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348 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
rather fully described in several letters which must 
be here introduced. 
In a letter to Mr. Bentham (June 25, 1853), 
Spruce writes : " I left Sao Jeronymo on the Rio 
Uaupes in March, and for above a month afterwards 
literally found no rest for the sole of my foot. 
Since April 11, when I reached San Carlos, until 
the present date my time has been taken up in 
procuring materials for a miserable existence. I 
write now under most unpleasant circumstances, 
and God only knows whether I shall live to close 
this letter." The circumstances here referred to 
are much more fully described in a letter written a 
week later to his friend Teasdale, which takes up 
the story as follows : — ] 
To Mr, John Teasdale 
San Carlos, Venezuela, i, 1853. 
. . . The only other foreigners in San Carlos 
besides myself are two Portuguese young men, but 
established here for some years and having families. 
The Venezuelans, like the Brazilians, have a great 
dislike to Europeans settling among them, know- 
ing the greater industry of the latter, and that con- 
sequently they get the better part of the trade into 
their hands. The native racionales (whites) have 
for a long time back, as it would seem, given occa- 
sional pretty broad hints to the Indians as to the 
desirableness of getting rid of the Portuguese, the 
said racionales (Spaniards) being, by the by, not any 
of them popular with the Indians, and by no means 
secure of their own skins should the Indians once 
draw the blood of any white. For some time 
