238 



LORE TO. 



more docile and affectionate than the present of Father Calvo ; but, to 

 my infinite regret, he flew away from me at Para. 



I noticed growing about the houses of the village a couple of shrubs, 

 six or eight feet high, called, respectively, yanapanga and imcapanga. 

 From the leaves of the first is made a black dye, and from those of the 

 second a very rich scarlet. I surmised that a dye, like the indigo of 

 commerce, though of course of different color, might be made of these 

 leaves ; and when I arrived in Brazil, I found that the Indians there 

 were in the habit of making a scarlet powder of the pucapanga, called 

 carajuru, quite equal, in brilliancy of color, to the dye of the cochineal. 

 I believe that efforts have been made to introduce this dye into com- 

 merce, and I do not know why they have failed. I brought home a 

 specimen. 



Two brothers of Father Flores were quite sick with a "tertiana," taken 

 in gathering sarsaparilla upon the Napo. This is an intermittent fever 

 of a malignant type. The patient becomes emaciated and yellow, and 

 the spleen swells. I saw several cases as I came down the Maraiion, but 

 all were contracted on the tributaries. I saw or heard of no case 

 that originated upon the main trunk. 



December 2. — Much rain during the night. Sailed from Caballo- 

 cocha at half-past 2 p. m. Ijurra liked the appearance of things so 

 much at this place that he determined, when he should leave me, to 

 return to it and clear land for a plantation, which he has since done. 



I lost my sounding-lead soon after starting, and had no soundings to 

 Loreto, where we arrived at half-past 1 p. m., (twenty miles.) The 

 river is much divided and broken up by islands, some of them small, 

 and with sand-beaches. I believe they change their shape and size 

 with every considerable rise of the river. 



Loreto is situated on an eminence on the left bank, having the large 

 island of Cacao in front. The river is three-fourths of a mile wide, and 

 has one hundred and two feet of depth in mid-stream, with three miles 

 the hour of current. The soil is a light-colored, tenacious clay, which, 

 in the time of the rains, makes walking almost impossible, particularly 

 as there are a number of cattle and hogs running about the village 

 and trampling the clay into mire. 



There are three mercantile houses in Loreto, all owned by Portuguese. 

 They do a business of about ten thousand dollars a year — that is, that 

 value in goods, from above and below, passes through their hands. 

 They tell me that they sell the goods from below at about twenty per 

 cent, on Para prices, which of course I did not believe. Senhor Sain- 

 tem, the principal trader, told me that the business above was very 



