The Upper A^iazon. 231 



are Englisli, and the cook is a Chinaman. She makes 

 monthly trips between Ym*imaguas, on the Huallaga Riv- 

 er, and Tabatinga, on the Brazilian frontier. Her rate 

 down stream is eighteen miles an hour, and from eleven 

 to twelve against the current. These steamers do not pay 

 expenses at present; but they preserve the authority of 

 Peru on the Maranon, and supply with material the gov- 

 ernment works at Iquitos. They also do a little com- 

 merce, taking do^^ai sarsaparilla and Moyabamba hats, and 

 bringhig up English dry-goods. There were not half a 

 dozen passengers on board. 



The only towns of any consequence west of Pebas are 

 Iquitos, Kauta, and Yurimaguas. Peru claims them — in 

 fact, all the villages on the Maranon. Iquitos is the most 

 thriving town on the Upper Amazon. It is situated on an 

 elevated plain on the left bank of the river, sixty miles 

 above the mouth of the Napo. In Herndon's time it was 

 ''a fishing village of 227 inhabitants;" it now contains 

 2000. Here are the government iron-works, carried on 

 by English mechanics. In 1867 there were six engineers, 

 twcT iron-molders, two brass-molders, two coppersmiths, 

 three blacksmiths, three pattern-makers, two boiler-mak- 

 evs, five shipwrights, three sawyers, besides bricklayei*s, 

 brick-makers, carpenters, coopers, etc. ; in all forty-two. 

 All the coal for the furnaces is brought fi*om England — 

 the lignite on the banks of the Maranon is unfit for the 

 purpose. A floating dock for vessels of a thousand tons 

 has just been built. Xauta lies on the north bank of the 

 Maranon, opposite the entrance of the Ucayali. Its in- 

 habitants, about 1000, trade in fish, sarsaparilla, and wax 

 fi'om Ucayali. Yurimaguas is the port of Moyabamba, a 

 city of 10,000 souls, six days' travel southwest. This vast 

 eastern slope, lying on the branches of the Maranon, is 

 called the Montana of Peru. It is a res^ion of inexhausti- 



