DOWN THE RIO NEGRO 493 
tolda so as to point towards them. Then I went 
in again, satisfied that they would have noticed my 
movements, and would know that any attempt to 
unloose the montaria would lead to the death or 
serious wounding of some or all of them, as I could 
easily keep a watch on them from the cabin. At 
daybreak I found them all back on the rock where 
they had first lain down. 
On the evening of November 30 we reached the 
mouth of the Uaupes, where I was fortunate in 
meeting two old acquaintances, the traders Amansio 
and Amandio, the former making rubber, the latter 
collecting salsa. They lent me four men, with 
whom the next morning 1 continued my voyage. 
[Reaching Sao Gabriel on December 2, after an 
absence of more than two years, Spruce found the 
village somewhat improved in appearance. The 
church had been repaired and a school established 
under a "professor de primeras letras," w^ho had 
twenty-eight pupils (Indians and half-breeds). But 
in other respects there was no change — no industry, 
no cultivation — and the people were as usual com- 
plaining of'^passando muito fome" — being always 
in want of food. Here he was so fortunate as to find 
a negro mason who had been sent from Manaos to 
repair the church, and who begged a passage back, 
offering to take an oar when required. He was, 
Spruce says, a very decent, respectable man, and 
his company rendered the voyage a much less 
anxious one than it would otherwise have been, as 
the botanist could thereafter occasionally stray into 
the forest in search of plants without feeling un- 
certain whether his men would not have deserted 
