THE UCAYALI. 



213 



next to Sarayacu, and had a population of two hundred, has now en- 

 tirely disappeared ; and Sta. Maria, of which he makes no mention, has 

 probably been settled since he was here, and has at present one hundred 

 and fifty souls. I thought it singular (but of course a casualty) that, 

 in summing up my estimates of the number of the people on the river, 

 between its mouth and Sarayacu, I find it to amount to six hundred 

 and thirty-four, and that Smyth's estimate makes it six hundred and 

 forty. As it regards the length and direction of the reaches of the 

 river, I find that officer remarkably correct. He descended about the 

 1st of March, and of course had the river wider and deeper, and the 

 current stronger than I found it ; for this reason our accounts differ 

 somewhat. 



The difference between high and low-water mark is about thirty-five 

 feet. I planted a pole at a settlement called Guanache as I went up, on 

 the 9th of October; when I passed it going down, on the 1st of Novem- 

 ber, I found the river had risen nine feet seven inches. It did not, how- 

 ever, commence its regular and steady rise till the 15th of October. A 

 mile inside of the mouth, in the middle of the river, I found seventy-two 

 feet of depth, and two and three-quarter miles current per hour. The 

 bottom of the river is full of sunken trees. I lost two sounding-leads 

 and three axe-heads in the descent. My sounding- line, however, had 

 become very rotten from the dampness of the atmosphere, and did not 

 even stand the strain of the current upon the log-chip, which I also lost. 



I had intended to stay at Nauta some days, for I found that so much 

 canoe life was beginning to affect my health, and that I was getting 

 weaker day by day ; but Nauta seemed a different pl#ce than when I 

 left it. Arebalo, the priest, and Antonio the Paragua, were gone, and 

 Senhor Cauper seemed out of humor, and not glad to see us. I expect 

 the old gentleman was troubled in his mind about his fish. He had 

 three thousand pieces on a beach of the Ucayali, with the river rising 

 fast and threatening its safety; while his boats had just got off to fetch 

 them away, and were travelling very slowly up. 



I wished to get a few more peons ; but there were no authorities, and 

 the Indians were engaged in drinking and dancing. Two of my men, 

 whom I had picked up at a settlement called Santos Guagua, on the 

 Ucayali, deserted, though paid as far as Pebas. I feared to lose more ; 

 and, collecting the few birds and animals I had left here, I started at 

 half-past 5 p. m. on the 5th of November, having slept in my boat on 

 the night of the 4th for the want of a house, and been nearly devoured 

 by the musquitoes. 



