The root, very much like a long black
radish, grows in clumps like potatoes. If it is not poisonous in
Africa, it is certain that in South America it contains a more
noxious juice, which it is necessary to previously get rid of by
pressure. When this result is obtained, the root is reduced to flour,
and is then used in many ways, even in the form of tapioca, according
to the fancy of the natives.
On board the jangada there was a huge pile of this useful product
destined for general consumption.
As for preserved meats, not forgetting a whole flock of sheep, kept
in a special stable built in the front, they consisted principally of
a quantity of the _"presunto"_ hams of the district, which are of
first-class quality; but the guns of the young fellows and of some of
the Indians were reckoned on for additional supplies, excellent
hunters as they were, to whom there was likely to be no lack of game
on the islands and in the forests bordering on the stream. The river
was expected to furnish its daily quota; prawns, which ought rather
to be called crawfish; _"tambagus,"_ the finest fish in the district,
of a flavor superior to that of salmon, to which it is often
compared; _"pirarucus"_ with red scales, as large as sturgeons, which
when salted are used in great quantities throughout Brazil;
_"candirus,"_ awkward to capture, but good to eat; _"piranhas,"_ or
devil-fish, striped with red bands, and thirty inches long; turtles
large and small, which are counted by millions, and form so large a
part of the food of the natives; some of every one of these things it
was hoped would figure in turn on the tables of the master and his
men.
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