no NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



farm where three men and two women were cutting 

 palm -.leaves and preparing the fibre to make 

 hammocks for the Governor of Andoas. The 

 Journal now continues : 



April 26 (Sunday]. - - Starting at four this morn- 

 ing, about seven we reached a playa where we found 

 three families of inhabitants of Pinches encamped. 

 We bought of them part of a very large tapir they 

 had killed the previous night, and some pieces of 

 baked agouti in very fine condition. Here we 

 breakfasted, and then proceeded ; but our men were 

 completely at a loss in the broad shallow river, and 

 were continually running us aground, so that we 

 did not reach the village till 3^ P.M. Pinches 

 Nuevo stands on the left bank on a barranco 20 feet 

 above high -water mark. It is reached by rude 

 steps cut in the cliff, which is of tenacious red earth, 

 without the least mixture of stones or gravel. 

 There are but some ten houses, including church 

 and cabilclo (guests' house), all of Caiia brava, or of 

 strips of palm-stems, roofed with palm-thatch. Very 

 few inhabitants were present, and we had some 

 difficulty in procuring five heads of plantains and a 

 basket of yucas, especially as their chacras are new 

 and they still bring the greater part of their 

 plantains from the site of the old pueblo. The 

 inhabitants are ill-looking, and some are affected 

 with caracha (leprosy). They are the remnant of a 

 nation of Pinches Indians, and still speak a peculiar 

 language, though all understand the Ouichua. 



April 2.7. Navigation now gets more difficult, 

 hardly anywhere is there sufficient water to float our 

 canoes. Beaches appear in different places from 

 last year, and our guides can hardly pick their way. 



