174 



THE CATAO. 



wife along to cook for us, pulled in for the beach, and we camped for 

 the night. The beach where we pitched belongs to an island, or rather 

 what is an island when the river is full, though the right-hand channel 

 is now dry; the left-hand channel runs close to the shore, and I could 

 find but five feet water in it, though there was probably more very close 

 to the shore, which was bold. The obstruction is narrow, and could be 

 readily cleared away. 



Seventy miles below Yurimaguas is Sta. Cruz. This is an Indian 

 village of a tribe called Aguanos, containing three hundred and fifty 

 inhabitants. The lieutenant governor is the only white man in it. 

 The women go naked down to their hips, and the children entirely so. 

 I was quite an object of curiosity and fear to them ; and they seemed 

 never tired of examining my spectacles. The pueblo is situated on an 

 eminence, as most of the villages of this country are, to avoid inunda- 

 tion. It has a small stream running by it, which empties into the river 

 at the port, and is navigable in the rainy season for loaded canoes. 

 The cpnvento is the most respectable-looking house on the river. It is 

 divided into apartments; has ceilings; and is plastered, inside and out, 

 with a white clay. There was a portico in the rear, and it looked alto- 

 gether as if it had been designed and built by a person who had some 

 taste and some idea of personal comfort. 



I obtained at this place the sap of a large tree called catao, which is 

 said to be very poisonous. It appears to be acrid, and acts like a pow- 

 erful caustic. The man who chopped the bark, to let the sap run, 

 always turned away his face as he struck, for fear of its getting into his 

 eyes. The Indians employ it for the purpose of curing old dull sores. 

 The tree is generally very large ; has a smooth bark, but with knots on 

 it bearing short thorns. The leaf is nearly circular; it is called in Bra- 

 zil assacu, and is there thought to be a remedy for leprosy. We gath- 

 ered also some leaves and root of a running plant called guaco, which, 

 steeped in spirits, and applied internally and externally, is said to be an 

 antidote to the bite of a snake. I think it probable that this may be a 

 fancy of the Indians, originating from the fact that the leaf has some- 

 thing the appearance and color of a snake-skin. There is a great 

 abundance of it all over the Montana. 



"We found difficulty in getting canoes at this place. The only one that 

 would accommodate ourselves and baggage belonged to the church, and, 

 like its mistress in Peru, it v/as in rather a dilapidated condition. We bar- 

 gained for it with the curaca, (chief of the Indians, and second in author- 

 ity to the lieutenant governor ;) but when the lieutenant returned from 

 his chacra, where he had been setting out plantains, he refused to let us 



