3i8 
NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
CHAP. 
for Panure (or Sao Jeronymo) on the Rio Uaupes. 
The river had not reached its flood-mark of last 
year (which was rather high) by about 3 feet, 
and it had now descended about 4 feet ; still, it 
ran with a swift current. I had nine Indians (eight 
Uaupes and my own Tapuya), yet when we reached 
the foot of the caxoeira of Sao Miguel at i p.m., I 
found them insufficient to pass it. I was therefore 
obliged to cross the river in my uba (small canoe) 
to two sitios in search of aid. It was night when I 
reached the more distant of these, and I remained 
there till break of day, but I succeeded in obtaining 
seven men additional for the day's work. With 
the aid of these, and with immense labour, we 
passed Sao Miguel, and I persuaded four of them 
to go on with me to Sao Joaquin, at the mouth of 
the Uaupes. With this large crew it took us five 
days to surmount all the caxoeiras, and we passed 
our fifth night a little below Sao Joaquin, where 
we arrived by daybreak the following morning. 
We had to completely unload the canoe in order 
to get up two of the caxoeiras. . . . 
We did not reach Panure until nearly midnight 
of Tuesday, the 7th of September, making the 
whole voyage consist of eighteen days, whereas in 
a montaria it can be accomplished in seven. I, 
however, profited well of the last thirteen days, and 
made a very fine collection. The weather was 
tolerable for the Rio Negro, though we had some 
tremendous thunderstorms. 
[There is here a gap in the Journal for more 
than six weeks, to the time when Spruce went 
on a short journey up the river to the Jauarite 
caxoeira; but his time was too fully occupied in 
