THE PROVINCE OF CARAVAYA.
A short Historical and Geographical Description.
THE Peruvian province of Caravaya is drained by streams which form part
of the system of one of the largest and least known of the tributaries
of the Amazon--the river Purus.
The Purus is the only great affluent flowing into the Amazon from
the south, the course of which has never yet been explored. We have
detailed accounts of the Huallaga from Maw, Smyth, Poeppig, and
Herndon; of the Ucayali from Smyth, Herndon, and Castelnau; and of
the Madeira from Castelnau and Gibbon; but of the Purus, the largest
apparently, and one which, in course of time, will probably become the
most important, we have next to nothing. Its mouth, and the course of
its tributaries, near the base of the Andes, are alone described.
Condamine and Smyth, in descending the Amazon, mention the great depth
and volume of water at the mouth of the Purus: Herndon heard from
a Brazilian trader at Barra, who had ascended its stream for some
distance, that it was of great size, and without obstructions; and
Haënke, in the last century, arguing from reliable geographical data
which he had collected from Indians, stated his conviction that a very
large river, flowing from the Andes east of Cuzco, reached the Amazon
to the westward of the mouth of the Madeira.
This is the sum of our knowledge of the mouth and lower course of the
Purus. The tributaries which flow into it drain the eastern slopes
of the Andes, from the latitude of Cuzco quite to the frontier of
Bolivia--that frontier dividing the streams flowing into the Purus, on
the Peruvian side, from those which feed the Beni, on the Bolivian.
These affluents of the Purus are divided into three distinct systems:
the furthest to the north and west, consisting of the streams flowing
through the great valley of Paucartambo, which unite under the name
of the Madre de Dios, or Amaru-mayu; the middle system, draining the
ravines of Marcapata and Ollachea; and the southern and eastern, being
the numerous rivers in the province of Caravaya, as far as the Bolivian
frontier, which unite as the Ynambari. The Madre de Dios and Ynambari
together form the main stream of the Purus.
The Paucartambo system is the only one which has, as yet, been
described by modern explorers. In Spanish times the streams which
compose it were explored, and farms of cacao and coca were established
on their banks; and in the end of the last century an expedition was
sent to explore the course of the Madre de Dios, under an officer
named Don Tiburcio de Landa. This must have been at some time previous
to 1780, for Landa was killed in that year in the great rebellion of
the Indians under Tupac Amaru.[286] After the declaration of Peruvian
independence, General Gamarra, the first Republican Prefect of Cuzco,
sent an expedition to protect the farms in the valley of Paucartambo
from the encroachments of the wild Chuncho Indians, and to explore
the Madre de Dios. It was commanded by a Dr. Sevallos, now a very
old man, retired to a farm in the Caravaya forests, but he has,
unfortunately, lost his journal. General Miller made an expedition
into the same region in 1835, and penetrated to a greater distance
than any other explorer before or since. A very brief account of his
journey was published in the 'Royal Geographical Society's Journal'
for 1836; but there is a much fuller and most interesting journal kept
by this gallant veteran, which has never been printed. In 1852 Lieut.
Gibbon, U.S.N., entered the valleys of Paucartambo; and in 1853 I
explored a part of the course of its principal stream, the Tono.[287]
Another expedition to explore this region, under the sanction and with
the aid of the Peruvian Government, was undertaken by some native
adventurers, accompanied by a few Americans, and an English artist
named Prendergast, in 1856, but it completely failed. Since that time
the wild Chuncho Indians have continued to attack and encroach upon the
few farms which existed in these valleys at the time of my visit in
1853, and at the present moment there is not one remaining. The rich
valleys of Paucartambo, once covered with flourishing cacao and coca
farms, have again become one vast uncultivated tropical forest.
Following the eastern slopes of the Andes to the south and east, we
next come to the streams which drain the valleys of Marcapata and
Ollachea, but of these very little is known. These valleys are in the
province of Quispicanchi, in the department of Cuzco; and it is said
that in times past they were cultivated with advantage, and contained
many coca farms. In the beginning of the last century a Jesuit found
gold in a hill called Camante, in the Marcapata valley, situated
between two ravines, in one of which, called Garrote, a Spanish company
established gold-washings. The leading man of this company, named
Goyguro, employed hundreds of Indians, and extracted gold from the
Camante hill in lumps; but one day an immense landslip fell into the
Vilca-mayu,[288] the chief stream of Marcapata, and all the workmen
ran away, and could not be induced to return. This was in about the
year 1788.
