"
"Then they close in?" asked Fragoso.
"They close in!" replied Manoel.
And the two young men seemed to understand each other, for the same
slight but significant nodding of the head accompanied the question
and reply.
At last, notwithstanding the tide, which since leaving Obidos had
begun to be felt, and which somewhat checked the progress of the
raft, the town of Monto Alegre was passed, then that of Pravnha de
Onteiro, then the mouth of the Xingu, frequented by Yurumas Indians,
whose principal industry consists in preparing their enemies' heads
for natural history cabinets.
To what a superb size the Amazon had now developed as already this
monarch of rivers gave signs of opening out like a sea! Plants from
eight to ten feet high clustered along the beach, and bordered it
with a forest of reeds. Porto de Mos, Boa Vista, and Gurupa, whose
prosperity is on the decline, were soon among the places left in the
rear.
Then the river divided into two important branches, which flowed off
toward the Atlantic, one going away northeastward, the other
eastward, and between them appeared the beginning of the large island
of Marajo.
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