"The Province of the Orient," or the Wild Napo Country.--The Napos,
Zaparos, and Jívaros Indians.--Preparations to cross the Continent.
On the eastern slope of the Ecuadorian Andes, between the Marañon and
its tributary the Putumayo, lies the Napo country. This almost unknown
region has the area of New York and New England together. The government
of Quito, by a sonorous decree in 1854, baptized it "La Provincia del
Oriente." Peru likewise claims it, but neither republic has done any
thing to colonize it. A dense primeval forest, broken only by the
rivers, covers the whole territory, and is the home of wild races
untouched by civilization.[97] There is not a road in the whole
province. A footpath, open only in the dry season, and barely passable
then, connects Quito and the Rio Napo. Congress lately promised to put
Canélos in communication with the capital; but the largest villages in
this vast and fertile region--Archidona, Canélos, and Macás--still
remain isolated from the outer world.[98] Ecuador once appointed a
functionary under the high-sounding title of "Governor of the Orient,"
with a salary of $700; but now the Indians are not troubled with any
higher official than an alcalde.
[Footnote 97: The boundary-line between Ecuador and Peru is about as
indefinite as the eastern limit of Bolivia, Brazilians claiming "as far
west as the cattle of the empire roam."]
[Footnote 98: Quito might be made more accessible on the Atlantic than
on the Pacific side. But Ecuadorians dote on Guayaquil, and refuse to
connect themselves directly with the great nations of the East. We
believe there is a glorious future for Quito, when it will once more
become a city of palaces. But it will not come until a road through the
wilderness and a steamer on the Napo open a short communication with the
wealth of Amazonia and the enterprise of Europe.]
The country is very thinly inhabited. The chief tribes are the
semi-Christianized Napos (sometimes called Quijos), dwelling on the
north bank of the Napo; the peaceful but uncivilized Zaparos, living
between the Napo and Pastassa, and the warlike Jívaros, spread over the
unexplored region between the Pastassa and Santiago.
These oriental tribes would probably be assigned by D'Orbigny to the
Antisian branch of the Alpine races of South America. Dwelling amid the
darkness of primeval forests, and on the gloomy banks of mountain
torrents, they have acquired modifications of character, physical and
moral, which distinguish them from the natives of the high and open
regions, or the steaming lowlands of the Amazon. In color, however, they
do not appear to us to be entitled to the name of "white men;" they
approach nearer to the bronze complexion of the Quichuans than the
yellow cast of the Brazilians. We see no evidence of that "bleaching
process" resulting from a life under the dense canopy of foliage of
which the learned French naturalist speaks, neither did we perceive the
force of his statement that the color of the South American bears a very
decided relation to the humidity of the atmosphere.
The features of the Napo Indians are Quichuan, especially the low
forehead, squarely-built face, and dull expression; but in stature they
exceed the mountaineers. From a skull in our possession we take the
following measurements, adding for comparison the dimensions of an
ancient Peruvian cranium in Dr. Morton's collection:
Napo. Peruvian.
Longitudinal diameter 6-1/2 in. 6.1 in.
Parietal " 5-3/8 " 6. "
Frontal " 4 " 4.7 "
Vertical " 4-1/2 " 5.5 "
Capacity 83-1/64 cub. in. 83 cub. in.
Facial angle 70° 81°
From this it will be seen that the capacity of this individual Napo is 8
cubic inches greater than the average bulk (75 cubic inches) of the old
Peruvians; a trifle less than the average North American (84); 10 cubic
inches less than the European (94); and the same as the average
Polynesian and native African. He has a rounded head, somewhat prominent
vertex, not an excessive protuberance of brain behind--a line through
the meatus dividing it into very nearly equal parts; but a narrow front
as viewed from above, small vertical diameter, quadrangular orbits,
vertical teeth, and low facial angle. These characters place him between
the Toltecan and the more barbarous tribes of the New World.
The Napos are nominally subject to the Ecuadorian government, which is
represented by three or four petty alcaldes; but the Jesuit
missionaries, who have established a bishopric and three curacies,
generally control affairs--spiritual, political, and commercial. The
Indians of each village annually elect one of their number governor, who
serves without salary, and whose only show of authority is a
silver-headed cane about four feet long. He is attended by half a dozen
"justices," whose duty it is to supply the curate, alcalde, and any
traveling _blanco_ who may happen to be in town with daily food at a
reasonable rate.
The religion of the Napos is a mixture of Paganism and Christianity. In
common with all the other orient tribes, they believe in good and evil
principles, and in metempsychosis. They swear in the name of the devil.
