284 CANOE-VOYAGE DOWN THE EIO NAPO. 



current, and in the deepening twilight Y.'e swept on down 

 Ijctween the dark forest walls. 



About fifteen miles below the old tovrn, we found the 

 new Santa Kosa, containing one hundred and fifty In- 

 dians, The rapidity with which we had descended the 

 river may be inferred from the fact that in seven hours 

 we had come a distance of eighty miles, making a fall of 

 three hundred and fifty feet. The Indians here were also 

 engaged with their feast, and we again experienced much 

 difficulty in obtaining any to accompany us to the Mara- 

 non, but at length secured two canoes and four Indians, 

 paying them in llenzo — cloth of a coarse cotton manu- 

 facture, which we had brought from Quito. We delayed 

 at Santa Rosa several days, in order to allow our Indians 

 time to prepare a sufficient quantity of the yuca-root to 

 last them during the long voyage. The yuca-shrub yields 

 a large cluster of tuberous roots. These, when used for 

 the manufacture of chicha, ai-e bruised or ground into a 

 pulpy mass, and then allowed to ferment. A large hand- 

 ful mixed in a calabash of water makes a thick, nutritious, 

 and not unpleasant drink. It was upon this that our In- 

 dians chiefly subsisted while passing down the river, se- 

 creting large quantities from time to time upon the islands, 

 to be used upon their return trip. 



The night preceding our departure from Santa Rosa 

 our Indians spent in drinking chicha, so that the following 

 niornmg, when ready to start, they were, as the Spanish 

 alcalde expressed it, decidedly " irrational." Bidding adios 

 to their friends, they shoved our canoe into the stream, 

 and, with the coolest indifierence, stretched themselves in 

 the bottom, with the exception of the governor, who, as 

 pilot, settled himself in the stern, and commenced blasting 

 away upon an old cow's-horn. But such an arrangement, 

 although doubtless highly conducive to comfort, was de- 

 cidedly incompatible with our idea of safety, as the canoe 



