133 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [August, 1850. 



One of his companions would then tickle his nose, and rouse 

 him up, and his look of astonishment to find he had been 

 sleeping would set all in a roar of laughter at his expense. It 

 was midnight when we reached Barra, and we were all pretty 

 glad to seek our hammocks. 



Several weeks more passed wearily, till at length we had 

 news of the long-expected canoe ; one of the owners, having 

 arrived beforehand in a montaria, informing us that it would 

 be up in two days more. There was at this time in the city a 

 trader from the upper Rio Negro, a Portuguese, and generally 

 considered a very good sort of fellow. He was to start the 

 next day, but on Senhor Henrique's representation, he agreed 

 to stay till Senhor Neill Bradley's canoe arrived, and then give 

 me a passage up to the Falls of the Rio Negro, or to any other 

 place I might wish to go to. The next afternoon the expected 

 vessel reached Barra ; about six in the evening I got a long 

 arrear of letters from Para, from England, from California, and 

 Australia, some twenty in number, and several dated more than 

 a year back. I sat up till two in the morning reading them, lay 

 down, but slept little till five in the morning ; I then com- 

 menced answering the most important of them, — packing up — 

 buying forgotten necessaries for the voyage— making up a box 

 for England — giving instructions to my brother H., who was 

 to stay in Barra, and, in six months, return to England, — and 

 by noon was ready to start on a voyage of seven hundred miles, 

 and, probably, for a year's absence. The Juiz de Direito, or 

 Judge of the district, had kindly sent me a turkey and a 

 sucking-pig ; the former of which I took alive, and the latter 

 roasted ; so I had a stock of provisions to commence the 

 voyage. 



