158 



STATISTICS. 



cloth, of which they make from thirty-five to forty thousand varas 

 annually. This article is sold in Chachapoyas at twelve and a half cents 

 the vara. This, tocuyo, and white wax, make the exchange of the 

 place. Gold and silver are almost unknown, but they are articles which 

 the people most desire to have. The white wax of Mainas is worth four 

 yards of tocuyo the pound. A bull or cow of good size is sold for one 

 hundred varas of tocuyo ; a tat hog of ordinary size, for sixty ; a large 

 sheep, twelve ; twenty-five pounds of salt fish of the vaca marina, or 

 paishi y (equal in quality to cod-fish,) for twelve varas ; twenty-five 

 pounds of manteca (oil or lard) of vaca marina, twelve varas ; twenty- 

 five pounds of coffee, six varas ; twenty pounds of rum — of thirty de- 

 grees, twenty-four varas ; of sixteen degrees, twelve varas ; twenty-five 

 pounds of cotton in the seed, eight ounces of wax ; a laying-hen, four 

 ounces ; a chicken, two ounces ; twenty-five pounds of rice in the husk, 

 half a pound ; twenty-five pounds of Indian corn, two ounces ; twenty- 

 five pounds of beans, four ounces ; a basket of yuccas, which weighs 

 from fifty to sixty pounds, two ounces ; a head of plantains, which will 

 w r eigh from forty to fifty pounds, for three needles ; or six heads, deliv- 

 ered in the house, four ounces of wax. 



" A plantain-grove will give in full vigor for fifty or sixty years, without 

 more attention than to clean it occasionally of weeds ; cotton gives a 

 crop in six months ; rice in five ; indigo is indigenous ; cattle of all 

 kinds augment with much rapidity. 



" All transportation of cargoes by land is made upon the backs of 

 Indians, for want of roads. The customary weight of a cargo is seventy- 

 five pounds ; the cost of its transportation to Moyobamba, (seventy 

 miles,) is six varas of tocuyo ; to Huanuco, (three hundred and ninety 

 miles,) thirty-two varas, by water and by land ; that is to say, eight 

 Indians will receive in Tarapoto eight packages, of whatsoever goods, 

 and carry them on their shoulders to the port of Juan Guerra, where 

 they embark and carry them in a canoe to the port of Tingo Maria ; 

 there they shoulder them again, and carry them to Huanuco, (eighty 

 miles.) It is to be understood that the owner of the cargo is to support 

 the peons. 



" The ascent of the Huallaga from Juan Guerra to Tingo Maria takes 

 thirty days ; the descent, eight. It has dangerous passes. It is easy to 

 obtain, in the term of six or eight days, fifty or sixty peons for the 

 transportation of cargoes, getting the order of the governor and paying 

 the above prices. 



" This town is, without dispute, the most important in Mainas, on ac- 

 count of its neighborhood to navigable rivers, united with an extension of 



