152 



SION. 



cidedly salt, though I could not discover it. This mal-paso is the worst 

 that I have yet encountered. We dared not attempt it under oar, and 

 the canoe was let down along the shore, stern foremost, "by a rope from 

 its bows, and guided between the rocks by the popero — sometimes with 

 his paddle, and sometimes overboard, up to his middle in water. I am 

 told that "balsas" pass in mid-channel, but I am sure a canoe would 

 be capsized and filled. The mal-paso is a quarter of a mile long, and 

 an effectual bar, except perhaps at high water, to navigation for any- 

 thing but a canoe or balsa. Just before reaching Sion we passed the 

 Pan de Azucar, a sugar-loaf island of slate rock ; white when exposed 

 long to the atmosphere ; seventy or eighty feet in height, and covered 

 with small trees. It appears to have been a promontory torn from the 

 main land and worn into its present shape by the force of the current. 



The river to-day averages one hundred yards of breadth, eighteen feet 

 of depth, and with four miles of current. Its borders are hilly, and it 

 runs straighter and more directly to the north than before. 



At 1 p. in., we arrived at the port of Sion. This is the port de la 

 madre, or of the main river. There is another port situated on a caiio 

 or arm of the main river, nearer the pueblo. The village lies in a S. W. 

 direction, about a mile from the port. As our Tocache men were to 

 leave us here, we had all the baggage taken up to the town. The walk 

 is a pleasant one, over a level road of fine sand, well shaded with large 

 trees. Ijurra, who went up before me, met the priest of Saposoa (who 

 is on the annual visit to his parish) going south, and about to embark at 

 the Cano port ; and the governor of the district going north to Pachiza, 

 the capital. This last left orders that we should be well received ; and 

 the lieutenant governor of the pueblo lodged us in the convento, or priest's 

 house, and appointed us a cook and a servant. 



I slept comfortably on the padre's bedstead, enclosed with matting to 

 keep off the bats. The people appear to make much of the visit of their 

 priest. I saw in the corner of the sala, or hall of the house, a sort of 

 rude palanquin, which I understood to have been constructed to carry 

 his reverence back and forth, between the city and port. 



August 14. — We employed the morning in cleaning the aims and 

 drying the equipage. Had a visit from some ladies, pretty Mestizos, 

 (descendents of white and Indian,) who examined the contents of our 

 open trunks with curiosity and delight. They refrained, however, from 

 asking for anything until they saw some chancaca with which we were 

 about to sweeten our morning coffee, when they could contain them- 

 selves no longer; but requested a bit. This seems an article of great 

 request, for no sooner had the news spread that we had it than the 



