RESIDENCE AT TARAPOTO 77 



expecting for months from Para did not come till 

 the end of the year, and by that time nearly all 

 Peru was in a state of revolution. The first wave 

 of insurgency rose in this very province, but was 

 soon stilled. The Governor (Colonel Ortiz) was 

 on his way from Tarapoto, where he had been so- 

 journing a while, to Nauta, his usual place of abode. 

 He went by way of the river Ucayali, and ere he 

 could reach Nauta, the garrison of that place had 

 deserted, and set off for Tarapoto by way of the 

 iluallaga. From Nauta he pursued them, but 

 they reached Tarapoto before him and took it 

 without resistance. They got here by night, made 

 the Commandant prisoner in his bed, and the small 

 garrison left here by Colonel Ortiz deserted to the 

 insurgents. It was festival time at Tarapoto, and 

 the town was full of people. As day broke they 

 were preparing to resume the festivities for the 

 insurrection had been accomplished so quietly that 

 few but the actors knew of it when all at once 

 the cry arose " Viene el reclntamicnto \ The 

 horror of that word to a Peruvian may be compre- 

 hended when I add that " recruiting ' in Peru is 

 something like what the pressgang used to be in 

 England, only much more barbarous. Somebody 

 had caught sight of the soldiers' uniforms 

 once concluded it to 1)" a recruiting party, 

 mediately all was panic and confusion, and in 1<- 

 than an hour nearly the whole population 

 lull Might. As I sat with my door open, (jtiii.-tl; 

 working at in}' plants, I could see a continu* 

 stream across the pampa l people laden ' 

 household gods, as it emigrating; and the drum 

 fiddles, and guitars which had been 



