PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 421 



of the Amazons, are first met with below the cataracts of Mayasi. 

 These unwieldy and slothful monsters generally prefer the more 

 tranquil waters. According to my measurements, the Rio de Cha- 

 maya, from the Ford (Paso) de Pucara to the place where it enters 

 the Amazons River below the village of Chores, has a fall ( 9 ) of 

 1668 (1778 English) feet in the short space of 52 English geograph- 

 ical miles. The G-overnor of the province of Jaen de Bracamoros 

 assured me that letters carried by this singular water-post were rarely 

 either wetted or lost. Soon after my return to Europe from Mexico, 

 I received, in Paris, letters from Tomependa, which had been sent 

 in the manner above described. Several tribes of wild Indians, liv- 

 ing on the banks of the Upper Amazons, make their journeys in a 

 similar manner, swimming down the stream sociably in parties. I 

 had the opportunity of seeing in this manner, in the bed of the river, 

 the heads of thirty or forty persons (men, women, and children), of 

 the tribe or the Xibaros, on their arrival at Tomependa. The 

 "Correo que nada" returns by land by the difficult route of the Pa- 

 ramo del Paredon. 



On approaching the hot climate of the basin of the Amazons, the 

 eye is cheered by the aspect of a beautiful, and occasionally very 

 luxuriant vegetation. We had never before, not even in the Cana- 

 ries, or on the hot sea-coast of Cumana and Caraccas, seen finer 

 orange trees than those of the Huertas de Pucara. They were* prin- 

 cipally the sweet orange (Citrus aurantium, Risso), and less fre- 

 quently the bitter or Seville orange (C. vulgaris, Risso). Laden 

 with many thousands of their golden fruits, they attain a height of 

 sixty or sixty-four English feet; and, instead of rounded tops or 

 crowns, have aspiring branches, almost like a laurel or bay tree. 

 Not far from thence, near the Ford of Cavico, we were surprised by 

 a very unexpected sight. We saw a grove of small trees, only about 

 eighteen or nineteen English feet high, which, instead of green, had 

 apparently perfectly red or rose-colored leaves. It was a new spe- 

 cies of Bougainvillaea, a genus first established by the elder Jussieu, 

 from a Brazilian specimen in Coinmerson's herbarium. The trees 

 were almost entirely without true leaves, as what we took for leaves 

 at a distance, proved to be thickly crowded bracteas. The appearance 

 was altogether different, in the purity and freshness of the color, 

 36 



