Chap. III. CUCAMA INDIANS. 159 



miles from the bank along which we were laboriously 

 warping our course upwards. 



After the first two or three days we fell into a re- 

 gular way of life aboard. Our crew was composed 

 of ten Indians of the Cucama nation, whose native 

 country is a portion of the borders of the upper river 

 in the neighbourhood of Nauta, in Peru. The 

 Cucamas speak the Tupi language, using, however, a 

 harsher accent than is common amongst the semi- 

 civilized Indians from Ega downwards. They are a 

 shrewd, hard-working people, and are the only Indians 

 who willingly and in a body engage themselves to na- 

 vigate the canoes of traders. The pilot, a steady and 

 faithful fellow named Vicente, told me that he and his 

 companions had now been fifteen months absent from 

 their wives and families, and that on arriving at Ega 

 they intended to take the first chance of a passage to 

 Nauta. There was nothing in the appearance of these 

 men to distinguish them from canoemen in general. 

 Some were tall and well built, others had squat figures 

 with broad shoulders and excessively thick arms and 

 legs. No two of them were at all similar in the shape 

 of the head : Vicente had an oval visage with fine 

 regular features, whilst a little dumpy fellow, the wag 

 of the party, was quite a Mongolian in breadth and 

 prominence of cheek, spread of nostrils, and obliquity 

 of eyes ; these two formed the extremes as to face and 

 figure. None of them were tattooed or disfigured in 

 any way ; they were all quite destitute of beard. The 

 Cucamas are notorious on the river for their provident 

 habits. The desire of acquiring property is so rare a 



