The City of Iquitos. 381 



making of this place. It contains a large machine-shop 

 for the repair of steamers, a steam saw-mill, and a brick 

 factory. The superintendent and most of the hands are 

 from England. Carpenters, masons, and machinists get 

 from $80 to $100 a month ; the first engineer on a steam- 

 er has $145, and the second $116, with rations ; day labor- 

 ers have $10 a month. But the mischief is, that this is 

 promised, not paid ; some of the foreign employes have 

 not received a cent for two years. By thus withliolding 

 payment, the government manages to hold on to imported 

 skill. A number of machinists, in despair, have floated 

 down to Para, and made their way home, forfeiting, of 

 course, all their earnings in arrear. The Maranon, at pres- 

 ent, is a burden to Lima, for the works and the steamers 

 do not pay; and Congress votes a monthly subsidy of 

 $20,000. But it is vital to Peru that she retain this Ori- 

 ente, and she has made Iquitos the head-quarters of her 

 military authority on the Amazons. The officer in charge, 

 however, is subordinate to the prefect in Moyobamba. 



Iquitos even exceeds Manaos in scarcity of food. She 

 exports nothing but money, and produces nothing eatable. 

 She depends, strange to say, for almost every mouthful of 

 food upon the East instead of the West ; upon Para and 

 New Tork rather than upon Moyobamba and Lima ; and 

 when the steamer fails to bring a supply, a famine is im- 

 minent. Residents have told me that at times no amount 

 of money in .hand could buy a pound of meat or bread. 

 On the counter of a provision-store in Iquitos I saw this 

 dried menagerie for sale : Iguana, piranicii, manati, mon- 

 key, and heron — the heap emitting a most disgusting odor. 

 I do not wonder that clay-eaters are so numerous on the 

 Amazons, for they have two strong temptations — the scar- 

 city of food and the abundance of clay. I have seen the 

 mud-blocks of houses in Iquitos largely eaten away by their 



