Encontros dificeis: O artista-heroi e os indios corrompidos no relato de viagem Deux Annees au Bresil 1862

River Guides, Geographical Informants, and Colonial Field Agents in the Portuguese Amazon

“…The reclining figure is François-Auguste Biard, a French painter and naturalist who published an account of his travels up the Amazon; his local guide-servant is on the left (in a borrowed hat). Throughout the account, the latter is caricatured as untrustworthy and unreliable, scheming to abandon the author at any moment (see also Araujo 2005).…”

“…They also transitioned from participating in regular trips organized by their villages to serving on special reconnaissance expeditions for the state and a variety of privately funded canoe ventures. 23 Much of what we know of this kind of participation comes from the sources produced in the territorial contest with Spain, during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. This documentation often consists of the opinions and summaries of higher authorities*such as captaincy governors and royal magistrates*but is accompanied by intriguing letters from lower-level officials and testimonies from locals.…”