ON THE AMAZON. 69 
and Tanaü) has enabled me to husband my slender funds; but there 
have been many expenses since we came here, which have made a 
visible hole in them, and I shall look anxiously to England for some 
replenishment of my stock. They made me pay 25s. duty on the frames 
for plant-cases! I appealed to our consul, but there was no redress ; 
and I pay 12s. 6d. for the completing of each case, besides having to 
buy screws, putty, &c. I have had to purchase a couple of the ham- 
mocks of the country, which cost above £1 each, and there have been 
numerous other unavoidable expenses. The packing-cases I now 
send off cost me no little. The largest of the three, resembling 
a coffin in shape and size, we made ourselves out of the cheapest 
timber of the country—a rubbishly cedar brought down from the 
River Solimoes: the wood cost me 7s. 4d., and the box contains near 
a shilling’s worth of nails. I was told in Liverpool that I should find 
everything dear here but food, and that I should have to pay dollars 
for shillings. This is rather exaggerated: I pay about milreis (a 
milrei is 2s. 1d.) for shillings, as compared with the cost of the same 
articles in England. 
At Caripi I procured, with great trouble and difficulty, two bunches 
of the fruit of Mauritia vinifera, and one of M. flexuosa. These were 
of immense size, and could they have been got to England entire, they 
would have formed as splendid objects as any in your museum. I was 
told the fruits would all drop off in drying, but I hoped there might 
be an exception in this case, and I had them carefully suspended in a 
shed. By little and little I had the mortification to see all the fruit 
fall, and I am obliged to content myself with sending you a few loose 
fruits of each. If you could have the two stems nicely cut at one end, 
they would be interesting to show the internal.structure of palm-stems. 
The things will require to be carefully taken out of the box: they 
are carefully packed, but they require also to be gently handled. Few 
of the palms have the spadices completely clad with fruit, even in 
their most perfect state; and several fruits usually fall when Sreen. 
The fruit now on the trees of the Oastawha and Sapucaya is quite 
green, but I shall hereafter be able to send you good specimens. The 
Masaranduba flowers and fruits early in winter. 
I have written out the list of curiosities in such a way that my 
original labels can be attached to each article, if this would be any 
advantage. 
