156 



TARAPOTO. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Tarapoto — Pongo of Chasuta— Chasuta— Yurimaguas—Sta. Cruz— Antonio, the 

 Paragua" — Laguna — Mouth of the Huallaga. 



August 19. — We started in company with a man who, with his 

 peons, was carrying fish that he had taken and salted below Chasuta 

 to Tarapoto. A smart walk of five hours (the latter part of it very 

 quick, to avoid the rain that threatened us) brought us to the town. 

 The road crossed a range of hills in the forest for about half the dis- 

 tance. The ascent and descent of these hills were tedious, because light 

 showers of rain had moistened the surface of the hard-baked earth and 

 made it as slippery as soap. For the other half of the distance the road 

 ran over a plain covered with high, reedy grass, and some bushes ; there 

 was a short clump-grass underneath that would afford capital pasturage. 

 The distance between Shapaja and Tarapoto, I judge to be fifteen miles, 

 and the direction westerly, although J could not tell exactly, on account 

 of the winding of the road. 



Tarapoto — which is situated upon a moderate eminence near the 

 western edge of the plain before spoken of, and surrounded by hills, 

 which are mountains in the west — is by far the largest town I have seen 

 since leaving Huanuco. The district — comprising the towns of Tara- 

 poto, (which has three thousand five hundred inhabitants,) Chasuta, 

 (which has twelve hundred,) Cumbasa, Morales, Shapaja, Juan Guerra, 

 and Juan Comas — numbers six thousand inhabitants. 



The principal productions are rice, cotton, and tobacco, all of which 

 are articles of export, particularly the cloth called tocuyo, woven by the 

 women from cotton. Nearly all the course of the river, as far as Ugas, 

 is supplied from Tarapoto with this article. As much as thirty-five 

 thousand varas is said to be made in this place annually. It is valued 

 here at twelve and a half cents the vara,* and increases in price as it 

 floats down the river, until at Egas it is exchanged for the value of fifty 

 cents in foreign articles from Para. It also goes inland as far as Moyo- 

 bamba, where it is exchanged for straw hats and English prints. 



* This is its value in barter. It may be bought for six and a quarter cents 

 money. The same is the case with the wax and the balls of thread, which are 

 held at double the price for what they may be bought with coin. 



