Tarapoto—Pongo of Chasuta—Chasuta—Yurimaguas—Sta.
Cruz—Antonio, the Paraguá—Laguna—Mouth of the Huallaga.
_August 19._—We started in company with a man who, with his peons, was
carrying fish that he had taken and salted below Chasuta to Tarapoto.
A smart walk of five hours (the latter part of it very quick, to avoid
the rain that threatened us) brought us to the town. The road crossed
a range of hills in the forest for about half the distance. The ascent
and descent of these hills were tedious, because light showers of
rain had moistened the surface of the hard-baked earth and made it as
slippery as soap. For the other half of the distance the road ran over
a plain covered with high, reedy grass, and some bushes; there was a
short clump-grass underneath that would afford capital pasturage. The
distance between Shapaja and Tarapoto, I judge to be fifteen miles, and
the direction westerly, although I could not tell exactly, on account
of the winding of the road.
Tarapoto—which is situated upon a moderate eminence near the western
edge of the plain before spoken of, and surrounded by hills, which
are mountains in the west—is by far the largest town I have seen since
leaving Huanuco. The district—comprising the towns of Tarapoto, (which
has three thousand five hundred inhabitants,) Chasuta, (which has twelve
hundred,) Cumbasa, Morales, Shapaja, Juan Guerra, and Juan Comas—numbers
six thousand inhabitants.
The principal productions are rice, cotton, and tobacco, all of which
are articles of export, particularly the cloth called tocuyo, woven
by the women from cotton. Nearly all the course of the river, as far
as _Egas_, is supplied from Tarapoto with this article. As much as
thirty-five thousand varas is said to be made in this place annually. It
is valued here at twelve and a half cents the vara,[7] and increases in
price as it floats down the river, until at Egas it is exchanged for the
value of fifty cents in foreign articles from Pará. It also goes inland
as far as Moyobamba, where it is exchanged for straw hats and English
prints.
There is little or no money in this country. Tocuyo, wax from the
Ucayali, and balls of cotton thread, are used in its place. The English
goods that come from the interior sell in Tarapoto for four times their
cost in Lima: for example, a yard of printed calico, which costs in
Lima twelve and a half cents, sells in this place for either a pound of
wax, four yards of tocuyo, or two pounds of cotton thread. (It is worth
twenty-five cents, money.)
I suppose there is a little money obtained for these articles in Huanuco
and Chachapoyas, or left here by travelling strangers. But if so, it
falls into the hands of the traders and is hoarded away. These traders
are either Moyobambinos, (inhabitants of Moyobamba,) or foreigners
of Spain, France, and Portugal. The Moyobambinos are the Jews of the
country, and will compass sea and land to make a dollar. I met with them
everywhere on the river; and I think that I did not enter an Indian
village without finding a Moyobambino domiciliated and trading with
the inhabitants. They are a thin, spare, sickly-looking people, of a
very dark complexion, but seem capable of undergoing great hardship
and fatigue, for they carry their cargoes to marts hundreds of leagues
distant by roads or river that present innumerable difficulties.
They bear a bad character on the river, and are said to cheat and
oppress the Indians; so that when I could not get a yucca for my supper
without paying for it in advance, I vented my spleen by abusing a
Moyobambino, who had treated the people so badly that they distrusted
everybody. But I have had reason, once or twice, for abusing other
people besides Moyobambinos on this account; for the governor of
Tarapoto hesitated about trusting me with a canoe to descend the river,
because a person representing himself as a countryman of mine had run
off with one some years before. I imagine this is the same honest German
who "did" Colonel Lucar at Huanuco.
I met at this place my countryman Hacket, whom I had heard spoken so
highly of in Cerro Pasco and Huanuco. He is employed in making copper
kettles (called _pailas_) for distilling, and in all kinds of blacksmith
and foundry work. He seems settled in this country for life, and has
adopted the habits and manners of the people. Poor fellow—how rejoiced
he was to see the face and hear the speech of a countryman! I am
indebted to him for the following statistics concerning Tarapoto:
"The population of Tarapoto, with its annexed ports of Shapaja and Juan
Guerra, is five thousand three hundred and fifty souls. The births
annually are from two hundred and twenty to two hundred and fifty;
deaths, from thirty to fifty.
"The principal occupation of the people is the manufacture of cotton
cloth, of which they make from thirty-five to forty thousand varas
annually. This article is sold in Chachapoyas at twelve and a half
cents the vara. This, tocuyo, and white wax, make the exchange of
the place. Gold and silver are almost unknown, but they are articles
which the people most desire to have. The white wax of Mainas is
worth four yards of tocuyo the pound. A bull or cow of good size is
sold for one hundred varas of tocuyo; a fat hog of ordinary size, for
sixty; a large sheep, twelve; twenty-five pounds of salt fish of the
_vaca marina_, or _paishi_, (equal in quality to cod-fish,) for twelve
varas; twenty-five pounds of manteca (oil or lard) of vaca marina,
twelve varas; twenty-five pounds of coffee, six varas; twenty pounds of
rum—of thirty degrees, twenty-four varas; of sixteen degrees, twelve
varas; twenty-five pounds of cotton in the seed, eight ounces of wax;
a laying-hen, four ounces; a chicken, two ounces; twenty-five pounds
of rice in the husk, half a pound; twenty-five pounds of Indian corn,
two ounces; twenty-five pounds of beans, four ounces; a basket of
yuccas, which weighs from fifty to sixty pounds, two ounces; a head
of plantains, which will weigh from forty to fifty pounds, for three
needles; or six heads, delivered in the house, four ounces of wax.
"A plantain-grove will give in full vigor for fifty or sixty years,
without more attention than to clean it occasionally of weeds; cotton
gives a crop in six months; rice in five; indigo is indigenous; cattle
of all kinds augment with much rapidity.