For forty years after this event coca-farms and gold-washings were
alike abandoned in Marcapata, until in 1828 the cura of the village
of that name, Dr. Pedro Flores, again opened a road into the valleys,
and, with some associates, established several farms for raising coca
and fruit. In 1836 a company was formed by several young adventurers,
the chief of whom were José Maria Pacheco of Cuzco and José Maria
Ochoa[289] of Huara, with the object of again discovering the
long-lost golden hill of Camante. The party assembled at Ocongate,
in the cold region of the Andes, whence the distance to Marcapata,
at the commencement of the warm valleys, is fourteen leagues over a
bad road, which traverses the cordillera of Ausungate and Pirhuayani.
From Marcapata the two adventurers Pacheco and Ochoa, both active and
intrepid young men, advanced into the forests with fourteen Indians,
and a stock of chuñus and dried meat. These explorers penetrated for
several leagues, following the course of the Vilca-mayu, but their
expedition led to no practical results.[290] In 1851 Colonel Bologenesi
became the manager of an expedition for collecting chinchona-bark in
the forests of Marcapata, and proceeded to the scene of his labours,
accompanied by a young Englishman named George Backhouse. They advanced
into the forests until they fell in with parties of wild Chuncho
Indians, who were propitiated by presents of knives and other trifles,
and induced to assist young Backhouse and his party in collecting bark.
Some of the Chunchos, however, who had received knives, neglected to
work, which enraged the Indians in Backhouse's service, and a quarrel
ensued, ending in the massacre of Backhouse and all his party. Those
who were out collecting bark, on discovering what had happened, fled to
Colonel Bologenesi; but in their retreat, while fording a river, the
Chunchos poured in a volley of arrows amongst them, and killed forty of
their number. Bologenesi then collected a military force and advanced
into the forests, where he suffered great hardships, fighting with the
Chunchos all day, and harassed by alarms during the night. He, however,
collected a thousand quintals of bark, at a cost of fifty lives and
three hundred thousand dollars. During this expedition indications were
met with of the ancient gold-washings.
It will thus be seen that fevers and perilous roads are not the only
dangers to be apprehended in a search for chinchona-plants.
Lastly, and extending for a distance of one hundred and eighty miles,
from Marcapata to the frontier of Bolivia, is the watershed along that
part of the eastern Andes known as the Snowy Range of Caravaya, where
the numerous streams take their rise which unite to form the Ynambari.
The Madre de Dios, Marcapata, and Ynambari are thus the three great
sources of the Purus. The tributaries of the latter drain the province
of Caravaya.
The first mention of this region is to be found in the pages of the
old Inca historian, Garcilasso de la Vega, who says that "the richest
gold-mines in Peru are those of Collahuaya, which the Spaniards call
Caravaya, whence they obtain much very fine gold of twenty-four carats,
and they still get some, but not in such abundance."[291] The Jesuit
Acosta also mentions "the famous gold of Caravaya in Peru."[292] After
the final overthrow of the younger Almagro in the battle of Chupas in
1542, some of his followers crossed the snowy range, and descended
into the great tropical forests of Caravaya,[293] where they discovered
rivers, the sands of which were full of gold. On the banks of these
rivers they built the towns of Sandia, San Gavan, and San Juan del
Oro; large sums in gold were sent home to Spain, and the last-named
settlement received the title of a royal city from Charles V. In 1553
these settlers received a pardon from the Viceroy Don Antonio de
Mendoza, in consideration of the gold they sent home to the Emperor. It
is said that they sent him a nugget weighing four arrobas, in the shape
of a bullock's head; and that afterwards another nugget, in the shape
of a bullock's tongue, was sent to Philip II., but that the ship which
carried it was lost at sea. Eventually the wild Chuncho Indians of the
Sirineyri tribe fell upon the gold-washers, and overpowered them. In
the following century certain mulattos occupied the gold-washings in
Caravaya, and the king, as a reward for their labours in extracting
treasure, offered to comply with any request they might make. The
mulattos asked to be called Señores, and for the privilege of entering
every town on white mules with red trappings, and the bells ringing.
