ON THE AMAZON AND RIO NEGEO. 41 



rid themselves of these functionaries in the most unscrupulous manner, 

 San Carlos seems to have fallen off much since Humboldt visited it. 

 Even since Scliomburgk, the pueblo has been devastated by a fire, 

 which consumed the church and twenty-two dwelling-houseSj of which 

 very few have been rebuilt ; and there are now standing, in all, but 

 twenty-six houses. The oldest building in the place is the convent ; 

 but no traces remain of the friars who once tenanted it, save in the 

 fair skins of many of the Indians, amongst whom to be a " hijo de 

 padre " is the same as to be born to good luck. There is great need 

 of some force to overawe the Indians, who are far more numerous than 

 the whites, and know their strength. It is not improbable that one of 

 these days they may get up a revolution of their own, as their brethren 

 of Para did in 1835, when atrocities of every sort may be expected to 

 be committed. On the day I reached San Carlos, the whole Indian 

 population was in a state of intoxication, and I saw them enter without 

 ceremony the houses of the whites, to ask for burreche (rum), which 

 they were quite ready to t^ike by force had it been refused. But I have 

 seen worse than this since ; and we are now scarcely passed over the 

 feast of San Juan, when the Indians had openly avowed their intention 

 of murdering at least all the foreigners in the place ; on which account 

 we have been obliged to watch for some days and nights with arms 

 constantly by our sides. 



I notice what you say about the interest the Victoria continues to 

 excite in your Gardens. I have observed no Victoria since I ascended 

 the Rio Negro, for white water seems essential to its existence, I have 

 most frequently seen it in lakes into which the water of the Amazon 

 entered only in the rainy season; but in June 1851 I noticed two or 

 three plants of it in the Amazon itself, at two days' journey above the 

 Barra. They were growing in a small bay, where the water swept gently 

 round; but at twenty yards from them there was a rapid current. I 

 have been unfortunate with my specimens of this fine plant, those I 

 gathered on my voyage from Santarem having been nearly all wasted by 

 the bad weather, and want of convenience for drying them ; but I hope 

 to get more as I descend, and I shall also have my eyes open for it 



when I reach the Orinoco. 



I have now traced the use of Caraip^, or the bark of the Pottery-tree, 

 all the tributaries of the Amazon, as also on the Cnsiquiare, Upper 



on a 



Orinoco, and Guaviarc. Nearly all the si^ecies of Licuum afford it, but 



VOL. VI. 



G 



