

CHAPTER XV 



FIFTEEN HUNDRED MILES UP THE SOLIMOES : 

 FROM MANAOS TO TARAPOTO, PERU 



(March 1 4 to June 22, 1855) 



[THIS chapter consists largely of a full and very 

 descriptive Journal, which required comparatively 

 little pruning ; and this is supplemented by letters 

 to Messrs. Teasdale and Bentham, giving to the 

 former vivid sketches of scenery and of the pass- 

 engers on the steamer, and to the latter an account 

 of one of the numerous personal dangers of which 

 Spruce had his full share, though from all of them 

 he escaped with his life.] 



VOYAGE UP THE SOLDI <>i-:.s 

 (Journal) 



March 14, 1855. Embarked on the J/<w<mw, 

 an iron steamer of 35 horse-power, built at Kin (It- 

 Janeiro. We left the port of Barra at six the next 

 morning, and I enjoyed much the rapid run up the 

 Solimoes, contrasting strongly with the painful way 

 in which we crept up in a canoe in [851, when 

 took a week to reach Manaquiry. In the steamer 

 we spent but ten hours. The river appears more 



VOL. II i 



