12 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP, xv 



Amazon as far as Parinari, a little above Ega. 

 Thence they ascended the Yapura river, where 

 they found a tribe of Indians called Yurimaguas, 

 and after a time persuaded these to return with 

 them up the great river and the Huallaga to the 

 present site, where they have remained. They 

 were induced to do so the more readily on account 

 of the constant enmity of a neighbouring more 

 powerful tribe. At present these Indians all use 

 the Inca language, and only a few of the older 

 ones have an imperfect knowledge of their original 

 language. 



The church here perhaps is the most ancient, 

 and is certainly the best built of any I have seen 

 in Maynas. It is built of adobes in a style very 

 similar to that of churches in Lima, having a very- 

 high -pitched roof. The floor is of tiles. The 

 priest's house seems to be of the same date, arid 

 has been much ornamented within by cornices, etc., 

 painted in various colours the work of the last 

 priest. Over one of the doors is inscribed in Latin 

 the verse of Proverbs : " Give me neither poverty 

 nor riches." 



[During Spruce's stay here he made a very care- 

 ful pencil-drawing of the church, with its well- 

 designed entrance of the simplest native materials. 

 The figures on each side of the door are those of 

 St. Peter and St. Paul, executed in coloured earths, 

 while on the left is the belfry with its ladder the 

 campanile of South Europe reduced to its simplest 

 elements. The figures of an Indian man, woman, 

 and boy, with the priest going to the church, are 

 characteristic ; while the background of forest, with 

 its various forms of trees, completes the picture. I 



