8o NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



fall, although no one expects the struggle will be 

 over in less than six months. [No ! Castilla proved 

 too strong for them.] Meantime, an innocent 

 traveller, who may be supposed to possess any- 

 thing worth robbing, runs the risk of being accused 

 as a partisan, either of Vivanco or of Castilla, 

 according to the colour of the revolutionary band 

 he falls in with ; so that even Peruvians, who have 

 anything to lose, put off their journeys to an inde- 

 finite date. I had lately a dispute with the present 

 Commandant of Tarapoto a presumptuous, ignorant 

 young fellow wherein he propounded the doctrine 

 " En tiempo de revolucion todos los bienes sou 

 comunes \ ' I told him the intent of such revolu- 

 tions was simply indiscriminate plunder. 



On the last day of the carnival (Shrove Tuesday) 

 we had an uprising of the Indians, and there was a 

 struggle between them and the soldiery in the 

 square. Several Indians received bayonet-wounds, 

 and one died of his wounds the second day. 



A few days ago a tiger 1 was killed within forty 

 paces of my house. I was sitting in the doorway 

 at daybreak, sipping my chocolate, when I heard a 

 multitude of people running down the valley and 

 uttering the most infernal cries, among which I at 

 length distinguished the word "puma" many times 

 repeated. I seized my pistol and ran to the edge 

 of the barranco, where I saw the puma coming 

 straight for my door ; but he missed the narrow 

 track among the canes the only practicable ascent 

 and got to the foot of the barranco, where it rose 

 in a perpendicular wall 30 feet high. There he was 



1 [This term seems to be applied to both the puma and the jaguars very 

 distinct animals. ED.] 



