364 Information respecting Botanical Travellers, 



posed to spend two months, till the rainy season should set in, and 

 then proceed into the interior. The Rio San Francisco being so near, 

 I determined on visiting it, knowing that in these tropical countries 

 the margins of rivers generally afford good botanizing. After col- 

 lecting a few plants in the vicinity of this place, I embarked in a Jan- 

 gada for Peba, a village five leagues to the north of the mouth of the 

 San Francisco river, the heavy surf which breaks on the bar not al- 

 lowing small craft to approach nearer, and from thence made my 

 way in a bullock cart to the village of Piassabussa, situated on the 

 north bank of the river, and two leagues from its outlet. It was night 

 when I arrived, but next morning I was highly delighted with the 

 sight of that magnificent stream, then discharging, as usual at that 

 season, its greatest quantity of water, and more swollen by the late 

 rains than it has been since the year 1792. The flat country on 

 both sides was inundated to a great extent, and hundreds of families 

 obliged to quit their dwellings, which were either carried away or 

 quite submerged. From Piassabussa I again embarked in a canoe 

 for the Villa do Penedo, situated five leagues higher up, and there 

 I spent a few days in the house of the Juiz Derita, a very excellent 

 kind man, a lover of science and particularly fond of botany, although 

 he attends more to the theoretical than the practical part of it. My 

 great wish was to reach the magnificent falls, nearly 200 miles 

 nearer the source of the river, 60 miles of which must be travelled 

 overland. Every one dissuaded me from the attempt, particularly 

 at this season, when the ground is so much burned up that it is im- 

 possible to find grass and water for horses. Still I determined to 

 proceed, and hired a canoe to convey me as far as the stream was 

 navigable; and just as we had reached this point, 100 miles up, 

 close to the Ilha do San Pedro, a large island in the river, a tre- 

 mendous storm overtook us in the middle of the stream. Such a 

 hurricane I never witnessed. Before we could reach the lee side of 

 the river, there more than a league broad, our canoe had nearly upset, 

 and would certainly have done so, when we must all have been 

 drowned, but for the exertions of my black servant and myself, for 

 the crew were so terrified as to lose all presence of mind, and they 

 gave no assistance ; and the night was dark, the river broad, and 

 the current strong. The thunder and lightning and rain exceeded all 

 I could imagine. Drenched to the skin we reached the shore, and 

 remained till daybreak in our wet clothes, and the consequence to 

 me was a severe attack of dysentery. For several days there was no 

 prospect of my recovery, and more than once I attempted to write 

 what I considered would be my last letters to Sir W. J. Hooker and 



