Chap. Y1. PRE^AEATIO^^S FOR VOYAGE. 217 



yet published of the river is that given by Von Martins 

 in the third volume of Spix and Martins' Travels. 

 These most accomplished travellers w'fere eleven months 

 in the country — namely, from Jnlj, 1819, to June, 1820, 

 and ascended the river to the frontiers of the Brazilian 

 territory. Their accounts of the geogi'aphy, ethnology, 

 botany, history, and statistics of the Amazons region are 

 the most complete that have ever been given to the 

 world. Their narrative was not published until 1831, 

 and was unfortunately inaccessible to me during the 

 time I travelled in the same country. 



Whilst preparing for my voyage it happened fortu- 

 natety that the half-brother of Dr. Angelo Custodio, a 

 young mestizo named Joa5 da Cunha Correia, was 

 about starting for the Amazons on a trading expedition 

 in his own vessel, a schooner of about forty tons bur- 

 then. A passage for me was soon arranged with him 

 through the intervention of Dr. Angelo, and we started 

 on the oth of September, 1849. I intended to stop at 

 some village on the northern shore of the Lower Amazons, 

 where it would be interesting to make collections, in 

 order to show the relations of the fauna to those of 

 Para and the coast region of Guiana. As I should have 

 to hire a house or hut wherever I stayed, I took all the 

 materials for housekeepmg — cooking utensils, .crockery, 

 and so forth. To these were added a stock of such pro- 

 visions as were difficult to obtain in the interior ; also 

 ammunition, chests, store boxes, a small library of 

 natural history books, and a hundredweight of copper 

 money. I engaged, after some trouble, a Mameluco 



