SARAYACU. 



207 



in their drunken frolics, to be cruelly beaten, and sometimes badly 

 wounded. 



The town is very healthy, there being no endemics, but only acute 

 attacks from great exposure or imprudence in eating and drinking. 

 From the parish register it appears that in the year 1850 there were ten 

 marriages, sixty-two births, and twenty-four deaths. This appears, from 

 an examination of the other years, to be a pretty fair average ; yet the 

 population is constantly decreasing. Father Calvo attributes this to 

 desertion. He says that many go down the Amazon with passengers 

 and cargoes, and, finding the return difficult, they either settle in the 

 villages upon the river or join the Ticunas, or other Infidel tribes, and 

 never come back. 



The Spaniards, from the Huallaga, also frequently buy the young 

 Indians from their parents, and carry them off for domestic services at 

 home. Father Calvo spoke with great indignation of this custom ; and 

 said if he could catch any person stealing his people he would hang 

 him in the plaza. Our servant Lopez desired me to advance him nine 

 hatchets, for the purpose of buying a young Indian which his father 

 wished to sell. But I told Lopez of Father Calvo's sentiments on the 

 subject, and refused him. Two boys, however, put off in a canoe the 

 day before we did on our return, and joined us below Tierra Blanca. 

 I did not clearly understand who they were, or I should have sent them 

 back. 



We afterwards met with a boat's crew of twelve, who had come off 

 with a young Spaniard of Rioja, (a village between the Huallaga and 

 Maranon,) who did not intend returning ; and I fear that many of those 

 that came down with me did not get back for years, if at all ; though I 

 did all I could to send them back. 



Thus Sarayacu is becoming depopulated in spite of the paternal 

 kindness and mild government of Father Calvo. My own impression 

 as to the reason of their desertion is, not that it is on account of the 

 difficulties of the return, or indifference, or a proclivity to fall back into 

 savage life ; but that the missionaries have civilized the Indians in some 

 degree — have taught them the value of property, and awakened in 

 their minds ambition and a desire to improve their condition. For this 

 reason the Indian leaves Sarayacu and goes to Brazil. In Sarayacu 

 there are comparatively none to employ him and pay for his services. 

 In Brazil, the Portuguese " commerciante," though he maltreats him. 

 and does not give him enough to eat, pays him for his labor. Thus he 

 accumulates, and becomes a man of property ; and in the course of time 

 possibly returns to his family in possession of a wooden trunk painted 



