44 



MEANS OF DEFENCE. 



[Translation.] 



To the Prefect of the Department of Amazonas. 



Sir : Wm. Lewis Herndon, lieutenant of the navy of the United 

 States, and Lardner Gibbon, passed midshipman of the same, commis- 

 sioned by the government of that nation to make a scientific expedition 

 in the eastern parts of Peru, accompanied by Henry Richards, Mauricio 

 N., and Manuel Ijurra, as adjuncts to the expedition, direct themselves 

 towards the department under your command in the discharge of their 

 commission. As the expedition deserves, on account of its important 

 object, the particular protection of the government, his Excellency the 

 President commands me to advise you to afford them whatever 

 resources and facilities they may need for the better discharge of their 

 commission, taking care, likewise, that there shall be preserved to them 

 the considerations that are their due. 



The which I communicate to you for its punctual fulfilment. 

 God preserve you. 



J. C'MO. TORRICO. 



This passport was made out at a time when I expected to procure 

 two servants. Mauricio, the Chamicuros Indian, was the only servant 

 who accompanied us. 



We were accompanied for a mile or two on the road by our kind 

 friends and countrymen, Messrs. Prevost, Foster, and McCall, who 

 drew up at the Cemetery to bid us good-bye ; Mr. Prevost advising 

 us to halt at the first place we could find pasturage for the mules. 

 The road we were to travel had reputation for robbers, and Mr. McCall 

 desired to know how we were to defend ourselves in case of attack, 

 as we carried our guns in leather cases, strapped to the crupper, and 

 entirely out of reach for a sudden emergency. Gibbon replied by 

 showing his six-barrelled Colt, and observed that Ijurra, Richards, 

 and myself had each a pair of pistols at hand. As for Mauricio, he 

 kept his pistols in his saddle-bags ; and I was satisfied, from some at- 

 tempts that I had made to teach Luis to shoot, (though he was very 

 ambitious and desirous to learn,) that it was dangerous to trust him 

 with a pair, as he might as readily fire into his friends as his enemies. 

 "With the comfortable observation from Mr. McCall that he never ex- 

 pected to see us again, we shook hands and parted. 



Our course lay about E. TS. E. over an apparently level and very 



