The population of Tabatinga is estimated at four hundred, nearly all
Indians, comprising, no doubt, many of those wandering families who
are never settled at particular spots on the banks of the Amazon or
its smaller tributaries.

The post at the island of the Ronde has been abandoned for some
years, and transferred to Tabatinga. It can thus be called a garrison
town, but the garrison is only composed of nine soldiers, nearly all
Indians, and a sergeant, who is the actual commandant of the place.

A bank about thirty feet high, in which are cut the steps of a not
very solid staircase, forms here the curtain of the esplanade which
carries the pigmy fort. The house of the commandant consists of a
couple of huts placed in a square, and the soldiers occupy an oblong
building a hundred feet away, at the foot of a large tree.

The collection of cabins exactly resembles all the villages and
hamlets which are scattered along the banks of the river, although in
them a flagstaff carrying the Brazilian colors does not rise above a
sentry-box, forever destitute of its sentinel, nor are four small
mortars present to cannonade on an emergency any vessel which does
not come in when ordered.

As for the village properly so called, it is situated below, at the
base of the plateau. A road, which is but a ravine shaded by ficuses
and miritis, leads to it in a few minutes. There, on a half-cracked
hill of clay, stand a dozen houses, covered with the leaves of the
_"boiassu"_ palm placed round a central space.

All this is not very curious, but the environs of Tabatinga are