194 



NA IT A. 



CHAPTER X. 



Nauta — River Ucayali — Sarayacu — The Missionaries — The Indians of the Ucayali. 



Senhor Cauper has four or five slaves in his house- — blacks, which he 

 brought from Brazil. This is contrary to the law, but it is winked at ; 

 and I beard the governor say that he would like much to have a pair. 

 Mr. Cauper said they would be difficult to get, and would cost him five 

 hundred dollars in money. A slave that is a mechanic is worth five 

 hundred dollars in Brazil. 



Arebalo gave us specimens of the woods of the country; they are 

 called aguano, islpingo, muena, capirona, ccdro, polo de cruz, (our, lig- 

 num-vitse,) and palo de sangre — all good, whether for house or ship- 

 building; and some of them very hard, heavy, and beautiful. The palo 

 de sangre is of a rich red color, susceptible of a high polish ; and a 

 decoction of its bark is said to be good to stay bloody evacuations. I 

 had no opportunity of testing it, but suspect it is given on the homoeo- 

 pathic principle, that "like cures like," because it is red. I thought the 

 same of the guaco, in the case of the snake-bite. 



The temperature of Nauta is agreeable. The lowest thermometer I 

 observed was 71° at 6 a. m., and the highest 89° at 3 p. m. We have 

 had a great deal of cloudy weather and rain since we have been on the 

 Amazon; and it is now near the commencement of the rainy season at 

 this place. No one suffers from heat, though this is probably the hot- 

 test season of the year; the air is loaded with moisture; and heavy 

 squalls of wind and rain sweep over the country almost every day. In 

 the dry months — from the last of February to the first of September — a 

 constant and heavy breeze blows, nearly all day, against the stream of 

 the river; the wind, at all seasons, is generally easterly, but is at this 

 time more fitful and liable to interruption ; so that sail-boats bound up 

 make, at this season, the longest passages. The river, which is three- 

 fourths of a mile wide opposite Nauta, and has an imposing appear- 

 ance, has risen four feet between the sixteenth and twenty-fifth of Sep- 

 tember. 



The town is situated on a hill, with the forest well cleared away from 

 around it, and is a healthy place. I saw only two cases of sickness 

 during my stay of two weeks. They were acute cases of disease, to 

 which people are liable everywhere. Both patients died ; probably for 



