244 DON JUAN GIRONDA. Chap. XV. 



valley, through a forest of grand timber, passing the little 

 hut of Tambopata whicli Dr. Weddell had mentioned to 

 me as having been the great rendezvous for cascariUeros or 

 chinchona-bark collectors, at the time of his visit. After 

 wading across the rapid little river of Llami-Uami, ^Yhicll 

 enters the Tambopata on the left bank, we came to a small 

 clearing, planted with sugar-cane, the property of a very 

 energetic and obliging old Bolivian, named Don Juan de la 

 Cruz Gironda. He was living in a shed, open on two sides, 

 and with a young son, and two or three Indians, was actively 

 clearing, planting sugar-cane, and making rum in an extem- 

 porized distillery of his own manufacture. This little farm 

 was the extreme outpost of civilisation in this direction, 

 and had only been commenced since December 1859. 



Gironda was cultivating sugar-cane, maize, and edible 

 roots ; and, at the time of my visit, he was just commencing 

 his miehca, or small sowing of maize. His people were 

 driving holes in the ground with long poles, about a foot 

 deep, into which they drop four to six grains, and cover over. 

 The holes are fom^ feet apart, for here the maize grows to 

 an immense height. The agricultui'al tools were of a most 

 primitive kind. The gTOund is first broken and cleared 

 with a bit of old iron, fastened, at an acute angle, on a 

 short handle. It is further broken up by an attempt at a 

 spade, an oblong piece of iron, bent at one end round 

 a long pole. The weeds and brushwood are cleared awav 

 by an instrument like the first, only tiu-ned a different way, 

 both being secured to their handles by leathern thongs. 

 They reap with the blade of an old knife, and where the 

 clods require to be broken up very fine, as in coca plan- 

 tations, it is done by hand. The only use that Gironda puts 

 his small supply of sugar-cane to, as yet, is making spirits 

 and a small quantity of treacle. The cane is expressed by 

 a very primitive mill of three upright rollers of hard wood, 