"All transportation of cargoes by land is made upon the backs of
Indians, for want of roads. The customary weight of a cargo is
seventy-five pounds; the cost of its transportation to Moyobamba,
(seventy miles,) is six varas of tocuyo; to Huanuco, (three hundred and
ninety miles,) thirty-two varas, by water and by land; that is to say,
eight Indians will receive in Tarapoto eight packages, of whatsoever
goods, and carry them on their shoulders to the port of Juan Guerra,
where they embark and carry them in a canoe to the port of Tingo Maria;
there they shoulder them again, and carry them to Huanuco, (eighty
miles.) It is to be understood that the owner of the cargo is to support
the peons.
"The ascent of the Huallaga from Juan Guerra to Tingo Maria takes
thirty days; the descent, eight. It has dangerous passes. It is easy to
obtain, in the term of six or eight days, fifty or sixty peons for the
transportation of cargoes, getting the order of the governor and paying
the above prices.
"This town is, without dispute, the most important in Mainas, on account
of its neighborhood to navigable rivers, united with an extension of
land free from inundations. Its inhabitants are numerous, civilized,
and docile."
The people have no idea of comfort in their domestic relations; the
houses are of mud, thatched with palm, and have uneven dirt floors. The
furniture consists of a grass hammock, a standing bed-place, a coarse
table, and a stool or two. The governor of this populous district wore
no shoes, and appeared to live pretty much like the rest of them.
_August 20_ we spent at Tarapoto, waiting for the peons. The governor
preferred that I should pay them in money, which I much doubt if the
peons ever saw. He will probably keep the money and give them tocuyo
and wax. I paid one dollar and fifty cents for the canoe to carry me
as far as Chasuta, a distance of about six hours down, with probably
twenty-four to return, (that is, twenty-four working hours;) fifty cents
to each peon; and a dollar to pay the people to haul the canoe up the
bank and place it under the shed at Shapaja on its return.
The men who carried us from Tocache to Sion preferred half their pay
in money; in all other cases I have paid in cotton cloth, valued at
twenty-five cents the yard; (its cost in Lima was twelve and a half
cents). The amount of pay, generally fixed by the governor, is a yard
per man per day, and about the same for the canoe.
An American circus company passed through Tarapoto a few months ago;
they had come from the Pacific coast, and were bound down the Amazon.
This beats the Moyobambinos for determined energy in making dollars.
I imagine that the adventure did not pay, for I encountered traces of
them, in broken down horses, at several of the villages on the river.
They floated their horses down on rafts.
I spoke with an active and intelligent young Spanish trader, named
Morey, about the feasibility of a steamboat enterprise upon these
rivers, bringing American goods and taking return-cargoes of coffee,
tobacco, straw-hats, hammocks, and sarsaparilla to the ports of Brazil
on the river. He thought that it could not fail to enrich any one
who would attempt it; but that the difficulty lay in the fact that my
proposed steamer would never get as far as this, for that my goods would
be bought up and paid for in return-cargoes long before she reached
Peru. He thought, too, that the Brazilians along the river had money
which they would be glad to exchange for comforts and luxuries.
Were I to engage in any scheme of colonization for the purpose of
evolving the resources of the Valley of the Amazon, I think I should
direct the attention of settlers to this district of Tarapoto. It
combines more advantages than any other I know; it is healthy, fertile,
and free from the torment of musquitoes and sand-flies. Wheat may be
had from the high lands above it; cattle thrive well; and its coffee,
tobacco, sugar-cane, rice, and maize are of fine quality. It is
true that vessels cannot come up to Shapaja, the port of the town of
Tarapoto; but a good road may be made from this town eighteen miles
to Chasuta, to which vessels of five feet draught may come at the
lowest stage of the river, and any draught at high water. Tarapoto is
situated on an elevated plain twenty miles in diameter; is seventy miles
from Moyobamba, the capital of the province, a city of seven thousand
inhabitants; and has close around it the villages of Lamas, Tabalosas,
Juan Guerra, and Shapaja.
The Ucayali is navigable higher up than this point, and the quality of
cotton and coffee seems better, within certain limits, further from the
equator. But the settler at the head-waters of the Ucayali has to place
himself in a profound wilderness, with the forest and the savage to
subdue, and entirely dependent upon his own resources. I think he would
be better placed near where he can get provisions and assistance whilst
he is clearing the forest and planting his fields. I am told that the
governors of the districts in all the province of Mainas have authority
to give titles to land to any one who desires to cultivate it.
I saw here very fine fields of Indian corn. The stalk grows quite as
high as on our best bottom-lands in Virginia, and the ears were full,
and of good grain. It may be planted at any time, and it yields in
three months, thus giving four crops a year. A considerable quantity of
tobacco is also cultivated in the neighborhood of Tarapoto. The tobacco
seed is planted in carefully-prepared ground in October. At this time
the forest is cleared to make the plantation. In January the seedlings
are ready to transplant, when the wood that has been cut down is set
fire to, and the plantation cleared up ready to receive the plants.
When the plant is about two feet high, the top is cut off, and the
lower leaves, which are generally injured by the dirt, pulled off, so
that the force of the plant may be thrown into the middle leaves. The
crop is gathered, as the leaves ripen, in July and August. They are put
under shelter for a few days to turn yellow, and are then exposed for
three or four days to the sun and dew. After this, they are sometimes
sprinkled with a little molasses and water, and rolled out flat with a
wooden roller; the larger stems are taken out, and they are then put up
in long masses of about one and a half pound weight, and wrapped tightly
and closely with some running vine of the forest. This is the common
method; and the common tobacco of Tarapoto is worth twelve and a half
cents (money) the mass there. A superior kind, made with more care, and
put up in short, thick masses, called _andullo_, is also made in the
province. This is worth twenty-five cents. The best tobacco is made in
_Xeberos_, in the upper mission, and is sent to Lima.
