THE FOREST INDIANS 41 



"I twice asked him to get out and lie didn't move. What does 

 he think we run the canoe to the bank for?" 



To him the making of a map was inexplicable ; I was merely a 

 stupid white person who didn't know enough to get out of a canoe 

 when told! 



The plateau Indian has been kicked about so long that all his 

 independence has been destroyed. His goods have been stolen, his 

 services demanded without recompense, in many places he has no 

 right to land, and his few real rights are abused beyond belief. The 

 difference between him and the forest Indian is due quite largely 

 to differences of environment. The plateau Indian is agricultural, 

 the forest Indian nomadic and in a hunting stage of development ; 

 the unforested plateau offers no means for concealment of person 

 or property, the forest offers hidden and difficult paths, easy 

 means for concealment, for ambush, and for wide dispersal of an 

 afflicted tribe. The brutal white of the plateau follows altogether 

 different methods when he finds himself in the Indian country, far 

 from military assistance, surrounded by fearless savages. He 

 may cheat but he does not steal, and his brutality is always care- 

 fully suited to both time and place. 



The Machigangas are now confined to the forest, but the limits 

 of their territory were once farther upstream, where they were in 

 frequent conflict with the plateau Indians. As late as 1835, ac- 

 cording to General Miller, 3 they occupied the land as far upstream 

 as the "Encuentro" (junction) of the Urubamba and the Yanatili 

 (Fig. 53). Miller likewise notes that the Chuntaguirus, "a 

 superior race of Indians" who lived "toward the Maranon," 

 came up the river "200 leagues" to barter with the people 

 thereabouts. 



"They bring parrots and other birds, monkeys, cotton robes 

 white and painted, wax balsams, feet of the gran bestia, feather 

 ornaments for the head, and tiger and other skins, which they ex- 

 change for hatchets, knives, scissors, needles, buttons, and any 

 sort of glittering bauble." 



3 Notice of a Journey to the Northward and also to the Northeastward of Cuzeo. 

 Royal Geog. Soc. Journ., Vol. 6, 1836, pp. 174-186. 



