Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/16

 greater part of my collections and sketches, were lost by the burning of the ship on my homeward voyage. From the fragmentary notes and papers which I have 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 History of the Amazon.

In conclusion, I trust that the great loss of materials which I have suffered, and which every naturalist and traveller will fully appreciate, may be taken into consideration, 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 expected from a four years' residence in such an interesting and little-known country.

, October, 1853.

HIS issue is substantially a reprint of the original work, but the proof sheets have been carefully revised and many verbal corrections made. A few notes have been added, and English names have in many cases been substituted for the local terms which were used too freely in the first edition. The only omissions are the vocabularies of Indian languages and Dr. Latham's observations on them, which were thought to be unsuitable to the general reader. The publishers have supplied a few additional woodcuts which give a fair idea of Amazonian scenery.

A. R. W.

, October, 1889.