Barra do Rio Negro,
17. Sept. 1851.
Mr dear Sir William /
Though I am not yet quite ready for starting up the Rio Negro, I avail myself of a good opportunity for sending to Pará1 a box containing a few things for your Museum2. I have paid the carriage hence to Para (5 milreis3) — I paid also the carriage of 4 boxes sent to you above 3 months ago, Miller4 having neglected to charge it on as I desired him; it amounted to 16 milreis. I am therefore your creditor for 21 milreis or £.2~9~10½ (at the present rate of Exchange 28½ d.). — The contents of this case should be worth £.7~0~0.
If the articles be taken out of the box very gently, most of the palm-fruit will stick on. I am glad to have a Lepidocaryum to send you — I suppose that I & Martius5 are the only persons who have seen this genus in its living state. But my plant does not agree perfectly with either of Martius's species. — It is a very handsome thing & I have no doubt would flower and fruit well in your conservatory6. — I do not intend sending any more living plants until I hear from you whether the case of palms &c. last be sent has arrived in good condition. Should the plants be all dead when they reach you then I shall defer until my return to England putting up any more living plants. — There are several things that would be interesting to your Museum, which on account of their bulk & the expense if inland carriage must remain until my return. Such are a complete set of the instruments used in preparing Indian-rubber & those used in making farinha [cassava meal].
We have lately had in the Barra7 a negociant [French: trader] from Thomo8 [sic] on the upper Rio Negro, beyond the Venezuelan frontier, who brought with him the most splendid hammocks I ever saw — the material Tucum9 & Curaná10, but of the most delicate texture, & ornamented with the feathers of the Gallo de Serra11 & other beautiful birds. The prices, however, were enormous — 80 to 100 milreis here in the Barra (£10~13~9 to £11~17~6) — yet they were speedily bought up. I should have much liked to send you one, and there was one among them really worth sending to Queen Victoria, but the money is worth more to me now than twice that amount would be a year hence. — As I expect to visit Thomo [sic] I may possibly get a hammock there for rather less money than I could here. — I send two Tucúm hammocks which I purchased of Mr. Williams12, who has lately been up the Solimo˜es13 as far as the mouth of the Ucayali14.
The "Samaüma" cotton15 now sent is from a tree quite distinct from the one I sketched on the Paraná-mirí dos Ramos16. I believe now there are 3 species of Eriodendron, & that Martius was in error in supposing that the white cotton was produced by a tree of immense size.
[2] I send seeds of Paricá17 — celebrated throughout the upper Amazon. I w[oul]d have sent the snuff, but a man who has some of it asks a most extravagant price. I will not however forget it, & I hope to get for you also a Snuff-pipe & a Clyster-pipe.
I am glad to be able to send you the sipó [Tupi: twining stem] used in wrapping the Gravatanas (blowing-canes) — it is the root of an Aroideous plant.
We have news from Pará of the loss of the Princess Victoria in entering the Rio Pará — I fear therefore my box with the jars & the paper &c. has gone to the bottom; but I have not received any account from Miller as yet.
It is nearly a year & a half since the death of the English Consul18 in Para, & we have no one to supply his place. This is a great drawback to me as I have no letters to the authorities at the Barra or elsewhere on the Rio Negro, & consequently I cannot apply to them for men. I propose to make Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira19 my first stopping-place on the river, & by Henrique's20 advice I have sent there for men, whom I am now daily expecting. The Indians here have such a dread of the Rio Negro that there is no inducing them to go up it by fair means; especially when they have always the chance of going to Pará. It would be like sending a Scotchman to the Orkneys when he has the chance of going to London.
I have gone about a good deal since my last letter, but I have no time to make out my Journal. I was about 3 weeks up the Solimo˜es, & I have been twice staying at the junction of the Rio Negro & Solimo˜es, which has proved a rich botanical station. My collection, made alone, is quite equal to what two of us made last year at Santarem [Santarém]21, in the same months — in point of novelty I have no doubt it is much superior. — I had some thoughts when King22 left me of going down the Pará to get an assistant, for there are no free men of color here glad of a job as there are in Pará, & perhaps I should have done well if I had so done. The Indians do pretty well for me in the field, & I know now pretty well how to manage them, but an Indian would die if he were to be shut up in the house fumbling among papers. It is truly a wretched country this, for getting anything done & for moving from place to place. Bates23 & Wallace tell me they have often been almost driven to despair.
I do not close my cases to Mr. Bentham24 until I am ready to start up the Rio Negro.
I see there are Illustrated Catalogues of the Great Exhibition25 published in French & German — will you be kind enough to send me a copy of the French Catalogue26 as part payment of the things I send for your Museum. I wish it for Sen[io]r Henrique, to whom it will be very interesting, & he reads French but not English.
Believe me | Dear Sir William | Ever respectf[ull]y yours | Richd Spruce. [signature]
Sir W[illiam]. J[ackson]. Hooker
[3] Will you be kind enough to pass the few things over to the British Museum?
I wrote to ask you to send me some lenses & other things when I was at Santarem, but as the letter w[oul]d reach you when ill I dare say it was overlooked, & I have since given the commission to Mr Bentham. I hope to hear of your perfect restoration to health.
I wish Lord Palmerston27 would make me Consul at Pará — I fancy there w[oul]d be no difficulty in discharging the duties, & at the same time doing a great deal for science. I hope at least we shall soon have a Consul of some sort or other — they take great liberties with us foreigners here in the Sertaõ [Portuguese: backlands] — shortly after reaching the Barra, I was severely & most unjustly fined — & a short time previously Messrs Bradley28 & Williams, & the younger Wallace29 had been thrown into prison.
R.S. [signature]
[4]Sir W[illiam]. Jackson Hooker30 K. H.
Royal Gardens
Kew
London.
Rio Negro31
Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Lettersheet (WCP6664.7714)]
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Please cite as “WCP6664,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6664