The natives of Central America are not to be feared in the least, and the times are quite changed since it was necessary to provide against their aggressions.

The Indians along the river belong to peaceable tribes, and the fiercest of them have retired before the advancing civilization, and drawn further and further away from the river and its tributaries.

Negro deserters, escaped from the penal colonies of Brazil, England, Holland, or France, are alone to be feared.

But there are only a small number of these fugitives, they only move in isolated groups across the savannahs or the woods, and the jangada was, in a measure, secured from any attack on the parts of the backwoodsmen.
On the other hand, there were a number of settlements on the river--towns, villages, and missions.

The immense stream no longer traverses a desert, but a basin which is being colonized day by day.
Danger was not taken into consideration.