MASSACRE AT ST A. TERESA. 



221 



A Moyobambino, Canuto Acosta, fearing that the company would 

 get all the gold, and that he should not be able to collect a little that 

 was due him by the people about Sta. Teresa, hastened on before. He 

 met at Sta. Teresa with a large party of Huambisas, who had come 

 down the Santiago for the ostensible purpose of trade. Conversing with 

 the curaca of the tribe, named Ambuscha, Acosta told him that a multi- 

 tude of Christians were coming with arms in their hands to conquer and 

 enslave his people. The curaca, turning the conversation, asked Acosta 

 what he had in his packages. The reply was more foolish and wicked 

 than the other speech ; for, desirous to play upon the credulity of the 

 Indian, or to overawe him, he said that he had in his packages a great 

 many epidemic diseases, with which he could kill the whole tribe of the 

 Huambisas. It was his death-warrant. The curaca plunged his spear 

 into his body, and giving a shrill whistle, his people, who were scattered 

 about among the houses, commenced the massacre. They killed forty- 

 seven men, and carried off sixty women ; some few persons escaped into 

 the woods. The Indians spared two boys — one of seven and one of nine 

 years — and set them adrift upon the Amazon on a raft, with a message 

 to the gold-hunting company that they knew of their approach, and 

 were ready, with the assistance of their friends, the Paturos and Chin- 

 ganos, to meet and dispute with them the possession of the country. 

 The raft was seen floating past Barranca and brought in. 



The gold-seekers found no gold upon the borders of the Mar an on ; 

 quarrelled ; became afraid of the savages ; broke up and abandoned their 

 purpose before they reached the mouth of the Santiago. 



Ijurra and a few others then turned their attention to the collection" 

 of Peruvian bark. They spent two or three years in the woods, about 

 the mouth of the Huallaga ; gathered an enormous quantity, and floated 

 it down to Para on immense rafts, that Ijurra describes as floating- 

 houses, with all the comforts and conveniences of the house on shore. 



When they arrived at Para the cargo was examined by chy mists ; 

 said by them to be good ; and a mercantile house offered eighty thou- 

 sand dollars for it. They refused the offer ; chartered a vessel, and took 

 the cargo to Liverpool, where the chymist pronounced the fruit of years 

 of labor to be utterly worthless. 



The village of Iquitos is situated on an elevated plain, which is said 

 to extend far back from the shores of the river. This is different from 

 the situation of many towns upon the Amazon, most of which are built 

 upon a hill, with a low, swampy country behind them. There are cotton 

 and coffee-trees growing in the streets of the village, but no attention is 

 paid to the cultivation of either. A small stream, said to be one of the 



