I 



132 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 v/e 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 v/as 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., v/ho 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. 



