AMERICAN CIRCUS COMPANY. 



159 



land free from inundations. Its inhabitants are numerous, civilized, 

 and docile." 



The people have no idea of comfort in their domestic relations ; the 

 houses are of mud, thatched with palm, and have uneven dirt floors. 

 The furniture consists of a grass hammock, a standing bed-place, a 

 coarse table, and a stool or two. The governor of this populous district 

 wore no shoes, and appeared to live pretty much like the rest of them. 



August 20 we spent at Tarapoto, waiting for the peons. The 

 governor preferred that I should pay them in money, which I much 

 doubt if the peons ever saw. He will probably keep the money and 

 give them tocuyo and wax. I paid one dollar and fifty cents for the 

 canoe to carry me as far as Chasuta, a distance of about six hours down, 

 with probably twenty-four to return, (that is, twenty -four working hours ;) 

 fifty cents to each peon ; and a dollar to pay the people to haul the canoe 

 up the bank and place it under the shed at Shapaja on its return. 



The men who carried us from Tocache to Sion preferred half their 

 pay in money ; in all other cases I have paid in cotton cloth, valued at 

 twenty -five cents the yard ; (its cost in Lima was twelve and a half 

 cents.) The amount of pay, generally fixed by the governor, is a yard 

 per man per day, and about the same for the canoe. 



An American circus company passed through Tarapoto a few months 

 ago ; they had come from the Pacific coast, and were bound down the 

 Amazon. This beats the Moyobambinos for determined energy in 

 making dollars. I imagine that the adventure did not pay, for I en- 

 countered traces of them, in broken down horses, at several of the 

 villages on the river. They floated their horses down on rafts. 



I spoke with an active and intelligent young Spanish trader, named 

 Morey, about the feasibility of a steamboat enterprise upon these rivers, 

 bringing American goods and taking return-cargoes of coffee, tobacco, 

 straw-hats, hammocks, and sarsaparilla to the ports of Brazil on the 

 river. He thought that it could not fail to enrich any one who would 

 attempt it ; but that the difficulty lay in the fact that my proposed 

 steamer would never get as far as this, for that my goods would be 

 bought up and paid for in return-cargoes long before she reached Peru. 

 He thought, too, that the Brazilians along the river had money which 

 they would be glad to exchange for comforts and luxuries. 



Were I to engage in any scheme of colonization for the purpose of 

 evolving the resources of the Valley of the Amazon, I think I should 

 direct the attention of settlers to this district of Tarapoto. It combines 

 more advantages than any other I know; it is healthy, fertile, and free 

 from the torment of musquitoes and sand-flies. Wheat may be had 



