170 



RIVER STA. CATALINA. 



August 26. — Being in company with Antonio, the Portuguese, who 

 knows how to arrange matters, we get a cup of coffee at the peep of 

 day, and are off by half-past 5 a. m. At five miles of distance we 

 passed the lower extremity of the Pongo, which commences at Shapaja. 

 "Pongo" is an Indian word, and is applied to designate the place where a 

 river breaks through a range of hills, and where navigation is of course 

 obstructed by rocks and rapids. The place where the Maraiion breaks 

 its way through the last chain of hills that obstructs its course is called 

 the Pongo de Manseriche. This is the Pongo de Chasuta. There is 

 only one mal-paso below Chasuta : it is called the mal-paso del Gabilan, 

 and is just below the Salto de Aguirre. It is insignificant, and I should 

 not have noticed it at all, but that it was pointed out to me, and said to 

 be dangerous for canoes in the full of the river. 



After passing the Pongo, we entered upon a low, flat country, where 

 the river spreads out very wide, and is obstructed by islands and sand- 

 banks. This is the deposit from the Pongo. In the channel where we 

 passed, I found a scant five feet of water; I suspect, but could not find 

 out, that more water may be had in some of the other channels. This 

 shoal water is but for a short distance, and the soundings soon deepened 

 to twelve and eighteen feet. Small pebbly islands are forming in the 

 river, and much drift-wood from above lodges on them. After having 

 stopped two hours to breakfast, we passed the mouth of the Chipurana, 

 which is about twenty yards wide. 



This river flows from the Pampa del Sacramento, and affords, when 

 it is full, a canoe navigation of about forty miles, taking four days to 

 accomplish it, on account of shoals and fallen trees. This distance 

 brings the traveller to the port of Yanayacu, where, in 1835, when 

 Lieutenant Smyth travelled this route, there was one hut ; there is not 

 one now. A walk over a plain for twenty-five miles reaches the village 

 of Sta. Catalina, which then had thirty families ; now one hundred and 

 sixty inhabitants : so that it has changed very little in all this time. 

 Embarking at Sta. Catalina, on the river of the same name, the traveller, 

 in two days of a very difficult and interrupted navigation, enters the 

 Ucayali ; ascending which stream a day and a half, he arrives at Sara- 

 yacu. 



I was desirous of going to Sarayacu by this route, but the river 

 would not, at this season, afford sufficient water for my canoes to reach 

 Yanayacu, and I moreover did not like to miss the lower part of the 

 Huallaga. 



River now two hundred yards wide, free from obstruction, with a 

 gentle current, and between eighteen and twenty-four feet of depth. 



