374 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
But there is no calculating here as to when a 
person will start on a voyage, or when he will 
arrive at his destination. Just at that time we 
were in a sort of interregnum here. The Comi- 
sario of San Carlos was displaced and another 
person who lives some way up the Guainia nomin- 
ated to succeed him. The latter declined the 
honour, and many weeks were taken up in corre- 
spondence with the Comisario General, who lives 
at San Fernando. The Indians, finding there was 
no one to control them, betook themselves to their 
cuniicos,^ and for at least three weeks the pueblo 
was quite deserted. During this time I might 
easily have died of hunger, for the forests near 
San Carlos are quite exhausted of game, but I had 
fortunately received a short time before the salted 
flesh of an ox which I sent for to the cataracts 
of Maypures, and I had brought up with me from 
Brazil a considerable quantity of rice and mandi- 
occa. You know, I daresay, how flesh is cured 
in the tropics — it is cut up into thin strips and 
dried in the sun with very little salt on it, and 
when cured has much the appearance of leathern 
thongs — whether the latter would be so tough 
when boiled I cannot say, as I never tried them 
— however, such as it was it came very opportunely, 
and sufficed to keep the life in me. When I saw 
the Indians were packing off I applied to the 
caulkers, of whom there are five or six in the 
place, to caulk my piragoa, but though I offered 
them twice the pay they are accustomed to get, 
they refused to work, and I had no means of 
^ Cunuco { — sitio in Brazil) is the name given to the plantations of mandi- 
occa, which are generally on the banks of some stream deep in the forest. 