_August 21._—We started for Juan Guerra on horseback, in company with a
large fishing-party, got up by the Padre for his own profit; he seemed
to carry nearly the whole town with him. The mounted party consisted of
eight. There were two ladies along, whose company added to the gaiety
and pleasure of the canter through the woods. Used as I had become
by my travels in various parts of the world to the free and easy, I
must confess that I was a little startled to see these ladies, when we
arrived at Juan Guerra, denude themselves to a silk handkerchief around
the loins, and bathe in the river within forty yards, and in full sight
of all the men.
Arrived at Juan Guerra, we embarked upon the Cumbasa, which empties
into the Mayo. Half an hour's dragging of the canoe over the shoals,
and between the fallen trees on this stream, and one and a half hour's
navigation on the Mayo, carried us to its mouth, which is only a quarter
of a mile above Shapaja, where Morey had the goodness to land us, and
then shoved off to join the priest, who was to camp on a beach above.
The fishing-party of the padre was a large affair. They had four or
five canoes, and a large quantity of barbasco. The manner of fishing
is to close up the mouth of a caño of the river with a net-work made
of reeds, and then, mashing the barbasco root to a pulp, throw it into
the water. This turns the water white, and poisons it, so that the fish
soon commence rising to the surface dead, and are taken into the canoes
with small tridents. Almost at the moment of throwing the barbasco into
the water, the smaller fish rise to the surface and die in two or three
minutes; the larger fish survive longer; and, therefore, a successful
fishing of this sort is a matter of half a day, or till the canoes are
filled.
When we left Shapaja for Tarapoto, we placed our trunks, several without
locks, in charge of the women who lived in the shed where we slept; and,
although they knew that the trunks contained handkerchiefs, red cotton
cloth, beads, scissors, &c., (things which they most desire,) we missed
nothing on our return.
_August 22._—Two miles below Shapaja is the mal-paso of Estero. A
point of rocks, stretching out from a little stream that enters on the
left, makes this rapid, which is considered a very dangerous one. The
stream, rushing against these rocks, is deflected to a point of rocks
that makes out into the river a little lower down on the other side;
this turns it aside again, and the waves mingle and boil below. The
canoe was unloaded, and conducted by _sogas_ or ropes of vine, over
and between the rocks on the left-hand side. It took an hour to unload,
pass the canoe, and load up again. Three miles further is the mal-paso
of _Canoa Yacu_, (canoe water,) from many canoes having been wrecked
here. This is by far the most formidable rapid I have seen. There is a
small perpendicular fall on each side, and a shoot of 20° declivity in
the middle, down which the water rushes with a velocity of at least ten
miles the hour. The shoot looks tempting, and one is disposed to try
the rush; but there are rocks below, over which the water dashes up some
two or three feet in height; and I think no boat could shoot out of the
force of the stream so as to avoid these rocks.
The river both here and at Estero is not more than thirty yards wide.
The average velocity of the current through the Pongo is six miles
the hour. It took one hour and a half to pass this obstruction. Two
miles further down we shot the mal-paso of Matijuelo under oar; and
immediately after, that of Chumia, where the canoe was let down as
before, but without unloading. It took half an hour to do this. A
quarter of an hour afterwards we passed the rapid of Vaquero; and at
2½ p. m. arrived at Chasuta. We were kindly welcomed and hospitably
entertained by the Cura, Don Sebastian Castro.
Chasuta is the port of the district of Tarapoto. The traders have their
cargoes carried on the backs of Indians between Tarapoto and Chasuta,
and embark and disembark at the latter place to avoid the rapids of the
Pongo. The distance by land, according to Hacket, is eighteen miles;
and the cost of transportation, half a pound of wax for a cargo of
seventy-five pounds. There is from this point no further obstruction to
navigation for canoes; and very little labor would enable a draught of
six feet to reach Chasuta at the lowest stage of the river.
There were canoes in the port, just arrived from below, with salt
fish and wax; and canoes about to start down with the products of
the district. The annual value of the commerce between this place and
below is fifteen hundred dollars. All articles which can readily be
transported on the backs of mules, or Indians, come from Lima, by the
way of Chachapoyas and Moyobamba. These are principally articles of
wearing apparel, or stuff to make them of. Heavier articles—such as
iron, iron implements, copper kettles, (for distilling,) guns, crockery,
&c.—come from below. The axes are narrow, worthless things, made in
Portugal, and sold in Tarapoto for a dollar in money, without handles.
Iron (of which the inhabitants are very careful to buy Swedish only) is
worth in Tarapoto twelve and a half cents the pound. A common plate for
the dinner table is worth twenty five cents; a cup and saucer, twelve
and a half cents; a glass with handle to drink water, fifty cents;
a small glass to drink spirits, twenty-five cents; a small basin to
wash the face in, twenty-five cents; looking-glass of one and a half
foot long, and a foot wide, seventy-five cents; penknife of one blade,
fifty cents; small hand-bells for the churches, fifty cents; a pair
of coarse scissors, eighteen and three-quarter cents; a long-pointed,
white-handled knife, thirty-seven and a half cents; small slates,
with pencil and sponge, one dollar; coarse sabres, with wooden handle,
seventy-five cents; jews-harp, twelve and a half cents; horn buttons,
six and a quarter cents the dozen. Morey gave for a common Yankee
clock, on the Amazon, seventeen dollars and fifty cents. These are money
values.
One will be told that these articles are sold at double these prices;
but money, on account of its scarcity, is worth double its nominal
value; thus a yard of tocuyo, (the most common currency,) which is
always valued in _Nauta_, _Pebas_, _Loreto_, &c., at twenty-five cents
in exchange for _efectos_, or goods, may be bought there for twelve and
a half cents specie. The traveller should be aware of this, or he may
be paying double prices for things.
