Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

1 76 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAT.
wish to be deserted by the Indians. ... At length
we reached the cataracts of the Topo, which have to
be crossed by throwing over them four bamboo
bridges from one side to rocks in the middle and
thence to the opposite side. As far as we could
see up and down it, it was one mass of foam,
with here and there black rocks standing out, and
so much swollen that one of the rocks used as a
support for the bridges was completely under
water. Here we waited two days and nights in the
vain expectation of seeing the waters subside ;
and finding ourselves on the point to perish of
hunger, we with great risk threw bridges across
at a place some way higher up. One of the middle
that the
bridges was so long (at least 40 feet),
three slender bamboos of which it consisted almost
broke under the weight of a man, even unloaded,
and it was found impossible to get my boxes across.
I crossed myself and got over my bed and a change
of clothes, and the last of my party had scarcely
got over when the waters rose and swept the
bridge away. In three days more we reached
Banos, and my first care was to seek out and pay
fresh cargueros to fetch my baggage from the
Topo. Eleven days they waited ere the river
went down, and twice I had to send them out
had been left
supplies of provisions. My goods
under a rucle rancho, thatched with Anthurium
when
leaves (for there were no ; palms near)
the men found them the leaves had fallen
but
on them
and there rotted ; the leather covering of the
trunks was half rotten and full of maggots ;
yet
fortunately the contents were very slightly injured.
You can perhaps fancy my sorrowful position in