The Señores mulattos were finally expelled for knocking the priest of
San Juan del Oro on the head while he was saying mass, after a drunken
broil. There are many vestiges of washings, bridges, and cuttings made
by these mulattos, in different parts of Caravaya.[294]
The Spaniards, however, long continued to extract gold from the rivers
of Caravaya, and established coca-farms and coffee-plantations in some
of the ravines formed by spurs of the cordillera. Gold, however, was
the product for which Caravaya was most famous.
In 1615 the viceroy Marquis of Montes Claros spoke of the rich
_lavaderos_ or gold-washings of Caravaya;[295] and his successor,
the Prince of Esquilache, wrote a long report upon them in 1620. It
appears that, at that period, the richest of the Caravaya mines was
called Aporuma, and that it had then been worked for fifteen years
by a company of adventurers. These men, the chief of whom were named
Quiñones, Frisancho, and Perez, had excavated very extensive works to
drain off the water, and they petitioned the Viceroy to grant them
a _mita_ of Indians to complete the works, for that thus the royal
fifths would be augmented. The Prince of Esquilache wrote a marginal
note, which may still be seen on the original petition, ordering
Don Pedro de Mercado, the "visitador-general" of Caravaya, to grant
them a _mita_ of Indians within a circuit of twenty leagues of the
Aporuma mine, with three dollars a month each, besides salt-meat and
other provisions.[296] In 1678 the yield of the royal fifths from
the Caravaya gold-washings was at the rate of 806 dollars in three
months.[297] From this time to the end of the seventeenth century
Franciscan missionaries were at work amongst the wild Chunchos in the
forests of Caravaya.[298] Towards the end of the last century Caravaya
was separated from Peru to form part of the new viceroyalty of Buenos
Ayres, and the population of whites and civilised Indians was then only
estimated at 6500 souls. Just before that period the town of San Gavan,
with four thousand families and a large treasure, had been surprised
and entirely destroyed by the Carangas and Suchimanis Chunchos. This
calamity took place on the 15th of December, 1767. The viceroy Don
Manuel Amat swore vengeance on the Chunchos; but his famous mistress,
Mariquita Gallegas, better known as La Perichola, interceded for them,
and eventually nothing was done. The other town of San Juan del Oro had
been abandoned some time before; and the very sites where they stood
are now uncertain.
In the great rebellion of Tupac Amaru the caciques and people of
Caravaya took part with the Indians, probably owing to the influence
possessed by the Inca, arising from the large coca estate which
belonged to him near San Gavan.[299] At the independence Caravaya
became a part of the Peruvian department of Puno.
In 1846 Don Pablo Pimentel was appointed Sub-prefect of Caravaya, and
he endeavoured, by giving a glowing account of its vast capabilities,
to induce the government to make roads and develop the resources
of this important province. Shortly afterwards, in 1849, Caravaya
attracted notice as a land rich in the precious metal, and it soon
became the California of South America. In July of that year two
brothers named Poblete, in searching for chinchona-bark, discovered
great abundance of gold-dust in the sands of one of the Caravaya
rivers, and the news soon spread far and wide. Up to 1852 crowds of
adventurers, among whom were many Frenchmen, continued to follow in the
footsteps of the Pobletes, but most of them returned empty, and the
excitement has now died away. The trade in chinchona-bark, which once
was remunerative, and in which many Peruvians displayed extraordinary
energy and endurance of fatigue, ceased to exist in 1847, owing to the
habit of adulterating the Calisaya bark with inferior kinds, which gave
the Caravaya article a bad name in the market, and at length rendered
it unsaleable. This adulteration was practised either through fraud
or ignorance. If the former, it was certainly very short-sighted;
but Don Pablo Pimentel declares that it was done through ignorance,
the bark-collectors mistaking the _motosolo_ (C. micrantha) and
_carhua-carhua_ (Cascarilla Carua) for the Calisaya bark.[300]
The above meagre notices are all that I have been able to glean
respecting the history of Caravaya; and I will now give a brief
description of the geographical features of this interesting region.
The province of Caravaya consists of a narrow strip of lofty
table-land, bordering on that of Azangaro; the snowy range of the
Eastern Andes for a distance of 120 miles; and the boundless tropical
forests to the eastward, stretching away towards the frontier of
Brazil. It is bounded on the east and south by Bolivia, on the N.W. by
the province of Quispicanchi in the department of Cuzco, on the north
and N.E. by the illimitable forests, and on the west by Azangaro.
