"Inglaterra," to skin monkeys and birds and catch insects; the
last-mentioned employment of course giving ample scope for fun.
He passed from this to the subject of political parties in
Cameta; and then, as all the hearers were Cametaenses and
understood the hits, there were roars of laughter, some of them
rolling over and over on the deck, so much were they tickled.
Party spirit runs high at Cameta, not merely in connection with
local politics, but in relation to affairs of general concern,
such as the election of members to the Imperial Parliament, and
so forth. This political strife is partly attributable to the
circumstance that a native of Cameta, Dr. Angelo Custodio
Correia, had been in almost every election, one of the candidates
for the representation of the province. I fancied these shrewd