378 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
me forty dollars. If I have no more work for him 
when I return to San Carlos, then I must try to 
"sell him," which is quite another thing, for no 
one here has any money ; and if I receive piassaba 
and boards (which is all they have to offer), then 
I must build a boat to carry them down to the 
Barra and sell them, which will perhaps be a 
worse speculation than losing the money. . . . 
The first notice we had at San Carlos of who was 
the new president of Venezuela came in an English 
Times which reached me by way of the Amazon. 
[The following is the last entry in the Journal 
before leaving San Carlos for the Casiquiari :— ] 
Nov. 4, 1853. — This was the feast of San Carlo 
Borromeo, the patron saint of the church and 
village. 
For many previous nights, and throughout the 
feast day and night, most of the Indians passed the 
time in dancing and drinking, and when morning 
broke on the 5th, not a few were quite helpless. 
At about 8 A.M. I was called on to visit an Indian 
called Maestro Conde who was said to be dying. 
He was the best carpenter in the place, and I had 
had him engaged for two months in making the 
carroza or cabin of my canoe, a task he had only 
just finished when the festivities began. 
I found him in his hammock — senseless and 
speechless — his eyes and mouth firmly closed, 
breathing stertorously and with scarcely any pulse 
at the wrists ; his face bloated. In this state he 
had been all night. I had him moved to near the 
door for more air, and with the help of two men 
raised him up, and with much difficulty forced his 
mouth open, and gave him hartshorn and water in 
