CHAPTER VI 
VOYAGE FROM SANTAREM TO THE RIO NEGRO BY 
WAY OF THE FLOODED AMAZONIAN FOREST 
{October 8 to December lo, 1850) 
I HAD every reason to be satisfied with my collec- 
tions at Santarem ; but when I had nearly exhausted 
the Flora accessible within a day's journey, I began 
to long for new fields, and I fixed on the mouth of 
the Rio Negro for my next centre of operations. 
Untoward circumstances had prevented my making 
any long excursion from Santarem, besides that to 
Obidos and the Trombetas. I had planned an 
expedition of a month up the Tapajoz, in the rainy 
season, in a small vessel of Mr. Hislop's, and had 
made every necessary provision for it, when I was 
struck down by fever on the very eve of starting. 
I had not at that time any boat of my own, nor in 
all probability could I have got sailors to man it at 
Santarem, where every free man of colour was in 
debt to the resident merchants, who would have 
exacted payment of the debts before allowing the 
men to embark on a voyage. I had hoped to get a 
passage up the Amazon for myself and my com- 
panion on board a schooner from Para, belonging to 
an Englishman named Bradley, and which actually 
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