132 M. F. Castelnau on the 
canoes was this day swamped and lost, and with it our last remain- 
ing musket. 
In the course of the afternoon, we came to a cabin belonging to 
the Antés Indians, who gave us some lamentin (sea-cow) beef. It 
was served in a calabash, and all of us, black and white alike, 
eagerly thrust in our hands for a share. Two of these Indians en- 
gaged for axes, sabres, &c., to conduct us as far as the country of 
the Chataquiros or Piros, called by the Antés Simirinchis. 
On the 20th we passed the mouth of a large river flowing from 
the east ; the Antés call it Camisca. 
Although we started before day, we made but slow progress, for 
the Indians stopped at every step to fish, or to hunt the hoccos or 
pecaris, a sort of wild boar ; but as they generally consented to sell 
us part of the proceeds of their chase, we had thenceforward far less 
to suffer from hunger. Still the preparation of our food without 
salt gave us great disrelish for it. The Indians wanted to leave us 
in the evening, although paid for a ten days’ journey ; and told us 
with incredible coolness that they could not go as far as the Chou- 
taquiros, because they had kidnapped several of them, and were they 
to fall in with them, would most certainly be killed. 
We were in this singular perplexity when we saw two canoes com- 
ing towards us, which were recognized as belonging to that nation. 
They contained two families, every individual among whom was 
painted black all over, so that they looked like negroes. They are 
thought to be the most thieving tribe of all that inhabit those re- 
gions, and it is they that have committed most of the murders that 
have made the Pampa del Sacramento an object of terror; but, on 
the other hand, they are the most fearless of all that navigate the 
Ucayali, and their expeditions extend from the Urubamba to the 
Amazon. They accosted us with shouts of satisfaction, and were 
delighted at receiving knives, mirrors, small bells, and necklaces of 
glass beads. They undertook to conduct us as far as one of their 
villages, which they called Santa Rosa, and which they told us lay 
at the distance of a ten days’ journey. I omit the details of our 
voyage beyond saying that we suffered cruelly one day in consequence 
of having eaten some poisonous kidney beans which we had found in 
a forsaken hut. 
We were always careful at night to encamp on the left bank of 
the stream, the right being exposed to the attacks of the Impeteneres 
or Amahuacas, a barbarous nation at war with the Choutaquiros, 
and several individuals belonging to which we saw reduced toa state 
of slavery in the cabins of the latter. Our preparations for the night 
were of the simplest kind; the sand sometimes broiling hot, some- 
times soaked with rain, formed our only bed, and there we lay till 
morning exposed to the tortures inflicted on us by the musquitoes. 
As soon as the canoes were brought to the bank, aware that we had 
no service to look for from any one, M. Deville and I set off to col- 
