2o8 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
How often do I wish it were possible to make the 
journeys afoot — in point of expedition I should be 
a great gainer. I think of buying a craft to go up 
the Rio Negro, but this is a thing that requires 
much consideration, for having the boat would not 
be sufficient if the crew were wanting. There is 
only forced labour here — no sum of money in the 
world would induce a Tapuya to work voluntarily. 
You cannot conceive how damp everything is 
here, even within the houses. Everything of iron 
rusts, plants mould, clothes hanging up two or 
three days double their weight, and the effects 
upon myself are a feverish cough with rheumatic 
pains in the limbs, etc. 
I write in a rather querulous strain, but if you 
had seen our wan and sickly looks when we landed 
here (and there is not yet much improvement), you 
would have pitied us. 
To Mr. George Bentham 
Barra do Rio Negro, April i, 185 1. 
I am trying to procure a boat and crew for 
ascending the Rio Negro, though the weather is 
not likely to be favourable for this until June, but, 
warned by past experience, I begin my prepara- 
tions three or four months beforehand. I have 
now a collection of above 300 species [Equal to 
nearly 10,000 separate sheets of specimens. — Ed.] 
made at the Barra, and would send them but for an 
unexpected difficulty that has arisen. In this land of 