The salt fish brought up from below is in large pieces of about eight
pounds each, cut from the _vaca marina_—the _payshi_, a fish of one
hundred and fifty pounds weight—and the _gamitana_, a large flat fish,
like the skate. The piece is worth twelve and a half cents, money, in
Tarapoto, and twenty-five cents in Moyobamba.
The _vaca marina_ (sea cow) of the Spaniards, and _peixe boy_ (fish
ox) of the Portugese, (also found in our Florida streams, and there
called _manatee_,) is found in great numbers on the Amazon and its
principal tributaries. It is an animal averaging, when full grown,
about nine feet in length, and six in circumference. It has much the
appearance of a large seal, with a smooth skin, dark on the back, a
dirty white on the belly, and thinly sprinkled with coarse hairs. The
eyes and ears (or rather holes for hearing) are very small. The mouth
is also small, though it looks large on the outside, on account of a
very thick and wide upper lip, which is shaped like that of an ox. In
the one I examined, which was a young female, I could discover neither
tongue nor teeth, but a thick, rough, and hard, fleshy cushion attached
to both upper and lower jaws, which seemed to me very well adapted
to masticating the grass which grows upon the banks of the river, and
which is its principal food. The tail is broad and flat, and is placed
horizontally. This, with two large fins far in advance, and very near
the jaws, enables it to move in the water with considerable rapidity. It
is not able to leave the water; but in feeding it gets near the shore
and raises its head out. It is, when feeding, most often taken by the
Indians. An ordinary-sized vaca marina will yield from thirty-five to
forty pounds of manteca, which will sell in Tarapoto for three cents
the pound, money; besides ten pieces of salt fish, worth twelve and a
half cents each. Fifty cents is the common price of the fish where it is
taken. The governor general of the missions told me that two men in his
employment at _Chorococha_, on the Amazon, had taken seven for him in
eight days. The flesh, salted or dried, is a good substitute for pork.
It is put up in large jars in its own fat, and is called _michira_.
Chasuta is an Indian village of twelve hundred inhabitants, situated
on a plain elevated about twenty-five feet above the present level of
the river. It is frequently covered in the full, and the people take
their canoes into their houses and live in them. The diseases, as all
along the river, are pleurisy, tarbardillo, and sarna. The small-pox
sometimes makes its appearance, but does little damage. It is a very
healthy place, and few die.
The Indians of Chasuta are a gentle, quiet race; very docile, and very
obedient to their priest, always saluting him by kneeling and kissing
his hand. They are tolerably good boatmen, but excel as hunters. Like
all the Indians, they are much addicted to drink. I have noticed that
the Indians of this country are reluctant to shed blood, and seem to
have a horror of its sight. I have known them to turn away to avoid
killing a chicken, when it was presented to one for that purpose. The
Indian whom Ijurra struck did not complain of the pain of the blow,
but, bitterly and repeatedly, that "his blood had been shed." They eat
musquitoes that they catch on their bodies, with the idea of restoring
the blood which the insect has abstracted.
The padre told me that the fee for a marriage was four pounds of wax,
which was the perquisite of the sacristan; for a burial, two, which went
to the sexton; and that he was regaled with a fowl for a christening.
He complained of the want of salary, or fees; and said that it was
impossible for a clergyman to live unless he engaged in trade. Every
year the governor appoints twelve men to serve him. The commission runs,
"For the service of our holy mother church;" but it means the curate. It
is an office of distinction, and the Indians crave it. They are called
_Fiscales_. They work the padre's chacra and trapiche; fish for him;
hunt for him; (the fishermen and hunters are called _mitayos_; this is a
remnant of an oppressive old Spanish law called _mita_, by which certain
services, particularly in the mines, were exacted of the Indians;) do
his washing; wait upon his table; and carry on for him his traffic on
the river, by which he gains his salt fish and the means to buy crockery
for his table.
I bought wax of the curate to pay for the canoes and boatmen to
_Yurimaguas_. The men desired money, and I told the curate that he had
better let me pay them in money, as to be familiar with its use would
tend to civilize them. But he said that they did not know its value,
and would only hoard it up or use it as ornaments. I don't know what
else he will do with it, for certainly it never circulates. I have not
seen a dollar since I left Huanuco, except those that were in my own
hands. That the Indians have no idea of its value is evident. I bought a
pucuna of one. He desired money; and his first demand was four dollars;
which I refused to give. He then said six reals, (seventy-five cents.) I
gave him a dollar, which I thought would pay him for the time and labor
necessary to make another.
As we were now clear of the dangers of the river, and were to be more
exposed to sun and rain, we had coverings made of hoop-poles, and
thatched with palm, fitted to the canoe. The one over the stern, for
the accommodation of the patron, covers about six feet of it, and makes
a good _den_ to retreat to in bad weather. It is called by the Indians
_pamacari_. The one fitted over the cargo, in the body of the boat, is
called _armayari_. It is narrower than the other, allowing room for the
Indians to sit and paddle on each side of it.
_August 25._—We left Chasuta in company with two canoes; one belonging
to a Portuguese, resident of Tarapoto, carrying a cargo to Nauta;
and the other manned by the Fiscales, and carrying the padre's little
venture of salt. We passed the salt hills of Callana Yacu, where the
people of Chasuta and the Indians of Ucayali and Marañon get their salt.
The hills are not so high as those of Pilluana, and the salt seems more
mixed with red earth. It "crops out" on the banks of the river, which
are shelving, and rise into gentle hills as they recede, covered with
bushes and small trees. A quarter of an hour afterwards we entered a
more hilly country; river narrow, shallow, and rapid; its depth fifteen
feet, and its current four and a half miles the hour. Soon after we
passed between cliffs of dark-red rocks, where the river deepened to
forty-two feet. On one of these rocks, appearing like a gigantic boulder
of porphyry, were cut rude figures of saints and crosses, with letters
which are said to express "The leap of the Traitor Aguirre;" but they
were too much worn by time and weather for me to make them out. There
were more recent cuttings in the rock. One of them were the letters VR,
the work, I imagine, of an Englishman belonging to the circus company.
