26 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
from Yurimaguas to the pongo, and on banks grow 
abundantly the Gynerium, Enkylista, Lythracea, 
and other species frequent also on the Maranon 
and Huallaga. It was a tedious navigation up the 
winding Mayo to the mouth of the Cumbasa. 
There were, the Indians said, twelve turns, and we 
had expected but two or three, and it was accord- 
ingly near sunset when we got to that river. To 
our great annoyance we found that it had fallen so 
much that there was no possibility of our getting 
our laden canoes up to the pueblo of Juan Guerra, 
which is nearly a mile within. We slept therefore 
at the mouth, and the next morning had the cargoes 
carried overland to the village. 
[A letter to his friend Teasdale describes the 
more personal and social aspects of the voyage up 
the Solimoes, and will supplement the purely 
geographical and botanical notes in the Journal] 
To Mr. John Teasdale 
Tarapoto, July 1855. 
I had a long and wearisome voyage from the 
Barra to this place, lasting from March 15 to June 
21. I was eighteen days in getting up to Nauta — 
a distance of some 1500 miles — in the steamer 
Monarca ; a wonderful difference this from the 
sixty-three days spent in getting from Santarem to 
the Barra, a distance scarcely one-fourth so great. 
When we were going smartly along by day it was 
really delightful, though the coasts are exceedingly 
flat — much more so than those of the Amazon below 
the Barra. I was, however, never tired of admiring 
