The Manufacture of Hats. 393 



manufacture of hats. It then consists of a bundle of plaits 

 about two feet long and one inch in diameter. The green 

 outside of this cogollo, or bunch, is stripped off ; and then, 

 by an instrument called a picadera, resembling a pair of 

 compasses, with legs set half an inch or less apart, accord- 

 ing to the fineness of the straw required, the leaflets are 

 made into strips of uniform size, with parallel sides. The 

 cogollo is then boiled to toughen the fibre, and hung up in 

 the sun to dry and whiten, when the leaflets roll up (with- 

 out twisting in the least) into cord-like strands, which are 

 then ready for use. These strands are from one-fourth to 

 one-fortieth of an inch in diameter. The longest straw 

 which can be procured from the bombonaje is twenty-sev- 

 en and a half inches. It takes sixteen cogollos for an or 

 dinary hat, and twenty-four for the finest ; and a single 

 hat is plaited in from four days to as many months, ac- 

 cording to texture. We saw a fragment of one begun 

 which, if finished, would bring $500 in Lima. Fortunes 

 have been made in the hat trade ; but a change of fashion 

 in Brazil, Europe, and the United States has reduced the 

 number exported from 100,000 to 50,000, and the price 

 from $40 a dozen to $15. Hats were first exported down 

 the Amazons in 1853.* 



But Moyobamba is as famous for its execrable roads as 

 for its hats. The traveler who survives the journey from 

 Moyobamba to the Amazons or the Pacific will remember 

 the road longer than the city. Three regions intervene 

 between the Great Eiver and the Great Ocean : the Mon- 

 tana, extending from the Huallaga to Chachapoyas ; the 



* This work is not written to encourage emigration to Brazil. I advise 

 those who can get an honest living in the United States to stay there. But 

 in leaving the valley, I may say that if I were to mention any spots most de- 

 sirable for residence, I would name Manaos and Santarem, on the Lower 

 Amazons ; and for settlement. Barranca, on the Upper Maranon; the mouth 

 of the Pichis, on the Ucayali ; and, above all, the region of Moyobamba. 