The pass is called "El Salto de Aguirre." We camped on the right bank
of the river, having passed the country of the Infidels.
_August 26._—Being in company with Antonio, the Portuguese, who, knows
how to arrange matters, we get a cup of coffee at the peep of day and
are off by half past 5 a. m. At five miles of distance we passed the
lower extremity of the Pongo, which commences at Shapaja. "Pongo" is an
Indian word, and is applied to designate the place where a river breaks
through a range of hills, and where navigation is of course obstructed
by rocks and rapids. The place where the Marañon breaks its way through
the last chain of hills that obstructs its course is called the Pongo de
_Manseriche_. This is the Pongo de Chasuta. There is only one mal-paso
below Chasuta; it is called the mal-paso _del Gabilan_, and is just
below the Salto de Aguirre. It is insignificant, and I should not have
noticed it at all, but that it was pointed out to me, and said to be
dangerous for canoes in the full of the river.
After passing the Pongo, we entered upon a low, flat country, where
the river spreads out very wide, and is obstructed by islands and
sand-banks. This is the deposit from the Pongo. In the channel where we
passed, I found a scant five feet of water; I suspect, but I could not
find out, that more water may be had in some of the other channels. This
shoal water is but for a short distance, and the soundings soon deepened
to twelve and eighteen feet. Small pebbly islands are forming in the
river, and much drift-wood from above lodges on them. After having
stopped two hours to breakfast, we passed the mouth of the _Chipurana_,
which is about twenty yards wide.
This river flows from the _Pampa del Sacramento_, and affords, when it
is full, a canoe navigation of about forty miles, taking four days to
accomplish it, on account of shoals and fallen trees. This distance
brings the traveller to the port of _Yanayacu_, where, in 1835, when
Lieutenant Smyth travelled this route, there was one hut; there is not
one now. A walk over a plain for twenty-five miles reaches the village
of _Sta. Catalina_, which then had thirty families; now one hundred
and sixty inhabitants; so that it has changed very little in all this
time. Embarking at Sta. Catalina, on the river of the same name, the
traveller, in two days of a very difficult and interrupted navigation,
enters the Ucayali; ascending which stream a day and a half, he arrives
at _Sarayacu_.
I was desirous of going to Sarayacu by this route, but the river would
not, at this season, afford sufficient water for my canoes to reach
Yanayacu, and I moreover did not like to miss the lower part of the
Huallaga.
River now two hundred yards wide, free from obstruction, with a gentle
current, and between eighteen and twenty-four feet of depth. We saw
turtle-tracks in the sand to-day for the first time; camped on the
beach.
_August 27._—Saw flesh-colored porpoises; also a small seal, which
looked like a fur-seal; got turtle-eggs. The turtles crawl out upon the
beach during the night, deposit their eggs, and retreat before dawn,
leaving, however, broad tracks in the sand, by which their deposits
are discovered. We must have got upwards of a thousand; I counted one
hundred and fifty taken from one hole. Since we have passed the Pongo
we have encountered no stones; the beaches are all of sand.
_August 28._—Arrived at Yurimaguas. This little village, situated
upon a hill immediately upon the banks of the river, and numbering two
hundred and fifty inhabitants, now appears almost entirely deserted. We
could procure neither peons nor canoes. The men were away in the forest
collecting wax for a fiesta, ordered by the curate; and the sub-prefect
of the province, who had been gold-hunting up the Santiago, had taken
all the canoes up the _Cachiyacu_ with him on his return to Moyobamba. I
was told that his expedition for gold up the Santiago, which consisted
of a force of eighty armed men, had been a failure; that they got no
gold, and had lost five of their company by the attacks of the Huambisas
and other savages of the Santiago. This may not be true. The sub-prefect
(I was told) said that the expedition had accomplished its purpose,
which was simply to open friendly communications with the savages, with
a view to further operations.
With great difficulty, and by paying double, I persuaded our
_Chasutinos_ to take us on to _Sta. Cruz_, where I was assured I
could be accommodated both with boats and men. We could buy nothing at
Yurimaguas but a few bunches of plantains and some salt fish out of a
passing boat.
An island divides the river three-fourths of a mile above Yurimaguas.
The southern branch is the channel; the northern one is closed at its
lower end by a sand-bank opposite the village.
We left Yurimaguas after breakfasting. Half a mile below the village
is the mouth of the Cachiyacu. This river is the general route between
Moyobamba and the ports of the Amazon. It is navigable for large canoes,
when full, (which is from January to June,) as far as _Balza Puerto_, a
considerable village, five days' journey from Moyobamba. It takes nine
days for a loaded canoe to ascend as far as Balza Puerto. Lieutenant
Maw descended this river in 1827. Communication is also had by the
Cachiyacu with many villages situated in the fine country between the
Marañon and Huallaga rivers: so that Yurimaguas, situated at the mouth
of this river, and having open communication with the Atlantic, may
be considered as occupying an important position in any scheme for
navigation and trade.
We met several canoes going up the river for salt; canoes passing each
other on the river _speak_ at a great distance apart. The Indians use a
sing-song tone, that is heard and understood very far, without seeming
to call for much exertion of the voice. Every year at this season the
Indians of the Marañon and Ucayali make a voyage up the Huallaga for
their supply of salt. They travel slowly, and support themselves by
hunting, fishing, and robbing plantain patches on their way.
