SALTO DE AGUIRRE. 



169 



I bought wax of the curate to pay for the canoes and boatmen to 

 Yurimaguas. The men desired money, and I told the curate that he 

 had better let me pay them in money, as to be familiar with its use 

 would tend to civilize them. But he said that they did not know its 

 value, and would only hoard it up or use it as ornaments. I don't know 

 what else he will do with it, for certainly it never circulates. I have 

 not seen a dollar since I left Huanuco, except those that were in my own 

 hands. That the Indians have no idea of its value is evident. I bought 

 a pucuna of one. He desired money ; and his first demand was four 

 dollars ; when I shook my head. He then said six reals, (seventy-five 

 cents.) I gave him a dollar, which I thought would pay him for the 

 time and labor necessary to make another. 



As, we were now clear of the dangers of the river, and were to be 

 more exposed to sun and rain, we had coverings made of hoop-poles, and 

 thatched with palm, fitted to the canoe. The one over the stern, for the 

 accommodation of the patron, covers about six feet of it, and makes a 

 good den to retreat to in bad weather. It is called by the Indians 

 pamacari. The one fitted over the cargo, in the body of the boat, is 

 called armayari. It is narrower than the other, allowing room for the 

 Indians to sit and paddle on each side of it. 



August 25. — We left Chasuta in company with two canoes: one 

 belonging to a Portuguese, resident of Tarapoto, carrying a cargo to 

 Nauta; and the other manned by the Fiscales, and carrying the padre's 

 little venture of salt. We passed the salt hills of Callana Yacu, where 

 the people of Chasuta and the Indians of the Ucayali and Maraiion get 

 their salt. The hills are not so high as those of Pilluana, and the salt 

 seems more mixed with red earth. It " crops out" on the banks of the 

 river, which are shelving and rise into gentle hills as they recede, 

 covered with bushes and small trees. A quarter of an hour afterwards 

 we entered a more hilly country; river narrow, shallow, and rapid; its 

 depth fifteen feet, and its current four and a half miles the hour. Soon 

 after we passed between cliffs of dark-red rocks, where the river deep- 

 ened to forty-two feet. On one of these rocks, appearing like a gigantic 

 boulder of porphyry, were cut rude figures of saints and crosses, with 

 letters which are said to express "The leap of the Traitor Aguirre;" but 

 they were too much worn by time and weather for me to make them 

 out. There were more recent cuttings in the rock. One of them were 

 the letters VR, the work, I imagine, of an Englishman belonging to the 

 circus company. The pass is called "El Salto de Aguirre." We 

 camped on the right bank of the river, having passed the country of the 

 Infidels. 



