The police force consists of one man, and a very versatile one, as will be seen, for he is also the rank and file of the military force.  I saw this remarkable official only once.  At that time he was in a sad condition from over-indulgence in alcoholic beverages.  There are exact statistics of comparison available for the police and military forces.  The former is just two-thirds of the latter in number.  Expressed in the most easily understood terms, we can put it that our versatile friend has a chief to command him when a policeman, and a coronel and lieutenant when he is a soldier.  Whether there is any graft in it or not, I do not know, but money is saved by the police-military force being one man with interchangeable uniforms, and the money must go into somebody’s pocket.  It might be thought that when the versatile one had to appear in both capacities at once, he might be at a loss.  But not a bit of it.  The landing of one of the down-river steamers offers such an occasion.  As soon as the gangplank is out, the policeman goes aboard with the official papers.  He is welcomed, receives his fee, and disappears.  Not two minutes afterwards, the military force in full uniform is seen to emerge from the same hut into which the policeman went.  He appears on the scene with entire unconcern, and the rough and ready diplomacy of Remate de Males has again triumphed.

One of the reasons for the flattering (!) name of the town, “Culmination of Evils,” is the great mortality of the community, which it has as a part of the great Javary district.  Its inhabitants suffer from all the functional diseases found in other parts of the world, and, in addition, maladies which are typical of the region.  Among the most important of these are the paludismus, or malarial swamp-fever, the yellow-fever, popularly recognised as the black vomit, and last but not least the beri-beri, the mysterious disease which science does not yet fully understand.  The paludismus is so common that it is looked upon as an unavoidable incident of the daily life.  It is generally caused by the infectious bite of a mosquito, the Anopheles, which is characterised by its attacking with its body almost perpendicular to the surface it has selected.  It is only the female mosquito that bites.  There are always fever patients on the Amazon, and the Anopheles, stinging indiscriminately, transfers the malarial microbes from a fever patient to the blood of well persons.  The latter are sure to be laid up within ten days with the sezoes, as the fever is called here, unless a heavy dose of quinine is taken in time to check it.