About eight miles below Yurimaguas, an island with extensive sand-flats
occupies nearly the whole of the middle of the river. We passed to
the right, and I found but a scant six feet of water. The popero said
there was less on the other side; but Antonio, the Portuguese, passed
there, and said there was more. He did not sound, however. We tried an
experiment to ascertain the speed of the canoe at full oar, and I was
surprised to find that six men could not paddle it faster than two miles
the hour; ours is, however, a very heavy and clumsy canoe. We have had
frequent races with Antonio and the Fiscales, and were always beaten.
It was a pretty sight to see the boat of the latter, though laden with
salt to the water's edge, dance by us; and, although beaten, we could
not sometimes refrain (as their puntero, a tall, painted Indian, would
toss his paddle in the air with a triumphant gesture as he passed) from
giving a _hurrah_ for the servants of the church.
_August 29._—We met a canoe of _Conibos_ Indians, one man and two
women, from the Ucayali, going up for salt. We bought (with beads) some
turtle-eggs, and proposed to buy a monkey they had; but one of the women
clasped the little beast in her arms, and set up a great outcry lest
the man should sell it. The man wore a long, brown, cotton gown, with
a hole in the neck for the head to go through, and short, wide sleeves.
He had on his arm a bracelet of monkey's teeth; and the women had white
beads hanging from the _septum_ of the nose. Their dress was a cotton
petticoat tied round the waist; and all were filthy.
We are now getting into the lake country; and hence to the mouth of
the Amazon, lakes of various sizes, and at irregular distances, border
the rivers. They all communicate with the rivers by channels, which are
commonly dry in the dry season. They are the resort of immense numbers
of water-fowl, particularly cranes and cormorants; and the Indians, at
the proper season, take many fish and turtles from them.
Many of these lakes are, according to the traditions of the Indians,
guarded by an immense serpent, which is able to raise such a tempest
in the lake as to swamp their canoes, when it immediately swallows
the people. It is called in the "Lengua Inga" "Yacu Mama," or mother
of the waters; and the Indians never enter a lake with which they are
not familiar that they do not set up an obstreperous clamor with their
horns, which the snake is said to answer; thus giving them warning of
its presence.
I never saw the animal myself, but will give a description of it written
by Father Manuel Castrucci de Vernazza, in an account of his mission to
the _Givaros_ and _Zaparos_ of the river _Pastaza_, made in 1845:
"The wonderful nature of this animal—its figure, its size, and other
circumstances—enchains attention, and causes man to reflect upon the
majestic and infinite power and wisdom of the Supreme Creator. The sight
alone of this monster confounds, intimidates, and infuses respect into
the heart of the boldest man. He never seeks or follows the victims upon
which he feeds; but, so great is the force of his inspiration, that
he draws in with his breath whatever quadruped or bird may pass him,
within from twenty to fifty yards of distance, according to its size.
That which I killed from my canoe upon the Pastaza (with five shots of a
fowling-piece) had two yards of thickness and fifteen yards of length;
but the Indians of this region have assured me that there are animals
of this kind here of three or four yards diameter, and from thirty to
forty long. These swallow entire hogs, stags, tigers, and men, with the
greatest facility; but, by the mercy of Providence, it moves and turns
itself very slowly, on account of its extreme weight. When moving, it
appears a thick log of wood covered with scales, and dragged slowly
along the ground, leaving a track so large that men may see it at a
distance and avoid its dangerous ambush."
The good father says that he observed "that the blood of this animal
flowed in jets, (salia á chorros,) and in enormous abundance. The
prejudice of the Indians in respect to this species of great snakes
(believing it to be the devil in figure of a serpent) deprived me of the
acquisition of the dried skin, though I offered a large gratification
for it."
It is almost impossible to doubt a story told with this minuteness of
detail. Doubtless the padre met with, and killed the boa-constrictor;
but two yards of thickness is scarcely credible. He writes it _dos varas
de grosor_. (Grosor is thickness.) I thought the father might have meant
two yards in circumference, but he afterwards says that the Indians
reported them of three and four yards in diameter, (_de diametro_.)
We had a fresh squall of wind and rain from the northward and eastward.
The Portuguese, who is a careful and timid navigator, and whose motions
we follow because he is a capital caterer, and has a wife along to cook
for us, pulled in for the beach, and we camped for the night. The beach
where we pitched belongs to an island, or rather what is an island
when the river is full, though the right-hand channel is now dry; the
left-hand channel runs close to the shore, and I could find but five
feet water in it, though there was probably more very close to the
shore, which was bold. The obstruction is narrow, and could be readily
cleared away.
Seventy miles below Yurimaguas is Sta. Cruz. This is an Indian village
of a tribe called _Aguanos_, containing three hundred and fifty
inhabitants. The lieutenant governor is the only white man in it. The
women go naked down to their hips, and the children entirely so. I was
quite an object of curiosity and fear to them; and they seemed never
tired of examining my spectacles. The pueblo is situated on an eminence,
as most of the villages of this country are, to avoid inundation. It has
a small stream running by it, which empties into the river at the port,
and is navigable in the rainy season for loaded canoes. The convento
is the most respectable-looking house on the river. It is divided into
apartments; has ceilings; and is plastered, inside and out, with a white
clay. There was a portico in the rear, and it looked altogether as if
it had been designed and built by a person who had some taste and some
idea of personal comfort.
I obtained at this place the sap of a large tree called catao, which
is said to be very poisonous. It appears to be acrid, and acts like a
powerful caustic. The man who chopped the bark, to let the sap run,
always turned away his face as he struck, for fear of its getting
into his eyes. The Indians employ it for the purpose of curing old
dull sores. The tree is generally very large; has a smooth bark, but
with knots on it bearing short thorns. The leaf is nearly circular;
it is called in Brazil _assacu_, and is there thought to be a remedy
for leprosy. We gathered also some leaves and root of a running plant
called _guaco_, which, steeped in spirits, and applied internally and
externally, is said to be an antidote to the bite of a snake. I think
it probable that this may be a fancy of the Indians, originating from
the fact that the leaf has something the appearance and color of a
snake-skin. There is a great abundance of it all over the Montaña.
