xv FROM MANAOS TO TARAPOTO 29 



Venezuela the only books in the Spanish language 

 existing there were " El Sepulcro, por Anna Rad- 

 cliffe," and a translation of one of the Duchesse 

 d' Abrantes' novels. They are scarcely more 

 numerous at Tarapoto, where one of the most 

 famous books is " Waverley d ahora sesenta anos, 

 por Sir Gualterio Scott." In short, so far as I can 

 judge of South America from having seen only 

 the most thinly-inhabited portions of it, I can truly 

 say that Mrs. Radcliffe, Walter Scott, and Alex- 

 andre Dumas are far more popular there than 

 Cervantes and Camoens. To the credit of the 

 Brazilians, they are far more familiar with the 

 Liisiads than the Spanish Americans are with Don 

 Quixote. . . . 



Well, we reached Nauta, beyond which the 

 Brazilian steamers do not proceed. Nauta is an 

 Indian village established about twenty years ago 

 just above the mouth of the Ucayali. It is a good 

 way within the frontier of Peru, but is at present 

 the seat of the frontier garrison (of twenty-five 

 men) and also of the government of a department 

 with provisional limits and a provisional name 

 (Dept. del Literal do Loreto), nearly conterminous 

 with the ancient province of Maynas. Two steamers 

 were got out here two years ago from the United 

 States where they had been purchased for two or 

 three times their value. They were intended to 

 navigate the Huallaga and Ucayali; but provec 

 such trashy things slightly built of pine wood, 

 and containing large, coarsely-made, high-pres 

 engines that were continually shaking the 

 leaky that the Peruvians could make nothing of 

 them, and they are at this moment lying rotting in 



