Though the crew was large, it was not more than sufficient for the
service on board. To work the jangada along the windings of the river
and between the hundreds of islands and islets which lay in its
course required fully as many as were taken, for if the current
furnished the motive power, it had nothing to do with the steering,
and the hundred and sixty arms were no more than were necessary to
work the long boathooks by which the giant raft was to be kept in
mid-stream.

In the first place, then, in the hinder part of the jangada they
built the master's house. It was arranged to contain several bedrooms
and a large dining-hall. One of the rooms was destined for Joam and
his wife, another for Lina and Cybele near those of their mistresses,
and a third room for Benito and Manoel. Minha had a room away from
the others, which was not by any means the least comfortably
designed.

This, the principal house, was carefully made of weather-boarding,
saturated with boiling resin, and thus rendered water-tight
throughout. It was capitally lighted with windows on all sides. In
front, the entrance-door gave immediate access to the common room. A
light veranda, resting on slender bamboos, protected the exterior
from the direct action of the solar rays. The whole was painted a
light-ocher color, which reflected the heat instead of absorbing it,
and kept down the temperature of the interior.

But when the heavy work, so to speak, had been completed, Minha
intervened with:

"Father, now your care has inclosed and covered us, you must allow us