I20 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
soldiers would have to be sent into the interior, to 
beat them up at their sitios. These delays were 
so annoying, that I preferred the chance of hiring 
three or four men from the crew of any vessel that 
happened to be laid up in the port, which was but 
seldom. 
We had for some months been unable to get 
into the hills, on account of the intervening Igarape 
d' Irura having widely overflowed its banks ; but 
when, in the month of June, the rivers began 
plainly to ebb, I was desirous to see how the 
igarape was affected. We visited it one day with 
this intent, and were well satisfied to find it ford- 
able by wading up to the middle. The ground 
on the opposite side, though still plashy, was not 
impassable, and we saw that the foot of the hills 
could be reached without difficulty. On a slightly 
rising ground a little beyond the igarape were the 
ruins of a cottage, half of the walls and roof of 
which had fallen, and had got so overgrown with 
rank grasses as to quite hide the beams and rafters 
from the eye. In passing over these ruins, Mr. 
King had the misfortune to tread on a large nail, 
which was sticking in a rafter, point upwards, and 
having (like myself) only india-rubber shoes on, 
which are a protection against naught but wet, he 
was severely wounded in the broad part of the foot. 
As the wound was very painful, I thought it better 
that he should return to the igarape and wash it, 
and there await my return, as I wished to pene- 
trate a little farther. Having gone far enough to 
satisfy myself that there was no obstruction from 
water, I was retracing my steps, and expected I 
had already passed the dangerous ground, when I 