The lofty table-land to the westward of the snowy Andes extends for 120
miles, the whole length of Caravaya, but is only from five to ten miles
broad. It is 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, and here, about a
century ago, after the destruction of San Gavan, the town of Crucero
was founded, as a central position for the capital of the province, and
as being free from the attacks of wild Indians. It derives its name
from the numerous roads which branch from it to the villages on the
eastern slopes of the Andes. This narrow plain, on which Crucero[301]
is situated, is very swampy, covered with long tufts of _ychu_ grass,
and intensely cold. It yields pasture to immense flocks of sheep; and
to the curious hybrid, first bred by the cura Cabrera in 1826, between
an alpaca and a vicuña, called the paco-vicuña, with a black and white
fleece of long fine wool, which is wove into fabrics like the richest
silk.[302]
But the largest and only important part of Caravaya consists of the
forest-covered valleys to the eastward of the Andes. On the western
side that mountain-chain rises abruptly into peaks covered with snow,
from an elevated plateau 14,000 feet above the sea; but on its eastern
side the descent is rapid into tropical valleys. Long spurs run off the
main chain to the northward, gradually decreasing in elevation; and it
is sometimes a distance of sixty or eighty miles before they finally
subside into the boundless forest-covered plains of the interior of
South America. Numerous rivers flow through the valleys between these
spurs, to join the Ynambari; and in these valleys, near the foot of
the main chain of the eastern Andes, are the few villages and coca and
coffee plantations of Caravaya. In these long spurs and deep valleys
Caravaya differs in geographical character from the more northern
region of Paucartambo, where the Andes subside much more rapidly into
the level plain.
In the warm valleys are to be found all the wealth and population of
Caravaya. The population consists of 22,000 souls, almost all Indians;
and the wealth, besides the flocks of sheep on the western table-land,
is created by the produce of coca, coffee, sugar-cane, and aji-pepper
plantations, fruit-gardens, and gold-washings. Correct statistical
returns are unknown in Peru; but, as near as I could make out, there is
an annual yield of 20,000 lbs. of coffee and 360,000 lbs. of coca.[303]
I could obtain no reliable statements respecting the yield of gold.
The Caravayan valley which is furthest to the north and west is that
of Ollachea, bordering on Marcapata, where there is a small village
at the foot of the Andes. Next come those of Ituata and Corani.
The little village of Ayapata, near the source of the river of the
same name, comes next; and thirty miles further in the interior, an
intelligent and enterprising Peruvian, named Don Agustin Aragon, has
established a sugar-cane estate called San José de Bella Vista. It
is situated at the junction of two rivers, and he is thus protected
from the attacks of the savage Chuncho Indians who prowl about in the
surrounding forests. He has made a road practicable for mules from
the village of Ayapata to his estate; and he finds the manufacture of
spirits from the sugar-cane far more profitable than digging for gold
or hunting for chinchona-bark. He is a man full of energy and resource.
His attempt to establish a manufactory of india-rubber only failed
through the refusal of the Peruvian government to give him a contract
for supplying the army, and thus assist his first efforts; in 1860 he
sent an expedition into the forests to collect wild cacao-plants; any
scheme for developing the resources of the country is sure to receive
his advocacy; and he looks forward with confidence to the day when a
steamer shall ascend the Purus and Ynambari, and return to the Atlantic
with a cargo of the produce of Caravaya. It would be well for Peru if
she contained many such men as Don Agustin Aragon.
It is supposed that the old Spanish town of San Gavan was situated near
a river of the same name, about twenty miles from Aragon's estate.
The site is now overgrown with dense forest, and it has never been
visited since its destruction; yet it is believed that vast treasure
lies concealed amongst the tree-covered ruins, because the attack of
the Chunchos was sudden, and at once successful; they care nothing
for the precious metals, and San Gavan contained a royal treasury,
and was a central deposit for the gold of Caravaya. The Chunchos,
in former times, were in friendly communication with, and even took
service under, the Spaniards; but the tyranny of the latter at length
exasperated them, and led to the destruction of San Gavan. Since that
time the Chunchos have wandered in the forests in small tribes,[304]
the implacable enemies of all white men and Inca Indians.
Following the eastern slopes of the Andes to the south-east, the next
village to Ayapata, at the head of another deep ravine, is Ccoasa, and
next follow Usicayus, Phara, and Limbani. Phara is in a ravine on the
eastern slope of the Andes, about thirty-five miles from Crucero. Here
many gold-mines were worked by the Señores Mulattos, and at no great
distance is the famous gold-mine of Aporuma, in the ravine of Pacchani.
