BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 281 
My time has been a good deal interrupted of late, partly by illness 
and partly by superintending the preparation of my canoe. If I had 
foreseen all the trouble and expense attending the latter, I should per- 
haps not have purchased it; but I hope to be repaid in the greater 
facilities for working on the voyage, which I have thereby secured. 
These fellows will not work unless they are looked after, and none but 
a slave thinks of working three days together: if a carpenter can earn 
money enough in two days to keep him a week, why should he work 
more than the two days ? 
I should have gone down to Pará to get a man to supply King’s place 
but for the sacrifice of time. There are several free blacks and mulattos, 
accustomed to constant work; but Aere none such are to be met with. 
The house-work has consequently fallen on me alone, yet I think my 
collection is superior to that of the corresponding months of last year, 
notwithstanding all drawbacks. The Indians do well enough in the 
field, when one knows how to manage them. Humboldt, from some 
remarks in his ‘Aspects of Nature,’ seemed not to have attained this 
art. It does not do to ask them to do anything as a task, however 
much money, etc., you may offer for the performance of it; my usual 
invitation is “ Yassó yadata,” (* Allons nous promener"); we get into 
our montaria, enter one of the igarapés, and when we reach the heart 
of the forest they are all alacrity to climb or cut down the trees; the - 
gathering of the flowers being all the while represented as a mere mat- 
ter of amusement. As I had no letters from Pará to the authorities 
here (no British consul having been there for now more than a year 
and a half) I have had to send as far as Sa6 Gabriel da Cachoeira for 
men—a month’s distance, at least, above the Barra. I expected them 
several weeks ago, bnt I had news that all were ill, and I had almost 
given up all expectation of them, when they arrived on the night of the 
Sth instant. There are five of them, all stout fellows, and I have “ar- 
ranged ” other two here (one a Peruvian Indian from Moyobamba) ; so 
that, as my canoe goes well under sail, I hope to get along merrily. 1 
propose to make Sad Gabriel my first resting-place. It is exactly on 
the equator, in the midst of cataracts and mountains, and ought to 
produce something good. The Podostema that grow on the falls are 
a chief article of support to the natives for one-half of the year! 
VOL. IV. 20 
