410 EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI. 



still and brave it out. When the steamer ascended in 

 January, 1858, Lieutenant Nunes was shocked to see 

 me so much shattered, and recommended me strongly 

 to return at once to Ega. I took his advice, and em- 

 barked with him, when he touched at St. Paulo on his 

 downward voyage, on the 2nd of February. I still 

 hoped to be able to turn my face westward again, to 

 gather the yet unseen treasures of the marvellous 

 countries lying between Tabatinga and the slopes of the 

 Andes ; but although, after a short rest in Ega, the 

 ague left me, my general health remained in a state too 

 weak to justify the undertaking of further journeys. 

 At length I left Ega, on the 3rd of February, 1859, 

 en route for England. 



I arrived at Para on the 1 7th of March, after an ab- 

 sence in the interior of seven years and a half. My old 

 friends, English, American, and Brazilian, scarcely knew 

 me again, but all gave me a very warm welcome, espe- 

 cially Mr. G. R. Brocklehurst (of the firm of R. Single- 

 hurst and Co., the chief foreign merchants, who had 

 been my correspondents), who received me into his 

 house, and treated me with the utmost kindness. I 

 was rather surprised at the warm appreciation shown 

 by many of the principal people of my labours ; but, in 

 fact, the interior of the country is still the " sertao " 

 (wilderness), — a terra incognita to most residents of the 

 seaport, — and a man who had spent seven and a half 

 years in exploring it solely with scientific aims was 

 somewhat of a curiosity. I found Para greatly changed 

 and improved. It was no longer the weedy, ruinous, 

 village-looking place that it appeared when I first knew 



