WCP6665

[1]

Barra do Rio Negro.

31. Dec / 1850.

My dear Sir William,

We did not reach here until the 10th of this month — weak, emaciated & almost despairing — our voyage having been protracted to 63 days! The good fare of the Barra¹ & especially the sights of a new vegetation have much revived me, but we are in the midst of such wretched weather as to render it difficult to collect and preserve what we have within reach. It is absurd for a man who wants to dry plants to travel about in these wretched canoes during the rainy season, & I accordingly consider myself a fixture until July, when I shall probably get as far as I can up the R[io]. Negro, unless I hear something from you to induce me to change my route. I am indeed anxious about your long silence (if indeed some letter from you have not miscarried) for I have no answer to any letter of mine written after leaving Pará². I know not yet if a barrel I sent you as long ago as in Nov^r 1849, cont[aining]^g leaves, &c. of Victoria³, has ever reached you; nor do I yet know whether Mr. Pince⁴ has got a barrel of Orchises bought from the R[io]. Trombétas⁵ which I sent him nearly a year ago. I was glad to find here a note from Mr. Bentham⁶, acknowledging receipt of the two first cases of dried plants I sent from Santarem [Santarém]⁷. — You must look after Singlehurst's⁸ charges for he seems to be imposing on us enormously. For these two boxes to Mr. Bentham he has charged £. 3-6-3, while Mr. Yates⁹ tells me that he never paid Singlehurst more than 7 shillings a box, whether a glazed-case to go on deck or a packing-case to go below, and by other ships not more than 5s[hillings].! Freight down the Amazon is very expensive — at Sant[are]^m I paid 4 milreis a case, wh[ic]^h at the present rate of exchange (28d.) is 9^s./4.

Enclosed you have an abrégé [French: abridged] of my Journal from Sant[are]^m to the Barra¹⁰. The next time I write I hope to have more to say about plants.

The Amazon all the way up is sadly destitute of Orchises, but here I have been glad to find 3 or 4 — one a fine Cattleya with purple fl[ower]^s and nearly orbicular l[eave]^s, wh[ic]^h I do not remember in England. I have some idea that Martius¹¹ formed a "Cattleya superba" in the prov[ince]. of Pará wh[ic]^h may be this one. The other day I made an excursion up a neighbouring igarapé¹² in a montaria¹³, with 3 lads to climb the trees, & procured a quantity of the Cattleya. I am just about to dispatch a large barrel-full of it to Mr. Pince (for I am anxious to get out of his debt) and I hope to send you shortly some of the same, & of the other Orchises new to me wh[ic]^h I have seen.

I was fortunate in finding so many & such good climbers — at Santarem a lad c[oul]^d not be induced to go up a tree by the offer of any amount of money — [2] but there is just the same scarcity of men to man a boat here as at Santarem & Mr. Williams¹⁴, who lately went up the Solimo˜es¹⁵ a-trading, had to wait 3 months for a crew.

I have got two plant-cases here, & I hope I shall be able to fill them with good things for I am better situated than at Santarem. A large vessel of Senhor Henrique's¹⁶ goes to Pará about the end of March, & I shall try to send them by that conveyance. Here I shall find some work in palms, & possibly among the smaller ones there are some new species to be found.

Among Edwards'¹⁷ many fibs, his speaking of the abundance of ferns at the Barra is one of the most audacious. It is only very few days ago that we found the first, viz. and we have since met with a single other fern, also a Trichomanes, & one previously gathered; and we have now been on every road in the neighbourhood of the Barra.

Will you kindly send me as soon as you have opportunity half-a-dozen copies of your "Guide to Kew Gardens"¹⁸? — I shall of course be very glad to pay for them, & they will be as useful as anything for presents to the people I meet with, as I have all sorts of enquiries made me respecting the "Jardims Reáes [sic] de Londres" [Portuguese: London Royal Gardens] & especially as to the destination of the articles of native manufacture I am picking up. Any drawings illustrative of the great exhibition to take place this year, if not too expensive, will be an excellent accompaniment to the "Guides".

I hope the Aneroid Barometer has not been forgotten. I am ashamed to trouble you in this way, knowing how valuable your time is, but there is no one in London who I know that I c[oul]^d safely commission, except Mr. Wilson Saunders¹⁹, and him I am ashamed to ask, for I have hitherto done nothing for him, although extremely desirous, both for his sake & my own. The first succulent plants I have met with such as w[oul]^d be likely to suit him, are two Gesnereae[?] allied to Drymonia, growing in the ^trees woods here.

Believe me | Dear Sir William | Ever respectfully yours | Rich^d Spruce [signature]

Mr Yates arrived at the Barra shortly after ourselves. Wallace is at Gui [Nossa Senhora da Guia]²⁰ near the Venezuelan frontier, Bates²¹ at Ega [Tefé], & Hauxwell²² on a tributary of the Rio Negro not far from Sant' Isabel²³.