204 MR. SPRUCE'S BOTANICAL EXCURSION 
this width beyond the islands. We took the channel to the right of 
the islands. The shore of the main land is hollowed out into deep 
bays, with a beautiful sandy beach, clad with old low trees, some of 
them containing Orchidee. The twisted and stunted shrubs growing 
near the water’s edge, and in the rainy season laid under water, were 
beset with sponge-like incrustations, which seem to me to be the work 
of some zoophyte. I send specimens. Towards evening we approached 
another group of islands. A narrow channel between the two northern- 
most is called the Furo de Chiriry, and nearly opposite to it is a long 
peninsula, called Punta de Caipurü, the latter entering from north- 
east by east. Turning the point a little before sunset, we drew up 
in front of a large sitio, called Santa Cruz, the residence of Senhor 
Angelo Bentes, where I was desirous of adding to our stock of 
farinha. 
December 21.—We pares the night at Santa Cruz. Our host, a 
man of middle age, has been helpless and confined to his hammock 
from paralysis for twelve years, yet manages the affairs of this ‘and 
other sitios he possesses on the river, and takes long journeys by water, 
always travelling in his hammock. I found him a man of much in- 
formation, very communicative and (what I had of late rarely met 
with) curious about the affairs of Europe. He is unmarried, but a 
maiden sister— a matronly old lady, and apparently an excellent 
manager—keeps his house. Both at this time and on our return, I 
was pleased to remark, that she assembled the slaves every evening 
= to prayers. We ourselves experienced much kindness: a fowl was 
_ cooked for our supper, and another in the morning to be carried with us 
when we resumed our voyage. The house is large, lofty, neat, and 
commodious, though built only of upright poles and mud plaster, and 
thatched with Pindoba. The doors are of Cedro, the door-posts of 
Itaiiba, and the linings of the recesses of Louro. The cedar-wood (as 
it is called) is excellent for the inside-work of houses, being not liable 
to the attacks of insects, but it will not bear exposure to the weather. 
It grows to an immense size on the Solimoéns and the Rio Negro; but 
such is the cost in this country of cutting it up and transporting it, 
that Brother Jonathan can sell his pinewoods at Para for less than the 
cedar can be afforded at. Senhor Angelo informed me that the Pao 
de Cedro grew in the forest at no great distance from his house, and 
he insisted on my staying two or three days with him on my way 
