Excerpt from Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes, Vol. 1 of 2: Being Records of Travel on the Amazon and Its Tributaries, the Trombetas, Rio Negro, Uaupes, Casiquiari, Pacimoni, Huallaga, and Pastasa; As Also to the Cataracts of the Orinoco, Along the Eastern Side of the Andes of Peru and Ecuador IT was Dr. Spruce's intention to leave all his manuscripts and notes to Mr. Daniel Hanbury, as stated in one of his letters to that gentleman; but the unexpected death of his friend, and his own Occupations together with his continuous ill-health, led him, apparently, to give up all expectation of his Journals being published. He knew that I. Was fully occupied with work of my own, and probably did not like to ask me to undertake so great a task; especially as he was quite aware that much of his writings were of a fragmentary nature, and so full of contractions as to be some times, in his own words, hieroglyphic, and that it would be impossible for any one but himself to properly combine and fully utilise them. Shortly after Spruce's death, I Offered to do what I could to put together a narrative of his travels from his Journals and letters, if, on examina tion of the materials, it seemed possible to do so. His executor, Mr. M. B. Slater, was anxious that I should undertake the duties of a literary executor; but, partly owing to both of us being fully occupied with our own affairs, it was only after a delay of eleven years that I was able to begin the preparation of the present volumes. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.