COCA VILLAGE. 285 



was drifting among snags and down rapids, with tut 

 little consideration for tlie right of the bow to go fore- 

 most. Finding all expostulation useless, they being su- 

 premely ignorant of the English and Spanish languages, 

 and we as indifferently posted in regard to their Jcita-ioa- 

 wa, as a last resort we tried a vigorous application of one 

 of the shovel-shaped paddles, which had a most exhila- 

 rating effect upon the happy sleepers, and suddenly at- 

 tracted the attention of the musical governor to piloting 

 duties. After this drunkj our Indians were always obedi- 

 ent and faithful, generally working at the paddles with a 

 ready good-will. 



Early in the first afternoon from Santa Rosa Vv^e reached 

 Suno, a collection of four or five tambos. The night was 

 excessively sultrj^, for the river, hemmed in by the high 

 forest, does not receive the influence of the easterly trade- 

 winds which j^revail upon the Amazons and Lower NajDO ; 

 and the burning rays of the vertical sun, pouring in during 

 the entire day, render the air so oppressively hot that 

 one feels as though in an oven. We disposed of our- 

 selves for the night, by two of our number sleeping in the 

 canoes to guard our trappings, while the others swung 

 their hammocks between the trees upon the bank. The 

 following day we passed Coca River, one of the largest 

 tributai'ies to the Rio Napo, and stopped at the small In- 

 dian village of Coca, a short distance below their conflu- 

 ence. In coming from Napo village we had been obliged 

 to sit cramped up in the bottom of our canoe, under a low 

 cover of palm-leaves ; but, all the rapids being now passed, 

 we determined upon a more pretentious and comfortable 

 mode of navigation. Firmly lashing our canoes about 

 eight feet apart, we covered the intervening space with 

 a bamboo floor, and, constructing a roof over the whole, 

 we had a craft such as had never floated upon those 

 waters before, and which vre christened " Zaparo," in honor 



