176 



THE ORCHID WORLD. 



give 

 how 

 were 

 with 



carriers would in themselves afford material 

 enough to be dealt with in a separate chapter, 

 which, however, would not be pleasant 

 readmg. May it suffice, therefore, to give an 

 extract from an original note of Seyler's, sent 

 from the centre of Curubung mountain to me 

 on Curubung landing-stage, where our mis- 

 fortunes reached their climax ; this paragraph 

 to some ex 

 tent will 

 an idea 

 matters 

 standing 



US: " 



Write to Mr. 

 Barnard and 

 tell him that 

 I will be re- 

 sponsible for 

 all he sends 

 you. I hope 

 the boat will 

 arrive before 

 time, but it is 

 doubtful o n 

 account of the 

 high water. 

 Spare me half 

 a tin of milk 

 if you can, not 

 more, as I 

 have nothing 

 left, and salt 

 and pepper 

 won't do for it. 

 Things look 

 awkward, but 

 never mind, 

 grumbling 

 won't help us 

 anything ; we 

 will have to 

 worry through, and a little starvation won't 

 amount to much. I gave William a piece of 

 my mind, because he helped himself to 

 Cassadabread without asking, so he seems 

 annoyed and leaves again to-day with 

 Frederick and the Roraima chap ; if he wants 

 to go let him go." 



As an endorsement of the preceding, and 



'}^u-imeiu Fall. The Cliff on the left was covered 

 ivUh Cattleya Lawrenceana. 



also as an illustration of the manner in which 

 we reached our starting-point, Bartika Grove, 

 I had better give here a short extract from 

 another letter of Seyler's, which much later on 

 he addressed to a leading firm of Orchid 

 importers in England, respecting the collect- 

 ing of Cattleya Lawrenceana, and in which 

 he says : " We had the hardest trouble now 



through the 

 want of Indians 

 to carry our 

 loads. Besides 

 this, the rainy 

 weather .set in 

 and our loads 

 suffered badly 

 for all the care 

 we took of 

 them. Also, 

 the Indians 

 got disagree- 

 a b 1 e, having 

 to go back 

 several times 

 to bring the 

 remaining bas- 

 kets. Never- 

 theless, we got 

 as far as the 

 C u r u b u n g 

 Mountain s. 

 Up to this 

 time we were 

 more or less 

 always starv- 

 ing ; we pro- 

 cured a scanty 

 supply of pro- 

 visions, but lost 

 nearly all of 

 them in a small 

 creek and what 

 was saved was spoiling under our very eyes, 

 it being then that the rainy season had fully 

 started, drenching us from morning till night. 

 It took us nine days to get our loads over 

 the mountains, where our boat was to reach 

 us. And we were for two and a half days 

 entirely without food. Besides, the Indians 

 had opened the baskets and partly thro\\Ti the 



