"How magnificent!" remarked Minha, over and over again.
"How long!" murmured Manoel.
"How beautiful!" repeated Lina.
"When shall we get there?" murmured Fragoso.
And this was what might have been expected of these folks from the
different points of view, though time passed pleasantly enough with
them all the same. Benito, who was neither patient nor impatient, had
recovered all his former good humor.
Soon the jangada glided between interminable plantations of
cocoa-trees with their somber green flanked by the yellow thatch or
ruddy tiles of the roofs of the huts of the settlers on both banks
from Obidos up to the town of Monto Alegre.
Then there opened out the mouth of the Rio Trombetas, bathing with
its black waters the houses of Obidos, situated at about one hundred
and eighty miles from Belem, quite a small town, and even a
_"citade"_ with large streets bordered with handsome habitations, and
a great center for cocoa produce. Then they saw another tributary,
the Tapajos, with its greenish-gray waters descending from the
south-west; and then Santarem, a wealthy town of not less than five
thousand inhabitants, Indians for the most part, whose nearest houses
were built on the vast beach of white sand.
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