HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE HERBARIUM. 
63 
‘Caatingas,’ which occur here and there all the way to the Orinoco and up the 
Rio Uauopes, almost to Sta Fe de Bogota. I have now three boats, one a large 
one which cost me in the Barra about /30, and has a large cabin where 1 can 
stow all my goods, and work at my ease, this for the long voyages. I have 
besides, two montarias (as we call boats hollowed out of a single trunk), one 
large enough to admit 8 oars on occasion, and carry a good deal of baggage ; 
the other a small fishing boat, which will only carry two people. I mentioned 
that I had 6 Indians to bring me up from Barra, but to ascend the falls of Sao 
Gabriel, which took me three days, I had 11 men at work. In the Pyrenees I 
used to revel in the Cascades, and think them most lovely things, but depend 
upon it, it is horrid work going up or down them in a boat. I cannot go on an 
excursion by water from Sao Gabriel without being in the midst of rapids and 
falls, the roar of which is ever in my ear. If it is a thing to be bragged of, I can 
say that I often cross the Equator twice a day, which is more than most people 
can say. 
“ The scenery around Sao Gabriel is decidedly the finest I have seen in South 
America. On all sides are abrupt and picturesque serras, huge masses of granite 
rising at once out of the plain, and clad with dense forest, save on their perpen¬ 
dicular escarpments. The Serras of Curicuriari, below the great falls, cannot be 
less than 4,000 feet high. Looking up the river are the Serras de Gama, perhaps 
not half so high, yet still showing bold peaks. North and South are the lower 
backed serras, one of which I have ascended. No one has ever ascended the 
loftier serras, not even the Indians. Their bases are still strewn with huge 
masses of granite, so thickly overgrown with forest and so twined about with 
lianas, that to pass them is scarcely possible. I have much more to tell you that 
you might find interesting, but the limit of a letter will not allow. I hope to 
write again when I hear from you, which will I trust be soon. 
Tell me how you come on, what additions have been made to the garden 
and museum, what novelties have been added to the Flora of Yorkshire, how 
our botanical friends, Moore, Ibbotson and Backhouse are spending their time, 
and a great deal more. Remember me to Mr. Cook. Tell him he must not 
come here to see clear skies. The climate is too humid for that. It was a great 
pleasure to me to see the Southern constellations rise to view, one by one, as I 
crossed the Atlantic, but as to the brilliancy of the tout ensemble. I have not seen 
anything to beat a Yorkshire sky on a frosty night. He would have been amused 
had he been with me at the time of the total eclipse of the moon in January. I 
was ascending the Rio Negro, and was staying the night off a small village a few 
days journey from Sao Gabriel, when about midnight I was awoke by the 
screaming of women, the beating of tambourines, and the firing of muskets. I 
thought at first that these unwonted sounds in the dead of night must be caused 
by an irruption of Macus (a naked and barbarous race of Indians, frequent 
in these forests which sometimes murder the settlers and eat them, and lay 
waste the rocas), but I soon found that Madam Luna was at the bottom of the 
uproar. They fancied she was ‘cutting ’ it altogether, and these demonstrations 
were intended to recall her. I told them such treatment was better calculated 
to frighten the poor creature away, but they took no heed to my counsel, but 
drummed and cracked away, until the moon showed a clear face again. 
“Remember me very kindly to Mrs. Baines and to your daughters. 
“ Ever your faithful friend, 
‘‘Richard Spruce. 
“ March 20th.— Until now, I have had no opportunity of despatching this 
letter. When the last courier started for the Barra, I was on the top of the 
Serra de Gama (mentioned above). It cost me about a week to effect this, but 
