410 
EXCURSIONS BEYOND EGA. Chap. VI. 
still and brave it out. When the steamer ascended in 
January, 1858, Lieutenant Nunes was shocked to see 
me so much shattered, and recommended me strongly 
to return at once to Ega. I took his advice, and em- 
barked with him, when he touched at St. Paulo on his 
downward voyage, on the 2nd of February. I still 
hoped to be able to turn my face westward again, to 
gather the yet unseen treasures of the marvellous 
countries lying between Tabatinga and the slopes of the 
Andes ; but although, after a short rest in Ega, the 
ague left me, my general health remained in a state too 
weak to justify the undertaking of further journeys. 
At length I left Ega, on the 3rd of February, 1859, 
en route for England. 
I arrived at Para on the 17th of March, after an ab- 
sence in the interior of seven years and a half. My old 
friends, English, American, and Brazilian, scarcely knew 
me again, but all gave me a very warm welcome, espe- 
cially Mr. G. R. Brocklehurst (of the firm of R Single- 
hurst and Co., the chief foreign merchants, who had 
been my correspondents), who received me into his 
house, and treated me with the utmost kindness. I 
was rather surprised at the warm appreciation shown 
by many of the principal people of my labours ; but, in 
fact, the interior of the country is still the " sertao " 
(wilderness), — a terra incognita to most residents of the 
seaport, — and a man who had spent seven and a half 
years in exploring it solely with scientific aims was 
somewhat of a curiosity. I found Para greatly changed 
and improved. It was no longer the weedy, ruinous, 
village-looking place that it appeared when I first knew 