Phara is on the road to the gold-diggings, which were discovered by
the brothers Poblete, and which attracted so many luckless adventurers
between 1849 and 1854. They are at a distance of fifteen leagues to
the northward. The path lies along a long ridge, gradually descending
for six leagues to a little hamlet called La Mina. Thence to the banks
of the river Ynambari, here called Huari-huari, is a distance of
three leagues, down a very dangerous road, covered with huge blocks
of schist, and skirting along fearful precipices. For this distance
the road is passable for mules. The river is seventy yards broad, and
is crossed by an _oroya_, or bridge of ropes, traversed by a sort of
net or cage, into which the passenger gets, and is hauled over to the
other side, at a giddy height above the boiling flood. On the other
side, at the junction of the Huari-huari and the golden river of
Challuma,[305] there is a place which has been named Versailles by
some French adventurers, of whom the most daring and energetic is a M.
La Harpe. The road, so far, was opened by a party of soldiers of the
batallion Yungay. From Versailles to the _lavaderos_ or gold-washings
is a distance of six leagues up a narrow forest-covered ravine; and,
in this distance, it is necessary to wade across the river Challuma no
less than fifty-three times--the water coming up to the waist, the feet
constantly slipping over loose rounded stones, the only support a long
staff, and where one false step would be inevitable destruction. At
the end of this perilous journey there is a place called Alta-garcia,
where the _administradores_ of the company of first discoverers were
established in 1850. Thence to Quimza-mayu (three rivers) is half a
league, and here the _lavaderos_ commence. In this part of its course
the river is called Taccuma. Many of the gold-seekers, such as the
Señores Carpio, La Harpe, Valdez, Tovar, Cardenas, and Costas, have
been men who were formerly engaged in the chinchona-bark trade, and who
know the country thoroughly. The tributaries of the Challuma, called
Quimza-mayu, rise in hills completely isolated from the Andes, and
their sands are full of gold, both in dust and nuggets. Immediately
above the _lavaderos_ rises a hill called Capacurco, and by the French
adventurers Montebello, formed of quartz and other primitive rocks,
with rich veins of gold. Here Don Manuel Costas of Puno erected a
house, and brought out machinery for crushing the quartz, but the
undertaking failed through the badness of the machinery, and the
immense cost and difficulty of transporting materials through such
a country. A few adventurers, however, still continue to wash for
gold in the Challuma or Taccuma. In the part of its course above
the _lavaderos_ this river descends rapidly from an isolated range
of forest-covered precipitous hills, and in one place its waters
plunge down in a cascade, with a sheer fall of forty feet.[306] The
gold-seekers of the Challuma have penetrated further into the forests,
and nearer to the main stream of the Purus, than any other explorers;
and their discovery of the Challuma, and of the auriferous hills near
its banks, has added something to our geographical knowledge of this
region.
The remaining villages on the eastern slopes of the Caravayan Andes
are Patambuco, Sandia, Cuyo-cuyo, Quiaca, Sina, and the farm of Saqui,
on the frontier of Bolivia. The river of Sandia has one of its sources
near the pass twenty miles north-east of Crucero, whence it flows past
Sandia, and for many leagues down a narrow gorge, with magnificent
mountains rising up abruptly on either side. At a distance of twenty
miles below Sandia, in a part of the ravine called Ypara, the coca
and coffee plantations commence, at a height of 5000 feet above the
sea. Beyond Ypara cultivation ceases, and the river, now increased to
double its former size by its junction with the Huari-huari, flows for
many leagues between mountains covered from their summits with a dense
tropical forest. This region is known as San Juan del Oro, once famous
for its gold-washings; and here the royal town of the same name stood,
founded by the fugitive Almagristas, and afterwards tenanted by the
Señores Mulattos, but long since destroyed and abandoned. The forests
contain chinchona-trees of valuable species, and, until the last
fourteen years, they were frequented by bark-collectors.
