“The scientific labors undertaken at this time by the learned and illustrious Professor Agassiz in this Province, merit from the Amazonenses the most sincere gratitude and acknowledgment, and elicit on our part a manifestation by which we seek to show due appreciation of his high intellectual merit. I wish that for this object I could dispose of more abundant resources, or that the Province had in readiness better means of showing the veneration and cordial esteem we all bear to him, the respect and admiration we feel for his scientific explorations. But the uncertainty of his stay among us obliges me to offer at once some proof, however insignificant, of our profound esteem for this most deserving American. “To this end, the accomplishment of which I cannot longer defer, I invite all to join me in offering to Professor Agassiz and to his wife, in the name of the Province of the Amazonas, a modest rural breakfast (_almoço campestre_) in the Casa dos Educandos, on Sunday, the 18th of this month, at 11 o’clock in the morning. I hereby invite you and your family to be present, in order that this festival, great in the earnestness of our intentions, however small as compared with the importance of those to whom it is offered, should be gay and brilliant. “ANTONIO EPAMINONDAS DE MELLO. “_Palace of the Government at Manaos, 13 November, 1865._” Footnote 83: As I do not wish to mislead, and this narrative may perhaps influence some one to make a journey in this region, I should add, that, while the above is strictly true, there are many things essential to the comfort of the traveller not to be had. There is not a decent hotel throughout the whole length of the Amazons, and any one who thinks of travelling there must provide himself with such letters as will secure accommodation in private houses. So recommended, he may safely depend upon hospitality, or upon such assistance from individuals as will enable him to find a private lodging. Footnote 84: Much of what follows upon social abuses, tyranny of the local police, prison discipline, &c., though not quoted in his own words, has been gathered from conversations with Mr. Agassiz, or from discussions between him and his Brazilian friends. The way in which this volume has grown up, being as it were the result of a double experience, makes it occasionally difficult to draw the exact line marking the boundaries of authorship; the division being indeed somewhat vague in the minds of the writers themselves. But since criticisms of this sort would have little value, except as based upon larger opportunities for observation than fell to my share, I am the more anxious to refer them, wherever I can, to their right source. Footnote 85: