CHAPTER XVII 



IN SMALL CANOES FROM TARAPOTO TO CANELOS : 

 5OO MILES ON THE HUALLAGA, MARANON, PASTASA, 

 AND BOMBONASA RIVERS 



(March 23 to June 14, 1857) 



[THIS journey up the little-known Pastasa and 

 Bombonasa rivers in small canoes for a distance 

 of perhaps 500 miles, following the curves of the 

 rivers, was a very painful and tedious one, owing to 

 the whole country being almost depopulated, and 

 provisions not to be obtained. It occupied nearly 

 three months, of which Spruce kept a very full 

 account in his Journal, and as the whole route is 

 almost unknown to English naturalists, I have 

 selected all the more interesting portions (about 

 one-half) for presentation here. It is full of 

 details which may be useful to future travellers, 

 and contains a good deal of curious information as 

 well as several rather strange occurrences. Some 

 German botanists who descended the rivers from 

 Canelos in 1894 found the villages rather better 

 peopled on account of the increasing rubber-trade, 

 but otherwise just as Spruce described them.] 



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