They bury their dead horizontally, in a coffin made of a part of a
canoe, with a lid of bamboo. They are very kind to the aged. Monogamy is
the rule: the usual age of wedlock is sixteen or seventeen. The parents
negotiate the marriage, and the curate's fee is one castellano ($3.50).
When a person dies they hold an Irish "wake" over the body, and then
take the widow to the river and wash her. They have seven semi-religious
feasts in a year. To us they appeared to be nothing more than
meaningless drunken frolics. Attired in their best, with head-dresses
consisting of a circlet of short, richly-colored feathers from the
breast of the toucan, surmounted with the long tail-feathers of the
macaw, and with necklaces of beads, seeds, and monkeys' teeth, they keep
up a constant monotonous tapping on little drums, and trot around a
circle like dogs on a treadmill, stopping only to drink chicha. This is
kept up for three weeks, when they all start off, with wives and
children, for the forest to hunt monkeys for meat.
Chicha, the favorite drink of all the Andean Indians, is here brewed
from yuca, not from corn and barley as in the Quito Valley. So true is
it, as Humboldt remarks, that almost every where man finds means of
preparing some kind of beverage from the vegetable kingdom. The
Chilotans, Darwin informs us, make chicha from a species of _Bromelia_.
In every zone, too, we find nations in a low degree of civilization
living almost exclusively upon a single animal or plant. Thus the
Laplander has his reindeer, the Esquimaux his seal, the Sandwich
Islander his tara-root, the Malay his sago-palm, the Napo Indian his
yuca.
Yuca is the staple food in this region. It is more commonly roasted, but
is sometimes ground into flour. The manufacture of chicha is primitive,
and not a little disgusting. A "bee," usually old women, sit around a
wooden trough; each one takes a mouthful of yuca root, and, masticating
it, throws it into the trough. The mass is then transferred to large
earthen jars containing water, and left to ferment. The liquor is
slightly acid, but not intoxicating unless taken in excess. This is done
on feast-days, when the poor Indian keeps his stomach so constantly
distended for weeks that the abdominal protrusion is not only
unsightly, but alarming to a stranger. Chicha-drinking is a part of the
worship of these simple aborigines. They seem to think that the more
happy they make themselves while paying their devotions to the Creator,
the better he is satisfied. The Jesuits have found it impossible to
change this method of praise. Here, as among all rude nations, an
ancient custom is one half the religion. In eating meat (usually monkey,
sea-cow, and peccari), we observed that they did not tear or bite it,
but, putting one end of a long piece in the mouth, cut off what they
could not get in, as Darwin noticed among the Fuegians. They keep no
domestic animals except fowls.
As to dress, they make use of a coarse cotton cloth, called _lienzo_,
woven by the more enlightened Indians of Quito, dyeing it a dull brown
by means of achote juice. The men wear a strip of this around the loins,
and the women a short skirt. On feast-days, or when musquitoes are
thick, the men add a little poncho and pantaloons. They do not properly
tattoo, but color the skin with achote or anatto. This substance, which
serves so many purposes in this part of the world, is the red powder
which covers the seeds contained in the prickly bur of the _Bixa
orellana_. The pigment is an article of commerce on the Amazon, and is
exported to Europe, where it is used for coloring butter, cheese, and
varnish. They have no fixed pattern; each paints to suit his fancy.
Usually, however, they draw horizontal bands from the month to the ears,
and across the forehead; we never saw curved lines in which higher
savages, like the Tahitians, tattoo.
The Napos have the provoking apathy of all the New World aborigines. As
Humboldt observed of another tribe, "their poverty, stoicism, and
uncultivated state render them so rich and so free from wants of every
kind, that neither money nor other presents will induce them to turn
three steps out of their ways." They maintain a passive dignity in their
bearing not seen in the proudest pope or emperor. They seldom laugh or
smile, even under the inspiration of chicha, and months of intercourse
with them did not discover to us the power of song, though Villavicencio
says they do sometimes intone fragments of prose in their festival
orgies. They manifest little curiosity, and little power of mimicry, in
which wild men generally excel the civilized.[99] The old Spartans were
never so laconic. In conversation each says all he has to say in three
or four words till his companion speaks, when he replies in the same
curt, ejaculatory style. A long sentence, or a number of sentences at
one time, we do not remember of hearing from the lips of a Napo
Indian.[100]
[Footnote 99: All savages appear to possess to an uncommon degree the
power of mimicry.--_Darwin_.]
