vi PREFACE. 



greater part of my collections and sketches, were lost by the 

 burning of the ship on my homeward voyage. From the 

 fragmentary notes and papers which I have saved I have 

 written the intermediate portion, and the four last chapters 

 on the Natural History of the country and on the Indian 

 tribes, which, had I saved all my materials, were intended to 

 form a separate work on the Physical History of the Amazon. 



In conclusion, I trust that the great loss of materials which 

 I have suffered, and which every naturalist and traveller will 

 fully appreciate, may be taken into consideration, to explain 

 the inequalities and imperfections of the narrative, and the 

 meagreness of the other part of the work, so little proportionate 

 to what might be expected from a four years' residence in such 

 an interesting and little-known country. 

 LONDON, October, 1853. 



PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. 



' I "HIS issue is substantially a reprint of the original work, but 

 * the proof sheets have been carefully revised and many verbal 

 corrections made. A few notes have been added, and English 

 names have in many cases been substituted for the local term! , 

 which were used too freely in the first edition. The onlj 

 omissions are the vocabularies of Indian languages and Dr 

 Latham's observations on them, which were thought to bt 

 unsuitable to the general reader. A. R. W. 



PARKSTONE, DORSET, October, 1889. 



