xviii] THE JOURNEY TO THE AMAZON 283 



There he remained, lodging near the works, and when we 

 went to live at Neath, spending his Sundays with us. At this 

 time he took to writing verses, and especially enigmas in the 

 style of W. Mackworth Praed, and these appeared almost 

 weekly in some of the local papers. But he evidently had no 

 inclination or taste for mechanical work, and though he 

 spent, I think, about four years in the pattern-shops he 

 never became a good workman ; and as he saw no prospect 

 of ever earning more than a bare subsistence as a mechanic, 

 and perhaps not even that, he gladly came out to me, 

 when he had just completed his twentieth year. His 

 misfortune was that he had no thorough school training, no 

 faculty for or love of mechanical work, and was not possessed 

 of sufficient energy to overcome these deficiencies of nature 

 and nurture. 



The remainder of my South American travels consisted of 

 two voyages up the Rio Negro. On the first I went beyond 

 the boundaries of Brazil, and crossed by a road in the forest 

 to one of the tributaries of the Orinoko. Returning thence 

 I visited a village up a small branch of the Rio Negro, where 

 there is an isolated rocky mountain, the haunt of the beautiful 

 Cock of the Rock ; afterwards going up the Uaupes as far as 

 the second cataract at Juaurite. I then returned with my 

 collections to Barra, having determined to go much farther 

 up the Uaupes in order to obtain, if possible, the white 

 umbrella bird which I had been positively assured was 

 found there ; and also in the hopes of finding some new and 

 better collecting ground near the Andes. These journeys 

 were made, but the second was cut short by delays and the 

 wet season. My health also had suffered so much by a 

 succession of fevers and dysentery that I did not consider it 

 prudent to stay longer in the country. 



Although during the last two journeys in the Rio Negro 

 and Orinoko districts I had made rather large miscellaneous 

 collections, and especially of articles of native workmanship, 

 I never found any locality at all comparable with Para as a 

 collecting ground. The numerous places I visited along 



