Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/158

 133 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [August, 1850.

One of his companions would then tickle his nose, and rouse him up, and his look of astonishment to find he had been sleeping would set all in a roar of laughter at his expense. It was midnight when we reached Barra, and we were all pretty glad to seek our hammocks.

Several weeks more passed wearily, till at length we had news of the long-expected canoe ; one of the owners, having arrived beforehand in a montaria, informing us that it would be up in two days more. There was at this time in the city a trader from the upper Rio Negro, a Portuguese, and generally considered a very good sort of fellow. He was to start the next day, but on Senhor Henrique's representation, he agreed to stay till Senhor Neill Bradley's canoe arrived, and then give me a passage up to the Falls of the Rio Negro, or to any other place I might wish to go to. The next afternoon the expected vessel reached Barra ; about six in the evening I got a long arrear of letters from Para, from England, from California, and Australia, some twenty in number, and several dated more than a year back. I sat up till two in the morning reading them, lay down, but slept little till five in the morning ; I then com- menced answering the most important of them, — packing up — buying forgotten necessaries for the voyage— making up a box for England — giving instructions to my brother H., who was to stay in Barra, and, in six months, return to England, — and by noon was ready to start on a voyage of seven hundred miles, and, probably, for a year's absence. The Juiz de Direito, or Judge of the district, had kindly sent me a turkey and a sucking-pig ; the former of which I took alive, and the latter roasted ; so I had a stock of provisions to commence the voyage.