208 



THE UPPER UCAYALX. 



CHAPTER XL 



Upper Ucayali — M. Castelnau — Length of navigation — Loss of the priest — De- 

 parture from Sarayacu — Omaguas — Iquitos— Mouth of the Napo — Pebas— San 

 Jose de los Yaguas — State of Indians of Peru. 



I have the less regret, however, in that M. Castelnau has given so 

 exact and interesting an account of the descent of this river. 



This accomplished traveller and naturalist left Cuzco on the 21st 

 July, 1846. His party consisted of himself, M. D'Osery, M. Deville, M. 

 Saint Cric, (who joined the party in the valley of Sta. Ana,) three offi- 

 cers of the Peruvian navy, seven or eight domestics and muleteers, and 

 fifteen soldiers as an escort. After seven days of travel (passing a range 

 of the Andes at an elevation of fourteen thousand eight hundred feet) 

 he arrived at the village of Echarate, in the valley of Sta. Ana. 



He remained at this place until the 14th of August, when the canoes 

 and rafts which he had ordered to be constructed were ready. He 

 then embarked on a river called by the various names of Vilcanota, 

 Yucay, Vilcomayo, and Urubamba, in four canoes and two balsas. 



The difficulties of the navigation, dissensions with the Peruvian offi- 

 cers, and desertions of the peons, soon reduced the expedition to a 

 lamentable state of weakness and destitution. 



On the 17th M. D'Osery was sent back with a large part of the equip- 

 age, and most of the instruments and collections in natural history. 

 This unfortunate gentleman was murdered by his guides on his route 

 from Lima to rejoin M. Castelnau on the Amazon. After passing innu- 

 merable cascades and rapids, M. Castelnau reached, on the 27th of 

 August, the lowest rapid on the river, that is an effectual bar to naviga- 

 tion. This is one hundred and eighty miles from his point of embarka- 

 tion at Echarate. An idea may be formed of the difficulties of the 

 passage when it is reflected that it cost him thirteen days to descend 

 this one hundred and eighty miles, with a powerful current in his 

 favor. 



He found this point, by the barometer, to be about nine hundred and 

 sixteen feet below Echarate ; thus giving the river a fall of a little more 

 than five feet to the mile. He afterwards found that the mouth of the 

 Ucayali, which is one thousand and forty miles down stream of the cas- 



