TARAPOTO TO CAXELOS 12 





have not yet mentioned that our companion Don 

 Victoriano and the two muchachos, when the rising 

 waters drove them from the beach, thinking that 

 it was merely a brief thunder-shower which had 

 caught us, gathered up their beds and climbed the 

 barranco, where they set up two palm mats belong- 

 ing to the canoe, and sheltered themselves under 

 them as well as they could ; but scarcely had they 

 accommodated themselves here when the llood 

 reached them and burst on them so unexpectedly 

 that several articles which were loose, trousers, 

 handkerchiefs, etc., were swept away. They retired 

 in all haste, and in the dense gloom, ignorant of 

 whither they were going, the only guide to their 

 position being the roar of the river. They wished 

 to enter the canoes, and called out at the top oi 

 their voices, which were drowned by the 

 conflict of the elements, and the cries of the Indians 

 in the canoes were all unheard by them, 

 they wandered about all night, the flood continually 

 obliging them to retreat farther inland, and when 

 day broke it found them half dead with cold, and 

 their clothes and bodies torn and wounded 

 prickly bamboos and palms. To reach the canoe 

 they had to wade with the water to their waists 

 As we were unloading the canoes, the barranco 

 which we had at first been moored fell into the 

 river with several large trees on it ; another peril 

 which we happily escaped by having had to move 

 lower down. 



Puca-yacu consists of but eight house* 

 the convent and church ; they are in the 

 as those of Ancloas, and there is 

 near them, though most have an od 



