French Scientific Mission to the Pampa del Sacramento. 133 
lect wood for a fire; and severe work it was, in the weak state we 
were in, to drag to our encampment heavy branches or entire trunks 
of trees. While we were thus occupied, Florentino drew the canoes 
ashore, baled out the water, lifted out the stowage, and then cooked 
our food. During these proceedings, we often met with crocodiles, 
and were constantly awakened at night by the howlings of the 
jaguars. 
At last, on the 6th September, after having passed the mouth of 
the Rio Tambo or Apurimac, we reached the small Choutaquiro village 
of Santa Rosa, which has nothing Christian about it but its name. 
There we were received with sufficient hospitality, and the Indians 
agreed to conduct us as far as the Tachytea. On the 8th we came 
to the large village of Consaya, inhabited also by that tribe, and 
where we had to submit to numerous thefts without a thought of com- 
plaining, to avoid being massacred. 
On the 11th of September we reached the Connibos nation, with 
whom it is the practice to compress the heads of their infant children 
between two wooden boards, so as to deform them, in order, they say, 
to give them the shape of the moon, while that of the whites is like 
the head of a monkey. One of these Indians gave me a small bit of 
salt. 
On the 16th we reached the small village of Connibos of the Pachy- 
tea, which stands opposite the mouth of the river of the same name, 
and is inhabited by the cannibal tribe of the Cashibos. The houses 
of the Cashibos are remarkable for their immense size; they can 
generally afford shelter to above two hundred men. 
On the 1st of October we left this village, and the same evening 
the Indians, who had been engaged and paid to go as far as Saray- 
acu, would proceed no farther. After this, we began daily to expe- 
rience such embarrassments ; sometimes on making fresh payments 
of articles from our store, or on distributing pieces of money among 
them, they would agree to accompany us a day or two longer; at 
other times, they would leave us in the wilderness. It is impossible 
to put any confidence in what they say : their bad faith exceeds belief. 
On the 21st we reached the first huts of the tribe of the Sapibos, 
whom we fouud more civilized than the preceding tribes, and who 
conducted us on the 27th to the mission of Sarayacu, situate at some 
distance in the interior. Such was the state of weakness to which I 
was reduced, that I could not proceed thither by land, whereupon the 
Padre Plaza, prefect of the mission of Ucayali, was kind enough to 
send me a canoe, which was dragged along a brook that led as far as 
the village. We were received with the utmost hospitality by the 
worthy old man, who threw himself on my neck, and told me, that 
on receiving a notice of my journey from the government, he had im- 
mediately written in reply, dissuading from the attempt, under the 
idea of its impossibility. He lost no time in celebrating a thanks- 
giving mass, and all the Indians of the mission, about a thousand in 
