146 



TOCACHE. 



We did not see a single animal, and very few birds ; even parrots, gen- 

 erally so plentiful, were scarce to-day. It was a day of work ; the men 

 paddled well, and we must have made seventy miles. On approaching 

 Tocache, which was their last stage with us, the Indians almost deafened 

 me with the noise of their horns. These horns are generally made of 

 pieces of wood hollowed out thin, joined together, wrapped with twine, 

 and coated with wax. They are shaped like a blunderbuss, and are 

 about four feet long ; the mouth-piece is of reed, and the sound deep 

 and mellow. The Indians always make a great noise on approaching 

 any place, to indicate that they come as friends. They fancy that they 

 might otherwise be attacked, as hostile parties always move silently. 



We arrived at five. I was wearied with the monotonous day's jour- 

 ney and the heat of the sun, and anticipated the arrival with pleasure, 

 thinking that we were going to stop at a large village and get some- 

 thing good to eat ; but I was grievously disappointed. We arrived 

 only at the port, which was, as usual, a shed on a hill ; the village being 

 nine miles off. There was nothing to eat here : so we determined to 

 start inland and see what we could pick up. A rapid walk of an hour 

 and a quarter brought us to Lamasillo, which I had been told was a 

 pueblo of whites, but which we found to be but a single house with a 

 "platanal" attached to it. There were other houses near, but none 

 within sight. I had been under the impression that " pueblo " meant 

 a village, but I think now it signifies any settled country, though the 

 houses may be miles apart. With much persuasion we induced the 

 people of the house to sell us a couple of bottles of aguadiente and a 

 pair of chickens. The governor of the district had been at this place 

 within the hour, but was gone to Tocache, which we understood to be 

 two coceadas further on, or about the same distance that we had come 

 over from the port to this place. Distance is frequently estimated by 

 the time that a man will occupy in taking a chew of coca. From the 

 distance between the port and Lamasiilo, it appears that a chew of 

 coca is about three-fourths of a league, or thirty-seven and a half 

 minutes. 



We walked back by moonlight, and had a fowl cooked forthwith ; 

 which, as we had had nothing but a little monkey soup early in the 

 morning, we devoured more like tigers than Christian men. We found 

 at the port several travelling merchants from Moyobamba. One party 

 had been to Huanuco by land, with a cargo of straw hats and tobacco, 

 which they sold at about fifty per cent, advance on prime cost. This 

 is a miserable traffic, for the round trip occupies four months, and is 

 one of great hardship. The other party were going by the river in 