[Footnote 100: Gibbon observes of his Indian paddlers on the Marmoré:
"They talk very little; they silently pull along as though they were
sleeping, but their eyes are wandering all the time in every
direction."]
The women do most of the work, while their lazy lords drink up the
chicha and swing in their hammocks, or possibly do a little
hunting.[101] They catch fish with bone hooks, seines, spears, and by
poisoning the water with _barbasco_.[102] This last method is quite
common throughout equatorial America. Mashing the root, they throw it
into the quiet coves of the river, when almost immediately the fish rise
to the surface, first the little fry and then the larger specimens. The
poison seems to stupefy rather than kill, for we observed that some
individuals behaved in a most lively manner shortly after they were
caught. The Indians drink the water with impunity.
[Footnote 101: Some of these feminines, however, have a method of
retaliation which happily does not exist further north. They render
their husbands idiotic by giving them an infusion of _floripondio_, and
then choose another consort. We saw a sad example of this near Riobamba,
and heard of one husband who, after being thus treated, unconsciously
served his wife and her new man like a slave. _Floripondio_ is the seed
of the _Datura sanguinea_, which is allied to the poisonous _stramonium_
used by the priests of Apollo at Delphi to produce their frantic
ravings.]
[Footnote 102: _Jacquinia armillaris_, an evergreen bush. The Indians on
the Tapajos use a poisonous liana called _timbó_ (_Paullinia pinnata_).]
The Napos are not brave; their chief weapons for hunting are spears of
chonta wood, and blowpipes (_bodaqueras_) made of a small palm having a
pith, which, when removed, leaves a polished bore, or of two separate
lengths of wood, each scooped out with patient labor and considerable
skill by means of the incisor teeth of a rodent. The whole is smeared
with black wax, a mouth-piece fitted to the larger end, and a sight made
of bone imbedded in the wax. Through this tube, about ten feet long,
they blow slender arrows cut from the leaf-stalks of a palm. These are
winged with a tuft of silk-cotton (common cotton would be too heavy),
and poisoned with _urarí_, of which we shall speak hereafter. This
noiseless gun is universally used on the Upper Amazon.[103]
[Footnote 103: It is there called _zarabatana_ or _gravatana_; by the
Peruvians _pucuna_. It corresponds to the _sumpitan_ of Borneo. It is
difficult to recognize the use of the blow-gun, but the natives will
kill at the distance of 150 feet. One which we brought home sent the
slender arrow through the panel of a door.]
The Zaparos in physiognomy somewhat resemble the Chinese, having a
middle stature, round face, small eyes set angularly, and a broad, flat
nose. Their language is of simple construction, but nasal and guttural.
They have no words for numbers above three, but show their fingers;
above ten they know nothing. They take to themselves single names, not
double. They reckon time by moons and the ripening of certain fruits.
Their name for God is Piátzo, but we could not learn that it conveyed
any distinct idea. They believe the evil spirit, "Mungia," is a black
spectre dwelling in the woods. They think the souls of the good and
brave enter beautiful birds and feed on delicious fruits, while cowardly
souls become dirty reptiles. Polygamy is common. They bury in the
sitting posture, with the hammock of the deceased wrapped around him.
The very old men are buried with the mouth downward. They make use of a
narcotic drink called _Ayahuasca_, which produces effects similar to
those of opium. The Zaparos are pacific and hospitable, but there is
little social life among them; they never cluster into large villages,
but inhabit isolated ranchos. Nomadic in their habits, they wander along
the banks of the Napo, between the Andes and the Marañon. They
manufacture, from the twisted fibre of the chambiri-palm,[104] most of
the twine and hammocks seen in Eastern Ecuador. Their government is
patriarchal.
[Footnote 104: This thorny palm is called _tucum_ in Brazil. The fibres
of the budding top are used. A woman will twist a hundred yards of twine
a day, and make a living by selling hammocks for twenty-five cents a
piece.]
The Jívaros, or "Red Indians" _par excellence_, are the most numerous
and the most spirited of the oriental tribes. They are brave and
resentful, yet hospitable and industrious. While the Napos and Zaparos
live in rude, often temporary huts of split bamboo, the warlike Jívaros
erect houses of hard wood with strong doors. Blood relations live
together on the communal principle, the women keeping the rear half of
the house, which is divided by a partition. Many Jívaros approach the
Caucasian type, the beard and lighter skin hinting a percentage of
Spanish blood; for this tribe was never conquered by the Incas, nor did
it brook Spanish avarice and cruelty, but in one terrible conflict
(1599) the intruder was swept out of existence. The wives of the El
Dorado adventurers spent the rest of their days in the harems of the
Jívaros. These Indians have the singular custom and art of compressing
the heads of their notable captives; taking off the skin entire and
drying it over a small mould, they have a hideous mummy which preserves
all the features of the original face, but on a reduced scale."[105]
They also braid the long black hair of their foes into girdles, which
they wear as mementoes of their prowess. They use chonta-lances with
triangular points, notched and poisoned, and shields of wood or hide.
