210 JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE 
Not a day passed without rain. Sometimes there was sun enough 
in the morning to enable me to dry my paper before setting out to 
herborize. When there was not, I took the paper across the river in 
the evening and got it dried on the fórno. It should be mentioned 
that the Casa do fórno was not directly across the river, but that, em- 
barking opposite our hut, we had to ascend about a quarter of a mile 
before landing on the other side, near the fórno. The Janauarí isa 
narrow rapid stream, winding through dark forests, the climbers of 
which often stretch across it, and are troublesome to avoid as the canoe 
shoots beneath them. The first time I made the passage, along with 
my attendant Pedro, he placed himself in the prow and I in the poop 
of the canoe, each with a paddle; but although I was well aecus- 
tomed to steer by means of a rudder, I had never attempted it with a 
paddle, and my want of dexterity brought us up every now and then 
plump into the bushes, which I could see ruffled Pedro’s equanimity 
no little. After we landed, I heard him say to his sister in Lingoa 
Geral, “This man knows nothing—I doubt if he could even shoot a 
bird with an arrow!” (a feat which every boy of twelve years is sup- 
posed capable of performing). I consoled my wounded vanity with 
the reflection that probably the most eminent botanist in Europe would 
have cut no better figure than I did, if placed in the stern of an Indian 
canoe with a paddle in his hand. Since that time however practice - 
has rendered me tolerably expert at steering with a paddle, or, as it is 
called, “ handling the jacumá." 
Observing some large roots, looking like turnips but vastly larger, 
lying near the house, I inquired what they were, and was told that they 
were used in the same way as the roots of mandiocca. They showed me 
the grated root in a state of preparation, and gave me farinha already - 
made from it. It is only very lately (as I learnt from these people) that 
the Tapuya Indians have begun to use this root, and it seems to have 
been first made use of by the Purupurá Indians, inhabiting the Rio dos 
Purás, a large river whose course is parallel to that of the Madeira; 
these Indians call it Baund. It is known also to the Mura Indians, 
who call it Maihdo (the A slightly guttural). The Tapuyas call it 
merely Maniacca-açú, or the Great Mandiocca, having no original 
name for it. The largest root I saw weighed forty-eight pounds; I 
would have sent you it, if I could have found any one to carry it across 
the campo. I send you two roots, the larger of which weighs above 