We found difficulty in getting canoes at this place. The only one that
would accommodate ourselves and baggage belonged to the church, and,
like its mistress in Peru, it was in rather a dilapidated condition. We
bargained for it with the curaca, (chief of the Indians, and second in
authority to the lieutenant governor;) but when the lieutenant returned
from his chacra, where he had been setting out plantains, he refused
to let us have it, on the ground that it wanted repairs. We were,
therefore, obliged to take two small ones that would barely carry the
trunks and boxes, and embark ourselves in the canoe of the Portuguese.
We have found this man, Don Antonio da Costa Viana, and his family,
quite a treasure to us on the road. He is a stout, active little fellow,
about fifty years of age, with piercing black eyes, long black curls,
a face burned almost to negro blackness by the sun, deeply pitted
with the small-pox, and with a nose that, as Ijurra tells him, would
make a cut-water for a frigate. He is called _paraguá_, (a species of
parrot,) from his incessant talk; and he brags that he is "as well known
on the river as a dog." He has a chacra of sugar-cane and tobacco,
with a trapiche, at Tarapoto. He sells the spirits that he makes
for tocuyo, and carries the tocuyo, tobacco, and chancaca to Nauta,
selling or rather exchanging as he goes. His canoe is fifty feet long
and three broad, and carries a cargo which he values at five hundred
dollars; that is, five hundred in _efectos_—two hundred and fifty in
money. It is well fitted with armayari and pamacari, and carries six
peons—Antonio, himself, his wife, and his adopted daughter, a child
of ten years; besides affording room for the calls of hospitality.
My friend is perfect master of all around him; (a little tyrannical,
perhaps, to his family;) knows all the reaches and beaches of the river,
and every tree and shrub that grows upon its banks. He is intelligent,
active, and obliging; always busy: now twisting fishing-lines of the
fibres of a palm called _chambira_; now hunting turtle-eggs, robbing
plantain-fields, or making me cigars of tobacco-leaves given me by the
priest of Chasuta. Every beach is a house for him; his peons build his
rancho and spread his musquito curtain; his wife and child cook his
supper. His mess of salt fish, turtle-eggs, and plantains is a feast
for him; and his gourd of coffee, and pipe afterwards, a luxury that a
king might envy. He is always well and happy. I imagine he has picked
up and hoarded away, to keep him in his old age, or to leave his wife
when he dies, some few of the dollars that are floating about here; and,
in short, I don't know a more enviable person. It is true Doña Antonio
gets drunk occasionally; but he licks her if she is troublesome, and it
seems to give him very little concern.
I sometimes twit him with the immorality of robbing the poor Indians
of their plantains; but he defends himself by saying, "That to take
plantains is not to steal; to take a knife, or a hatchet, or an article
of clothing, is; but plantains, not. Every body on the river does it. It
is necessary to have them, and he is perfectly willing to pay for them,
if he could find the owners and they would sell them." The old rascal
is very religious too; he has, hanging under the parmacari of his boat,
a silver Crucifix and a wooden St. Anthony. He thinks a priest next of
kin to a saint, and a saint perfection. He said to me, as his wife was
combing her hair in the canoe, "A bald woman, Don Luis, must be a very
ugly thing: not so a bald man, because St. Peter, you know, was bald;"
and I verily believe that, although he is very vain of his black curls,
were he to lose them, he would find consolation in the reflection that
he had made an approach, in appearance at least, towards his great
exemplar.
We shoved off from Sta. Cruz at sunset, and camped on the beach a mile
lower down. It is very well to do this, for the canoe-men are taken
away from the temptation of the villages, and are sober and ready for
an early start next morning.
_August 31._—Started at 6 a. m.; camped on the beach at a quarter-past
5 p. m.
_September 1._—Heavy clouds and rains both to the northward and eastward
and southward and westward, with an occasional spit at us; but we
set the rain at defiance under the palm-thatched roof of Antonio. At
half-past 3 p. m. we arrived at _Laguna_. This town, the principal
one of the district and the residence of the governor, is one and a
half mile from the port. The walk is a pleasant one through the forest
at this season, but is probably mud to the knees in the rains. It
contains one thousand and forty-four inhabitants; and the productions
of the neighborhood are wax, sarsaparilla, copal, copaiba, and salt
fish. I have seen all these in the hands of the Indians, but in small
quantities; there being so little demand for them.
The _Cocamillas_, who form the largest part of the population of Laguna,
are lazy and drunken. They are capital boatmen, however, when they have
no liquor; and I had more comfort with them than with any other Indians
except those of Tingo Maria.
_September 2._—Waiting for boats and boatmen. There are no large canoes,
and we are again compelled to take two. I was surprised at this as I was
led to believe—and I thought it probable—that the nearer we got to the
Marañon the larger we should find the boats, and the means of navigation
more complete. But I have met with nothing but misstatements in my whole
course. The impression I received in Lima of the Montaña was, that it
was a country abounding not only with the necessaries, but with the
luxuries of life, so far as eating was concerned. Yet I am now satisfied
that if one hundred men were to start without provisions, on the route
I have travelled, the half must inevitably perish for want of food. Of
meat there is almost none; and even salt fish, yuccas, and plantains
are scarce, and often not to be had; game is shy; and the fish, of which
there are a great number, do not readily take the hook; of fruit I have
seen literally none edible since leaving Huanuco.
At Chasuta I was assured that I should find at Yurimaguas every facility
for the prosecution of my journey; yet I could get neither a boat nor a
man, and had to persuade my Chasuta boatmen to carry me on to Sta. Cruz,
where the Yurimaguas people said there would be no further difficulty.
