IATED HIS NAME WITH OUR SOUTHERN CONTINENT,
THESE SKETCHES OF THE ANDES AND THE AMAZON ARE, BY PERMISSION,
MOST RESPECTFULLY
Dedicated.

* * * * *

"Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none
exceed in sublimity the primeval forests undefaced by the hand of
man; whether those of Brazil, where the powers of Life are
predominant, or those of Terra del Fuego, where Death and Decay
prevail. Both are temples filled with the varied productions of the
God of Nature: no one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, and not
feel that there is more in man than the mere breath of his
body."--DARWIN'S _Journal_, p. 503.

PREFACE.

This volume is one result of a scientific expedition to the equatorial
Andes and the river Amazon. The expedition was made under the auspices
of the Smithsonian Institution, and consisted of the following gentlemen
besides the writer: Colonel Staunton, of Ingham University, Leroy, N.Y.;
F.S. Williams, Esq., of Albany, N.Y.; and Messrs. P.V. Myers and A.
Bushnell, of Williams College. We sailed from New York July 1, 1867;
and, after crossing the Isthmus of Panama and touching at Paita, Peru,
our general route was from Guayaquil to Quito, over the Eastern
Cordillera; thence over the Western Cordillera, and through the forest
on foot to Napo; down the Rio Napo by canoe to Pebas, on the Maranon;
and thence by steamer to Para.[1]

[Footnote 1: Another division, consisting of Messrs. H.M. Myers, R.H.
Forbes, and W. Gilbert, of Williams College, proceeded to Venezuela, and
after exploring the vicinity of Lake Valencia, the two former traversed
the Ilanos to Pao, descended the Apure and ascended the Orinoco to
Yavita, crossed the portage of Pimichin (a low, level tract, nine miles
wide, separating the waters of the Orinoco from those of the Amazon),
and descended the Negro to Manaos, making a voyage by canoe of over 2000
miles through a little-known but deeply-interesting region. A narrative
of this expedition will soon be given to the public.]

Nearly the entire region traversed by the expedition is strangely
misrepresented by the most recent geographical works. On the Andes of
Ecuador we have little besides the travels of Humboldt; on the Napo,
nothing; while the Maranon is less known to North Americans than the
Nile.

Many of the following pages first appeared in