While flowing through the forests of San Juan del Oro the river takes
a turn to the westward, and, at a distance of sixty miles from Sandia,
enters the Hatun-yunca, or Valle Grande, where the people of Sandia
have very extensive coca and coffee plantations. The curve here made
by the river is so considerable that the people from Sandia reach
their farms in the Valle Grande by leaving the ravine above Ypara, and
making their way across the grass-covered mountains. The coffee-plants
in these farms receive no attention whatever from the time they are
planted, so that, instead of the dense well-pruned bushes of India or
Ceylon, they grow into tall straggling trees about twelve feet high,
with a very small harvest of berries on each, but each berry well
exposed to the sun. The coffee is certainly excellent.
Passing through the Valle Grande the river flows on past Versailles,
where it receives the golden Challuma, and, uniting with all the other
rivers of Caravaya, becomes that great Ynambari which finally effects
a junction with the Madre de Dios, and forms the main stream of the
mighty Purus.
The river Huari-huari, which is formed by two streams flowing from the
villages of Sina and Quiaca, joins the river of Sandia about thirty
miles below that town, and their united streams compose the Ynambari.
Finally the river Tambopata rises near a farm called Saqui, just within
the boundary between Peru and Bolivia, at the foot of a ridge of the
Eastern Cordillera. After a course of forty miles it receives the river
of San Blas, on the banks of which the people of the Sina village have
their coca-plantations. Eighty miles lower down the Tambopata unites
with the river Pablo-bamba, on its right bank, at a place called
Putina-puncu. The Pablo-bamba rises in a hill called Corpa-ychu on
the very frontier of Bolivia, and is only divided from the Tambopata,
during its whole course, by a single range of hills. The frontier
between the two republics has never been surveyed. Below Putina-puncu
the united waters of the two rivers enter the vast forest-covered
plains into which the spurs of the Andes finally subside, and
henceforth its course is entirely unknown. I think it probable,
however, that the Tambopata finds its way direct to the Purus, without
previously uniting with the Ynambari.
The respective distances and populations of the villages of Caravaya
are as follows:--
Miles. Population.
Ollachea to Ituata 12}
" Corani 10}
" Ayapata 18}
" Ccoasa 10} 12,000
" Usicayus 18}
" Phara 20}
" Limbani 8}
" Patambuco 16 1,000
" Sandia 12 4,000
" Cuyo-cuyo 15 2,000
" Quiaca 21 600
" Sina 20 600
" Bolivian frontier 12
--- ------
192 20,200
---
Macusani to Crucero 30 1,800
------
Population of Caravaya 22,000
------
But some of these villages are at greater distances from the foot
of the Andes than others; thus they are not in a straight line, and
the direct distance from Ollachea to the Bolivian frontier is a good
deal under 180 miles. The valleys in which the Caravaya villages are
situated are separated from each other by spurs of the Andes, many of
them so wild and precipitous as to be quite inaccessible; and there
is no means of passing from village to village, in many instances,
without crossing the Andes to Crucero or Macusani, and descending again
by another pass. For this reason Crucero, being in the most central
position, has been chosen as the site of the capital of the province,
though in a bleak and intensely cold region.
The geological formation of Caravaya is composed of non-fossiliferous
schists, micaceous and slightly ferruginous, with veins of quartz. It
is a portion of the extensive system of rocks which Mr. Forbes has
grouped together as belonging to the Silurian epoch, and which extends
almost continuously over an extent from north-west to south-east of
more than seven hundred miles, forming the mountain-chain of the
Eastern Andes, continuous from Cuzco, through Caravaya, to Bolivia.
These rocks throw off spurs along the eastern side of the main chain.
Of this formation, too, are the loftiest mountain-peaks in South
America:--Illampu, or Sorata (24,812 feet), and Illimani (24,155
feet). Illampu, Mr. Forbes assures us, is fossiliferous up to its very
summit.[307]
Such is a brief account of the geography of Caravaya, and especially
of the streams which combine to form the great river Purus, from the
rivers of the Paucartambo valley on the extreme north-west, to the
Pablo-bamba on the frontier of Bolivia. The streams flowing from the
Eastern Andes to the north-west of the Paucartambo system combine to
swell the Ucayali, while those to the south-east of the Pablo-bamba
fall into the Beni, one of the chief tributaries of the Madeira. The
intermediate streams are the sources of the unknown Purus, they are
all more or less auriferous, they flow through forests abounding in
valuable products, and through countries of inexhaustible capabilities.
Yet the courses of very few of them have been explored to distances of
seventy miles from their sources, and the main stream of the Purus, one
of the principal affluents of the Amazon, may be said to be entirely
unknown to geographers.