At Sta. Cruz I could get but two small and rotten canoes, with three men
to each, for Laguna, which, being the great port of the river, could in
the estimation of the people at Sta. Cruz, furnish me with the means
of crossing the Atlantic if necessary. I had been always assured that
I could get at Laguna one hundred Cocamillas, if I wanted them, as a
force to enter among the savages of the Ucayali; but here, too, I could
with difficulty get six men and two small canoes to pass me on to Nauta,
which I expected to find, from the description of the people above, a
small New York. Had it not been that Senhor Cauper, at that place, had
just then a boat unemployed, which he was willing to sell, I should
have had to abandon my expedition up the Ucayali, and build me a raft
to float down the Marañon.
We found at the port of Laguna two travelling merchants, a Portuguese
and a Brazilian. They had four large boats of about eight tons each,
and two or three canoes. Their cargo consisted of iron, steel, iron
implements, crockery-ware, wine, brandy, copper kettles, coarse, short
swords, (a very common implement of the Indians,) guns, ammunition, salt
fish, &c., which they expected to exchange in Moyobamba and Chachapoyas
for straw-hats, tocuyo, sugar, coffee, and money. They were also buying
up all the sarsaparilla they could find, and despatching it back in
canoes. They gave for the arroba, of twenty-five pounds, three dollars
and fifty cents in goods, which probably cost in Pará one dollar.
They estimated the value of their cargoes at five thousand dollars. I
have no doubt that two thousand dollars in money would have bought the
whole concern, boats and all; and that with this the traders would have
drifted joyfully down the river, well satisfied with their year's work.
They invited us to breakfast off roast pig; and I thought that I never
tasted anything better than the _farinha_, which I saw for the first
time.
Farinha is a general substitute for bread in all the course of the
Amazon below the Brazilian frontier. It is used by all classes, and in
immense quantities by the Indians and laborers. Our boatmen in Brazil
were always contented with plenty of salt fish and farinha. Every two
or three hours of the day, whilst travelling, they would stop rowing,
pour a little water upon a large gourd-full of farinha, and pass around
the mass (which they called _pirào_) as if it were a delicacy.
The women generally make the farinha. They soak the root of the mandioc
(Jatropha Manihot) in water till it is softened a little, when they
scrape off the skin, and grate it upon a board smeared with some of
the adhesive gums of the forest and sprinkled with pebbles. The white
grated mass is put in a conical-shaped bag, made of the coarse fibres
of a palm, and called _tapiti_. The bag is hung up to a peg driven into
a tree, or a post of the shed; a lever is put through a loop at the
bottom of the bag; the short end of the lever is placed under a chock
nailed to the post below, and the woman hangs her weight on the long
end. This elongates the bag, and brings a heavy pressure upon the mass
within, causing all the juice to ooze out through the interstices of
the wicker-work of the bag. When sufficiently pressed the mass is put on
the floor of a mud oven; heat is applied, and it is stirred with a stick
till it granulates in very irregular grains, (the largest about the size
of our No. 2 shot,) and is sufficiently toasted to drive off all the
poisonous qualities which it has in a crude state. It is then packed
in baskets (lined and covered with palm-leaves) of about sixty-four
pounds weight, which are generally sold, all along the river, at from
seventy-five cents to one dollar. The sediment of the juice which runs
from the tapiti is tapioca, and is used to make custards, puddings,
starch, &c.
_September 3._—Our boatmen came down to the port at 8 a. m. They were
accompanied, as usual, by their wives, carrying their bedding, their
jars of masato, and even their paddles; for these fellows are too lazy,
when on shore, to do a hand's turn; though when embarked they work
freely, (these Cocamillas,) and are gay, cheerful, ready, and obedient.
The dress of the women is nothing more than a piece of cotton cloth,
generally dark brown in color, wrapped around the loins and reaching
to the knee. I was struck with the appearance of one, the only pretty
Indian girl I have seen. She appeared to be about thirteen years of
age, and was the wife of one of our boatmen. It was amusing to see the
slavish respect with which she waited upon the young savage, (himself
about nineteen,) and the lordly indifference with which he received her
attentions. She was as straight as an arrow, delicately and elegantly
formed, and had a free, wild, Indian look, that was quite taking.
We got off at a quarter past nine; the merchants at the same time;
and the padre also returns to-day to Yurimaguas; so that we make a
haul upon the population of Laguna, and carry off about seventy of its
inhabitants. Twenty-five miles below Laguna, we arrived at the mouth
of the Huallaga. Several islands occupy the middle of it. The channel
runs near the left bank. Near the middle of the river we had nine feet;
passing towards the left bank we suddenly fell into forty-five feet. The
Huallaga, just above the island, is three hundred and fifty yards wide;
the Amazon, at the junction, five hundred. The water of both rivers is
very muddy and filthy, particularly that of the former, which for some
distance within the mouth is covered with a glutinous scum, that I take
to be the excrement of fish, probably that of porpoises.
The Huallaga, from Tingo Maria, the head of canoe navigation, to
Chasuta, (from which point to its mouth it is navigable for a draught
of five feet at the lowest stage of the river,) is three hundred and
twenty-five miles long; costing seventy-four working hours to descend
it; and falling four feet and twenty-seven hundredths per mile. From
Chasuta to its mouth it has two hundred and eighty-five miles of length,
and takes sixty-eight hours of descent, falling one foot and twenty-five
hundredths per mile. It will be seen that these distances are passed in
nearly proportional times. This is to be attributed to the time occupied
in descending the malos pasos, for the current is more rapid above than
below. The difference between the times of ascent and descent is, on
an average, about three for one. It is proper to state here that all my
estimates of distance, after embarkation upon the rivers, being obtained
from measurement by the _log-line_, are in geographical miles of sixty
to the degree.