BALSAYACU. 



147 



begged us for needles, or fish-hooks, or anything we had. We gave him 

 a dollar. He is the first beggar for charity's sake that I recollected to 

 have seen since leaving Lima. There are beggars enough, but they ask 

 for presents, or, offering to buy some article, expect that it shall be given 

 to them. 



The river is now entirely broken up by islands and rapids. In pass- 

 ing one of these, we came very near being capsized. Rounding suddenly 

 the lower end of an island, we met the full force of the current from the 

 other side, which, striking us on the beam, nearly rolled the canoe over. 

 The men, in their fright, threw themselves on the upper gunwale of the 

 boat which gave us a heel the other way, and we very nearly filled. 

 Had the popero fallen from his post, (and he tottered fearfully,) we 

 should probably have been lost; but by great exertions he got the 

 boat's head down stream, and we shot safely by rocks that threatened 

 destruction. 



At six we arrived at the port of Balsayacu. The pueblo, which I 

 found, as usual, to consist of one house, was a pleasant walk of half a 

 mile from the port. We slept there, instead of at the beach ; and it was 

 well that we did, for it rained heavily all night. The only inhabitants 

 of the rancho seemed to be two little girls ; but I found in the morning 

 that one of them had an infant, though she did not appear to be more 

 . than twelve or thirteen years of age. I suppose there are more houses 

 in the neighborhood ; but, as I have before said, a pueblo is merely a 

 settlement, and may extend over leagues. The sandy point at the port 

 is' covered with large boulders, mostly of a dark red conglomerate, 

 though there w r ere stones of almost every kind brought down by the 

 stream and deposited there. We travelled to-day about twenty-five 

 miles ; course N. W. by N.; average depth of the reaches of the river 

 sixteen feet ; current three and a half miles to the hour. 



August 13. — Last night Ijurra struck with a fire-brand one of the 

 boatmen, who was drunk, and disposed to be insolent, and blackened and 

 * burned his face. The man — a powerful Indian, of full six feet in height — 

 bore it like a corrected child in a blubbering and sulky sort of manner. 

 This morning he^as the paint washed off his face, and looks as humble 

 as a dog ; though I observed a few hours afterwards that he was painted 

 up again, and had resumed the usual gay and good-tempered manner of 

 his tribe. 



Between ten and eleven we passed the mal-paso of Mataglla, just 

 below the mouth of the river of the same name, which comes in on the 

 left, clear and cool into the Huallaga. The temperature of this stream 

 was 69; that of the Huallaga 74. Ijurra thought its waters were de- 