They have a telegraphic system which enables them to concentrate their
forces quickly in time of war; large drums are placed on the tops of the
hills, and a certain number of strokes, repeated along the line, rapidly
convey intelligence to the most distant habitation.
[Footnote 105: Bates (ii., 132) speaks of a similar custom among the
ancient Mundurucus: "They used to sever the head with knives made of
broad bamboo, and then, after taking out the brain and fleshy parts,
soak it in bitter vegetable oils, and expose it several days over the
smoke of a fire, or in the sun."]
An odd custom prevails among these wild Indians when an addition is made
to the family circle. The woman goes into the woods alone, and on her
return washes herself and new-born babe in the river; then the husband
immediately takes to his bed for eight days, during which time the wife
serves him on the choicest dainties she can procure.[106] They have also
the unique practice of exchanging wives. The Jívaro speech is sonorous
and energetic. They do not use salt; so that they distinguish the Napo
tribes as the "Indians who eat salt." The chief articles manufactured by
them are cotton goods and blowpipes. They trade mostly at Canélos and
Macás, generally purchasing iron implements, such as hatchets and
knives.
[Footnote 106: A like custom existed among some Brazilian and Guiana
tribes. It also prevailed to some extent among the ancient Cantabrians
and Corsicans, the Congos and Tartars, and in the Southern French
provinces.]
Canélos consists of about seventy families of Quichua-speaking Indians,
and lies on the south bank of the Bobonaza. A trail connects it with
Baños, at the foot of Tunguragua. Canélos was founded in 1536, and
derives its name from its situation in the Canéla, or American cinnamon
forest. The bark of the tree has the flavor of the Ceylon aromatic;
but, according to Dr. Taylor, it is cassia. Macás, in the days of
Spanish adventure a prosperous city under the name of "Sevilla de Oro,"
is now a cluster of huts on the banks of the Upano. Its trade is in
tobacco, vanilla, canela, wax, and copal. The Spaniards took the trouble
to transplant some genuine cinnamon-trees from Ceylon to this locality,
and they flourished for a time.
On the 30th of October we left Quito on our march across the continent,
by the way of the Napo wilderness. The preparations for our departure,
however, commenced long before that date. To leave Quito in any
direction is the work of time. But to plunge into that _terra incognita_
"el Oriente," where for weeks, perhaps months, we should be lost to the
civilized world and cut off from all resources, east or west, demanded
more calculation and providence than a voyage round the world.
We were as long preparing for our journey to the Amazon as in making it.
In the first place, not a man in Quito could give us a single item of
information on the most important and dangerous part of our route.
Quitonians are not guilty of knowing any thing about trans-Andine
affairs or "oriental" geography. From a few petty traders who had, to
the amazement of their fellow-citizens, traversed the forest and reached
the banks of the Napo, we gleaned some information which was of service.
But on the passage down the Napo from Santa Rosa to the Marañon, a
distance of over five hundred miles, nobody had any thing to say except
the delightful intelligence that in all probability, if we escaped the
fever, we would be murdered by the savages. The information we received
was about as definite and reliable as Herndon obtained respecting any
tributary to the Lower Amazon: "It runs a long way up: it has rapids;
savages live upon its banks; every thing grows there." From M. Gillette,
a Swiss gentleman trading at Pará in Moyabamba hats, we learned about
the movements of the Peruvian steamer on the Marañon; but how long it
would take us to cross the mountains and the forest, and descend the
river, we must find out by trial.
The commissary department was of primal importance. As, from all we
could learn, we could not depend upon obtaining supplies from the
Indians or with our guns,[107] it was necessary to take provisions to
last till we should reach the Marañon. But how long we should be in the
forest and on the river, or what allowance to make for probable delays,
it was impossible to prophesy. The utmost caution and forethought were
therefore needed, for to die of starvation in the wilderness was, for
all practical purposes, equivalent to falling into the hands of
cannibals. As it turned out, however, we made a most fortunate hit, for
on arriving at Pebas--the first village on the Marañon--we found we had
just enough solid food left to have one grand jubilee dinner.
