CHAP, xvii TARAPOTO TO CANELOS 





ABSTRACT OF JOURNAL 

 (Bv THE EDITOR) 



[As stated in the letter to Mr. Bentham of 

 March 14, Spruce arranged to make the difficult 

 and costly as well as dangerous journey from 

 Tarapoto to Banos in Ecuador in the company of 

 two merchants of the former place, Don Ignacio 

 Morey and Don Victoriano Marrieta. Each party 

 had its own canoe with a crew of seven Indians, 

 and Spruce was accompanied by a youth of twenty 

 years, named Hermogenes Arrebalo, probably an 

 Indian, as his servant. I cannot find either in the 

 letters or journals any further reference to his 

 assistant at Tarapoto, the young Englishman, 

 Charles Nelson, and we are left in darkness as to 

 where Spruce first met with him or why Nelson 

 did not accompany him to Ecuador. 



On this journey the travellers first went over- 

 land to Chasuta, occupying two days, and the latter 

 portion of this route was so full of obstructions 

 and mud-holes, the weather being continually 

 wet and stormy, that in order not to lose 

 shoes Spruce was obliged to walk barefoot and 

 arrived at Chasuta both lamed and suffering from 

 fever. 



The canoes in which they descended the river 

 were entirely open, in order to pass the tall 

 safely, and the travellers were therefore expos< 

 the rains, which were almost continuous, 1 

 passage of the cataracts was difficult, and the 

 narrowly escaped being s\vump-<l. 

 with one of its rather singular results, is 



