i 
iv PREFACE. 
have entered upon, and to cause me to look forward 
with pleasure to again visiting the wild and luxuriant 
scenery and the sparkling life of the tropics. 
In the following pages I have given a narrative of my 
journeys and of the impressions excited at the time. 
The first and last portions are from my journals, with 
little alteration ; but all the notes made during two years, 
with the greater part of my collections and sketches, 
were lost by the burning of the ship on my homeward 
voyage. Tjom the fragmentary notes and papers which 
I saved I have written the intermediate portion, and the 
four last chapters on the Natural History of the country 
and on the Indian tribes, which, had I saved all my 
materials, were intended to form a separate work on the 
Physical tiistory of the Amazon. 
Several vocabularies of Indian languages, wdth some 
remarks on them kindly furnished me by Dr. R. G. 
Latham, will be found in an iVppendix. 
In conclusion, I trust that the great loss of materials 
which I have suffered^ and which every naturalist and 
traveller wiU fully appreciate, may be taken into con- 
sideration, to explain the inequalities and imperfections 
of the narrative, and the meagreness of the other part of 
the work, so little proportionate to what might be ex- 
pected from a four years’ residence in such an interest- 
ing and little-known country. 
London^ Octohe}\ 1853 . 