[Footnote 107: The scarcity of game is well illustrated by the fate of
Pizarro and his comrades. In returning from their expedition to the Napo
country, they nearly perished with hunger, living on lizards, dogs,
horses, saddles, sword-belts, etc., and reached Quito looking more like
spectres than men.]
For the benefit of future travelers, and for the curiosity of others, we
give the bill of fare we provided for this journey--stomachs, five;
time, forty-two days:
Flour 100 lbs.
Corn meal 27 "
Pea flour 30 "
Mashka 47 "
Crackers 100 "
Rice 50 "
Sugar 90 "
Chocolate 25 "
Dried meat[108] 47 "
Salt 10 "
Lard 10 "
Cream tartar 1-1/2 "
Soda 1 "
Tea 2 "
Ham 10 "
Tamarinds 9 "
Eggs 170.
Anisado pts. 5.
[Footnote 108: "Jerked beef," as it is called in South America, consists
of thin strips cut off the carcass after skinning and dried in the sun.
The butchers do not distinguish between sirloin and round.]
To this we added by purchase from the Indians a few chickens and eggs,
five gallons of sirup, and a peck of rice; and on the river we helped
ourselves to a little wild game, as fish, peccari, deer, and turtles'
eggs. But these made only a drop in the commissary bucket; had we
depended upon finding provisions on the road, we must have perished from
sheer hunger. Game, in the dry season, is exceedingly scarce. Our
provisions were packed in kerosene cans, a part of which were soldered
up to keep out moisture (for the Valley of the Napo is a steaming
vapor-bath) and to keep out the hands of Indians. More than once have
these treacherous yet indispensable guides robbed the white man of his
food, and then left him to his fate; we lost not a pound by theft. A
four-gallon keg of aguardiente,[109] from which we dealt out half a gill
daily to each man, kept our Indians in good humor.
[Footnote 109: This is the rum of the Andes, corresponding to the
_cashaça_ of Brazil. It is distilled from sugar-cane. When
double-distilled and flavored with anise, it is called _anisado_.]
As we must ascend to the cold altitude of fifteen thousand feet, and
then descend to the hot Valley of the Amazon, we were obliged to carry
both woolen and cotton garments, besides rubber ponchos to shield them
from the rain by day, and to form the first substratum of our bed at
night. Two suits were needed in our long travel afoot through the
forest; one kept dry for the nightly bivouac, the other for day service.
At the close of each day's journey we doffed every thread of our wearing
apparel, and donned the reserved suit, for we were daily drenched either
from the heavens above or by crossing swollen rivers and seas of mud.
Then, too, as boots would not answer for such kind of travel, we must
take _alpargates_, a native sandal made of the aloe fibre, and of these
not a few, for a pair would hardly hold together two days. Two bales of
_lienzo_, besides knives, fish-hooks, thread, beads, looking-glasses,
and other trinkets, were also needed; for the Napo Indians must be paid
in such currency. There _lienzo_, not gold and silver, is the cry. On
this we made a small but lawful profit, paying in Quito eighteen cents
per yard, and charging on the river twenty-five.
An extensive culinary apparatus, guns and ammunition, taxidermal and
medicinal chests, physical instruments, including a photographic
establishment, rope, macheta, axe, saw, nails, candles, matches, and a
thousand _et cætera_, completed our outfit. Among the essential _et
cætera_ were generous passports and mandatory letters from the President
of Ecuador and the Peruvian Chargé d'Affaires, addressed to all
authorities on the Napo and the Marañon. They were obligingly procured
for us by Señor Hurtado, the Chilian minister (then acting for the
United States), through the influence of a communication from our own
government, and were of great value to the expedition.[110]
[Footnote 110: The following is a copy of the President's order:
REPUBLICA DEL ECUADOR
Ministeria de Estado } Quito á 18 de Octubre,}
en el Despacho del Interior.} de 1807. }
APERTORIA.
A las autoridades del transito hasta el Napo, i á los demas
empleados civiles i militares de la provincia del Oriente:
El Sor. James Orton, ciudadano de los EE. UU. de América, profesor
de la Universidad de Rochester en Nueva-York, i jefe de una
comision cientifica del Instituto de Smithsonian de Washington, vá
á la provincia de Oriente con el objeto de esplorarla en
cumplimiento de su encargo. S.E. el Presidenta de la República
ordena á U.U. presten al espresado Sor. Orton i su comitiva cuantas
consideraciones merecen sus personas, i los ausilios i co-operacion
que necesiten para verificar su viaje i hacer sus estudios i
observaciones.
Dios gue. á U.U.
R. CARVAJAL.
]