ii6 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
indeed, it was first found and described by 
Loureiro. 
About the middle of April we were horrified by 
the news that yellow fever had broken out at Para 
with extraordinary virulence. Above half the 
population, it was said, were ill at one time, and 
many people of distinction fell victims to that 
dreadful malady, including Her Britannic Majesty's 
Consul, Richard Ryan, Esq. Yellow fever had 
never before invaded the shores of the Amazon, 
and great was the alarm it created, even at San- 
tarem. The good people of Santarem are not 
ordinarily remarkable for attention to religious 
observances, except at Christmas and other fes- 
tivals, when there is a pious display of rockets, 
crackers, and balloons, and of processions of a very 
dramatic character ; but when we were in daily fear 
of the dreaded fever reaching us, we had vespers 
every night in the church, and those families who 
were happy enough to possess a rude daub of some 
saint assembled round it on their knees at stated 
times, and recited a number of prayers taken ad 
libitum from the breviary. A more amusing pro- 
cess was the dragging a couple of field -pieces 
through the streets, and discharging them at short 
intervals, with the object of clearing the atmosphere, 
and so preventing the entrance of the threatened 
pesta. With the same intention lumps of the odori- 
ferous white pitch were fastened on poles, stuck up 
at the crossings of the streets, and set fire to after 
sundown, thus illuminating the whole town, and 
emitting a perfume by no means disagreeable. But 
the most efficacious precaution of all was considered 
