Chap. VI. PASSENGERS. 369 



to watch for floating logs, and one man placed to pass 

 orders to the helmsman ; the keel scraped against a 

 sand-bank only once during the passage. 



The passengers were chiefly Peruvians, mostly thin, 

 anxious, Yankee-looking men, who were returning home 

 to the cities of Moyobamba and Chachapoyas, on the 

 Andes, after a trading trip to the Brazilian towns on 

 the Atlantic sea-board, whither they had gone six 

 months previously, with cargoes of Panama hats to ex- 

 change for European wares. These hats are made of 

 the young leaflets of a palm-tree, by the Indians and 

 half-caste people who inhabit the eastern parts of Peru. 

 They form almost the only article of export from Peru 

 by way of the Amazons, but the money value is very 

 great compared with the bulk of the goods, as the hats 

 are generally of very fine quality, and cost from twelve 

 shillings to six pounds sterling each ; some traders 

 bring down two or three thousand pounds' worth, folded 

 into small compass in their trunks. The return cargoes 

 consist of hardware, crockery, glass, and other bulky or 

 heavy goods, but not of cloth, which, being of light 

 weight, can be carried across the Andes from the ports 

 on the Pacific to the eastern parts of Peru. All kinds 

 of European cloth can be obtained at a much cheaper 

 rate by this route than by the more direct way of the 

 Amazons, the import duties of Peru being, as I was 

 told, lower than those of Brazil, and the difference 

 not being counter-balanced by increased expense of 

 transit, on account of weight, over the passes of the 

 Andes. 



There was a great lack of amusement on board. The 



VOL. II. B B 



