Jules Verne by Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon Page A

poop behind and a cabin down below, with two masts and
square sails of unequal size, and propelled, when the wind fell, by six
long sweeps which Indians worked from a forecastle.
    But neither of these vessels satisfied Joam Garral. From the moment that
he had resolved to descend the Amazon he had thought of making the most
of the voyage by carrying a huge convoy of goods into Para. From this
point of view there was no necessity to descend the river in a hurry.
And the determination to which he had come pleased every one, excepting,
perhaps, Manoel, who would for very good reasons have preferred some
rapid steamboat.
    But though the means of transport devised by Joam were primitive in the
extreme, he was going to take with him a numerous following and abandon
himself to the stream under exceptional conditions of comfort and
security.
    It would be, in truth, as if a part of the fazenda of Iquitos had
been cut away from the bank and carried down the Amazon with all that
composed the family of the fazender—masters and servants, in their
dwellings, their cottages, and their huts.
    The settlement of Iquitos included a part of those magnificent forests
which, in the central districts of South America, are practically
inexhaustible.
    Joam Garral thoroughly understood the management of these woods, which
were rich in the most precious and diverse species adapted for joinery,
cabinet work, ship building, and carpentry, and from them he annually
drew considerable profits.
    The river was there in front of him, and could it not be as safely and
economically used as a railway if one existed? So every year Joam Garral
felled some hundreds of trees from his stock and formed immense rafts of
floating wood, of joists, beams, and slightly squared trunks, which were
taken to Para in charge of capable pilots who were thoroughly acquainted
with the depths of the river and the direction of its currents.
    This year Joam Garral decided to do as he had done in preceding years.
Only, when the raft was made up, he was going to leave to Benito all
the detail of the trading part of the business. But there was no time
to lose. The beginning of June was the best season to start, for the
waters, increased by the floods of the upper basin, would gradually and
gradually subside until the month of October.
    The first steps had thus to be taken without delay, for the raft was
to be of unusual proportions. It would be necessary to fell a half-mile
square of the forest which was situated at the junction of the Nanay and
the Amazon—that is to say, the whole river side of the fazenda, to form
the enormous mass, for such were the
jangadas,
or river rafts, which
attained the dimensions of a small island.
    It was in this
jangada,
safer than any other vessel of the country,
larger than a hundred
egariteas
or
vigilingas
coupled together, that
Joam Garral proposed to embark with his family, his servants, and his
merchandise.
    "Excellent idea!" had cried Minha, clapping her hands, when she learned
her father's scheme.
    "Yes," said Yaquita, "and in that way we shall reach Belem without
danger or fatigue."
    "And during the stoppages we can have some hunting in the forests which
line the banks," added Benito.
    "Won't it take rather long?" observed Manoel; "could we not hit upon
some quicker way of descending the Amazon?"
    It would take some time, obviously, but the interested observation of
the young doctor received no attention from any one.
    Joam Garral then called in an Indian who was the principal manager of
the fazenda.
    "In a month," he said to him, "the jangada must be built and ready to
launch."
    "We'll set to work this very day, sir."
    It was a heavy task. There were about a hundred Indians and blacks,
and during the first fortnight in May they did wonders. Some people
unaccustomed to these great tree massacres would perhaps have groaned to
see giants many hundred years old fall in a few hours beneath the axes
of the woodmen; but there was such a quantity on the