VII 
AT MANAOS 
227 
To Mr. George Bentham 
Barra do Rio Negro, Nov. 7, 185 1. 
Two nights ago reached me your letter of July 
22, and also the Indians I had been long expecting 
to take me up the Rio Negro. I am now hard at 
work packing up my collections for you and pur- 
chasing trade goods for the voyage. It is no use 
taking money up the Rio Negro, and except a little 
copper, I am laying out my whole fortune in prints 
and other fabrics of cotton, axes, cutlasses, fish- 
hooks, beads, looking-glasses, and a host of sundries. 
The trafficking of these involves a serious loss of 
time, but there is no alternative. 
We had sad news lately from Para. Single- 
hursts vessel, the Princess Victoria, was lost in 
entering the mouth of the river and nothing of her 
cargo was recovered. Miller went out in a boat 
from Para to see the wreck and caught a severe 
chill, which excitement aggravated into brain-fever 
and speedily carried him off. . . . 
Poor Miller was a very fine young man, and his 
loss to me is irreparable, as he was so ready to do 
anything I needed, even to putting himself to in- 
convenience. He was a schoolfellow of Gardner's,^ 
and was stationed at Aracati when Gardner visited 
that place, where he rendered him great assistance. 
Since my last letter to you I have travelled 
about more than at any time previously, and I 
believe that in this collection you will find absolutely 
1 [Gardner was a botanist who collected largely in Central Brazil and pub- 
lished an interesting volume, Travels in Brazil. — Ed.] 
