150 



IBITOS. 



land. These are towns further down the river. Each party had its 



pitakas, (hyde trunks,) containing straw hats, rice, tobacco, and tocuyo 

 Ustado, a striped cotton cloth, much used in Huanuco for "tickings." 

 It is astonishing to see how far this generally lazy people will travel 

 for a dollar. 



August 12. — Had a visit from the governor last night. He is a 

 little, bare-footed Mestizo, dressed in the short frock and trousers of the 

 Indians. He seemed disposed to do all in his power to facilitate us 

 and forward us on our journey. I asked him about the tigers. He said 

 he had known three instances of their having attacked men in the 

 night; two of them were much injured, and one died. 



Our boatmen made their appearance at 10 a. m., accompanied by 

 their wives, bringing masato for the voyage. The women carry their 

 children (lashed flat on the back to a frame of reeds) by a strap around 

 the brow, as they do any other burden. The urchins look comfortable 

 and contented, and for all the world like young monkeys. 



The Indians of this district are Ibitos. They are less civilized than 

 the Cholones of Tingo Maria, and are the first whose faces I have seen 

 regularly painted. They seem to have no fixed pattern, but each man 

 paints according to his fancy ; using, however, only two colors — the blue 

 of Huitoc and the red "Achote." 



The population of the district is contained in the villages of Tocache, 

 Lamasillo, Isonga, and Pisana, and amounts to about five hundred 

 souls. The road between the port and Tocache is level and smooth; 

 the soil dark, of a light character, and very rich, though thin. Nothing 

 is sent from this district for sale, and the inhabitants purchase the cot- 

 ton for their garments from the itinerant traders on the river, paying 

 for them with tobacco. I should judge from the periodical overflow of 

 the lands, the heat of the sun, and the lightness and richness of the 

 soil, that this would be the finest rice country in the world. 



We started at twelve with two canoes and twelve men ; river fifty 

 yards broad, eighteen feet deep, and with three miles an hour current ; 

 a stream called the Tocache empties into it about half a mile below the 

 port. It forces its way through five channels, over a bank of stones and 

 sand. It is doubtless a fine, large-looking river when at high water. 

 The country is hilly on the right and flat on the left-hand side. At 

 3 p. m. we entered a more hilly country, and began to encounter again 

 the malos pasos ; passed the Rio Grande de Meshuglla, which comes in 

 on the left in the same manner as the Tocache, and soon after, the port 

 of Pisana ; no houses at the port ; saw an old white man on the beach, 

 who was a cripple, and said he had been bedridden for nine years. He 



