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and towards the end of 1850 reached Manaos, at the mouth of the 

 Eio Negro. Here he fitted out a large boat, which, while specially 

 adapted for navigating the rapids of the Rio Negro, was well suited 

 for the requirements of his botanical work. Provided with this 

 moveable base of operations, he spent three years (1852-54) on the 

 Rio Negro and the Orinoco and their tributaries, passing over to 

 the Orinoco via the natural canal of the Casiquiari, and descending 

 to the cataracts of Maipures, thus penetrating a long way into 

 Venezuela. The rainy forests of the Uaupes, an affluent of the 

 Rio Negro unknown previously but for Dr. Wallace's visit in 1852, 

 yielded a rich harvest of novelties, comprising several new genera 

 chiefly belonging to the natural order Le,juminosa, and a wealth of 

 Fungi not approached elsewhere, viz., 200 species. By this river 

 Mr. Spruce reached the confines of New Granada. Returning to 

 Manaos at the end of 1854, he took advantage of the newly 

 established service of steamers to ascend the Amazon to Nauta, 

 in Peru. Proceeding by canoe up the Huallaga, he made his way 

 to the town of Tarapoto, situated at the eastern roots of the Andes. 

 Here he stayed for two years, and was able to collect 250 species of 

 Ferns in an area of fifty miles diameter. 



In 1857 he descended to the Amazon once more, and ascended the 

 Pastasa, an affluent from the north, as far as Canelos, in Ecuador. 

 From here to Banos, a village at the foot of the volcano Tunguragua, 

 was a land-journey of about a fortnight through the primeval forests 

 of Canelos — a journey that has proved fatal to many a traveller in 

 times gone by. For instance, Pizarro (1539) wandered in these 

 forests for two years, and lost the majority of his army through 

 lack of food. Mr. Spruce pushed through at the risk of starvation, 

 but had to abandon all his goods owing to the impossibility of 

 conveying them over the swollen torrent Topo. Fortunately he 

 was able to recover them later on, with but little damage done 

 beyond the conversion of the leather cases into maggots. These 

 forests of Canelos he declared to be the richest locality on the face 

 of the earth for cryptogams ; aud his perilous crossing of the Topo 

 yielded him a unique souvenir in the extraordinary hepatic Myrio- 

 colea irrorata. After spending a profitable six months at Banos, he 

 moved on to Ambato, from which place (his head-quarters for more 

 than two years) he made excursions into the eastern and western 

 Cordilleras of the Quitensian Andes, though much hampered by the 

 intestinal war which then pervaded Ecuador. At that time the 

 Cinchona forests had become nearly exterminated owing to the 

 destructive methods pursued by the natives in procuring the bark. 

 At the end of 1859 Mr. Spruce received a commission from the 

 India Office to collect seeds and young plants for introduction into 

 India. How he managed to collect some 100,000 seeds and upwards 

 of 600 young plants of Cinchona suceirvbra on the western slope of 

 Chimborazo and to convey them to Guayaquil, and how Mr. 

 Robert Cross transported them in safety to India, is well told in 

 Mr. Spruce's Report to Government, published in 1861. And this 

 practically brought Mr. Spruce's travels to an end. In broken 

 health he remained on the Pacific coast until 1864, to his anguish 

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