CH. VI VOYAGE TO THE RIO NEGRO 167 
passed Santarem on its way up in July, but so 
heavily laden, and already so crowded with pass- 
engers, that there was no room left in it for us. 
We finally left Santarem for the Barra do Rio 
Negro — now called the City of Manaos — on Tues- 
day the 8th of October, in an igarate belonging to 
Monsieur Gouzennes, a French gentleman who had 
been many years settled at Santarem, and was 
accustomed to send vessels up the Amazon every 
year to procure salt fish, turtle oil, Brazil nuts, and 
other produce, in payment for goods advanced the 
previous year. Our vessel was a very small one, of 
little more than 3000 arrobas ( = 9600 lbs.) burden, 
and my baggage half-filled it. For want of room we 
were put to much inconvenience in preserving such 
plants as we could collect on the way ; and, what 
was still worse, the palm-leaf toldo or cabin was so 
ill-constructed that every heavy rain penetrated it, 
and gave us afterwards much trouble in drying our 
soaked clothes, papers, and eatables. However, 
there was no alternative, and for this conveyance, 
wretched as it was, I had waited nearly three 
months. 
Our crew consisted of but three men : the Cabo 
or captain — a fine young fellow named Gustavo, 
eldest son of the French baker — and two mariners, 
the one a Mamaluco or half-breed, the other a pure 
Indian of the Yuma tribe, which inhabits the lower 
part of the Madeira. As it was calculated that we 
might still have before us two months of dry 
weather and brisk easterly breezes, this scanty 
crew was considered sufficient ; but, as it turned 
out, the weather was broken, rainy, and either 
calm or squally, from the very beginning of our 
