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AMAZONIAN VEGETATION 347
TRANSLATION OF SANTANDER'S LETTER
[The letter begins :
To Ricardo Spruce
AM BATO, June 30, 1867.
"
My never forgotten
friend," and after two pages giving a full description
of the box of specimens (also asked for) he
has sent to Mr. H anbury, and his prospects of
getting
thus :]
the much -desired Canelo, he continues
I now pass on to my own affairs and those of
my family. I wrote to Inez (his eldest daughter)
with
most
your salutations, and she replies saluting you
affectionately. She says that her first little
boy already bears the name of Juan Elias, and
that she reserves the name of Ricardo for her
second. Her husband and her father-in-law (Don
Rafael Paz y Mino), who both know you, salute
you with many caresses. . . . As respects my
family, we are all here at your orders, truly desiring
to see you and embrace you, for even yet tears
accompany the memory of our absent friend.
Isabelito and Pachito (his younger children) are in
despair to see you and embrace you, and say :
" Oh that London was no farther off than Ambato
to Lligna, that we might go to Senor Ricardo !
But as an immense distance separates us, there is
no alternative but to console ourselves with v< nil-
letters. Isabel (his wife) is ready to complain that
she ever knew you, because she could not then
have felt your loss ; but consoles herself with tin-
hope that one clay you
will return to Ambato, stout,
healthy, and rich. This is what we all desire, and