172 



THE RIVER. 



may be considered as occupying an important position in any scheme 

 for navigation and trade. 



We met several canoes going up the river for salt ; canoes passing 

 each other on the river speak at a great distance apart. The Indians 

 use a sing-song tone, that is heard and understood very far, without 

 seeming to call for much exertion of the voice. Every year at this 

 season the Indians of the Mararion and Ucayali make a voyage up the 

 Huallaga for their supply of salt. They travel slowly, and support 

 themselves by hunting, fishing, and robbing plantain-patches on their 

 way. 



About eight miles below Yurimaguas, an island with extensive sand- 

 flats occupies nearly the whole of the middle of the river. We passed 

 to the right, and I found but a scant six feet of water. The popero said 

 there was less on the other side ; but Antonio, the Portuguese, passed 

 there, and said there was more. He did not sound, however. We tried 

 an experiment to ascertain the speed of the canoe at full oar, and I was 

 surprised to find that six men could not paddle it faster than two miles 

 the hour ; ours is, however, a very heavy and clumsy canoe. We have 

 had frequent races with Antonio and the Fiscales, and were always 

 beaten. It was a pretty sight to see the boat of the latter, though laden 

 with salt to the water's edge, dance by us ; and, although beaten, we could 

 not sometimes refrain (as their puntero, a tall, painted Indian, would toss 

 his paddle in the air with a triumphant gesture as he passed) from giving 

 a hurrah for the servants of the church. 



August 29. — We met a canoe of Conibos Indians, one man and two 

 women, from the Ucayali, going up for salt. We bought (with beads) 

 some turtle-eggs, and proposed to buy a monkey they had ; but one of 

 the women clasped the little beast in her arms, and set up a great outcry 

 lest the man should sell it. The man wore a long, brown, cotton gown, 

 with a hole in the neck for the head to go through, and short, wide 

 sleeves. He had on his arm a bracelet of monkey's teeth; and the 

 women had white beads hanging from the septum of the nose. Their 

 dress was a cotton petticoat tied round the waist; and all were filthy. 



We are now getting into the lake country ; and hence to the mouth of 

 the Amazon, lakes of various sizes, and at irregular distances, border the 

 rivers. They all communicate with the rivers by channels, which are 

 commonly dry in the dry season. They are the resort of immense 

 numbers of water-fowl, particularly cranes and cormorants; and the 

 Indians, at the proper season, take many fish and turtles from them. 



Many of these lakes are, according to traditions of the Indians, 

 guarded by an immense serpent, which is able to raise such a tempest 



