TARAPOTO TO CANELOS 109 



been ill for several days, was now unable to stand, 

 and excessively bloated. . . . 



We took it on shore where we made our break- 

 fast this morning, and, as it was evidently in a 

 dying state, before we re-embarked its master put 

 an end to its sufferings by a couple of pistol-shots. 

 Thus our two handsome dogs, on whose services as 

 sentinels we had so much calculated, had been left 

 as food for beasts and birds of prey my poor 

 " Sultan " in the forests of the Huallaga, and Don 

 Victoriano's " Muchacho " in those of the Pastasa ! 



At sunset we reached the ancient pueblo of 

 Santander on the left shore. Standing on a steep 

 bank of red earth, it reminds me, by its position, 

 of Barraroa on the river Negro. I invited our 

 Indians to go there to sleep, but they shook their 

 heads and could not even be induced to take that 

 side of the river. There are still two large houses 

 standing possibly church and convent. 



[During the next fortnight the journey was 

 wearisome and monotonous, with almost continuous 

 rains, rarely any dry land to sleep on, and not a 

 single village or settlement of any kind. The only 

 break to the monotony of the succeeding days i 

 an occasional success in procuring game, such as 

 curassows or wild clucks, once an armadillo, and 

 once by great good fortune a tapir. Only once the 

 met a solitary canoe with a young Indian man and 

 woman who said they came from Andoas, 

 reaching that place they learnt that the man 

 the son of the chief, and that he was running a\\ 

 with the girl to somewhere; on the Maranon. 



On the evening of th<- 251!!, to 

 delight, they saw a fire on shore, and fount 



