BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 619 
show what kind of people they were, and what the so-called 
Residence might be expected to be; an uninhabitable hut, 
defiled by reptiles, with a roof once covered with thatch, but 
now admitting the rain in all directions, and the whole roof 
and frame so decayed as not to be susceptible of repair. This 
house was to accommodate the Resident (myself), an ac- 
quaintance, with an assistant, and three slaves, together 
with our baggage, and to serve, moreover, for a kitchen. Our 
hammocks were the sole articles of furniture, and while lying 
in these, wrapt with three thick woollen blankets, we still 
could not avoid being soaked by the rain, which filtered 
through the roof as fast as it fell on the outside. My prede- 
cessors had always lived with the negroes—a plan to which I 
could not consent; moreover, it was not a small temporary 
hut that would serve us, requiring, as we did, to keep a great 
many goods which we trafficked with the Bush Negroes. 
These people were bound to provide the Resident with a 
house, which I therefore demanded, but they put off erect- 
ing it from day to-day. Except a barrel of salt pork, 
our provisions were all spoiled by the wet, and the negroes 
offering us none for exchange we depended wholly on the 
pork. Obliged, too, by the rain to remain long in this un- 
wholesome hut, I fell sick on the 30th of May, with a fever, 
Which soon proved to bea nervous one, and kept me in a 
recumbent posture. In this dismal position, I still sent out 
to gather plants; one of us sickened after another, and to my- 
self, there seemed little hope of my own recovery. In this 
way the whole of June was spent. My assistant falling ill, 
the servant was employed tocollect. But when July arrived, 
and no attempt was made to begin the house, I felt it neces- 
sary to quit the place and return to Paramaribo, both to re- 
cruit my health, and because I could easily, after this experi- 
ment, make the calculation that the profit to be derived from 
the sale of specimens, would never cover the cost, to say 
nothing of the risk of conveyance from Anka to Paramaribo. 
sides, there is really no dependence to be placed on these 
Bush Negroes. 
You must not suppose that I have renounced visiting this 
