The negroes of Para are very devout. They have built, by slow
degrees, as I was told, a fine church by their own unaided
exertions. It is called Nossa Senhora do Rosario, or Our Lady of
the Rosary. During the first weeks of our residence at Para, I
frequently observed a line of negroes and negresses, late at
night, marching along the streets, singing a chorus. Each carried
on his or her head a quantity of building materials--stones,
bricks, mortar, or planks. I found they were chiefly slaves, who,
after their hard day's work, were contributing a little towards
the construction of their church. The materials had all been
purchased by their own savings. The interior was finished about a
year afterwards, and is decorated, I thought, quite as superbly
as the other churches which were constructed, with far larger
means, by the old religious orders more than a century ago.
Annually, the negroes celebrate the festival of Nossa Senora de
Rosario, and generally make it a complete success.

I will now add a few more notes which I have accumulated on the
subject of the natural history, and then we shall have done, for
the present, with Para and its neighbourhood.

I have already mentioned that monkeys were rare in the immediate
vicinity of Para. I met with only three species in the forest
near the city; they are shy animals, and avoid the neighbourhood
of towns, where they are subject to much persecution by the
inhabitants, who kill them for food. The only kind which I saw
frequently was the little Midas ursulus, one of the Marmosets, a
family peculiar to tropical America, and differing in many
essential points of structure and habits from all other apes.
They are small in size, and more like squirrels than true monkeys