244 



RIVER ICA. 



or fifty feet high, commonly of white or red clay. There is much 

 colored earth on the banks of the river — red, yellow, and white — which 

 those people who have taste make use of to plaster the inside of their 

 houses. The banks are continually falling into the stream, sometimes 

 in very large masses, carrying trees along with them, and forming one 

 of the dangers and impediments to upward navigation where the boats 

 have to keep close in shore to avoid the current. 



We passed through a strait, between two islands, where the river was 

 not more than eighty yards wide. It presented a singular contrast to 

 the main river, to which we had become so much accustomed that this 

 looked like a rivulet. It had forty-eight feet depth, and two and a 

 quarter miles current. 



At half-past four we entered the mouth of the Iga, or Putumayo, 

 fifteen miles from Matura. This is a fine-looking river, half a mile 

 broad at the mouth, and opening into an estuary (formed by the left 

 bank of the Amazon and islands on the right hand) of a mile in width. 

 We found one hundred and thirty-eight feet in the middle of the mouth, 

 and a current of two miles and three-quarters an hour. *The water is 

 clearer than that of the Amazon. A man at Tunantins, who had navi- 

 gated this river a good deal, told me that one might ascend in a canoe 

 for three and a half months, and that the current was so rapid that the 

 same distance might be run down in fifteen days. This I think incredi- 

 ble ; but there is no doubt that the Iga is a very long and very rapid 

 river. He described it as shallow after two months of navigation 

 upwards, with large sand-beaches, and many small streams emptying 

 into it, on which is found much sarsaparilla. Many slaves of the 

 Brazilians escape by way of this river into New Grenada. 



San Antonio is a village about two miles below the mouth of the 

 Iga. It is a collection of four or five houses of Brazilians, and a few 

 Indian huts. The people seemed mad for tobacco, and begged me 

 earnestly to sell them some. I told them I would not sell for money, 

 but I was willing to exchange for things to eat, or for rare birds and 

 beasts. They ransacked the town, but could only raise five fowls, half 

 a dozen eggs, two small turtles, and three bunches of plantains. They 

 had no animals but such as I already had, and I only bought a macaw 

 and a " pavoncito," or little peacock. The little tobacco I gave for 

 these things, however, was not enough to give every body a smoke, and 

 they implored me to sell them some for money. They came to the 

 canoe after night, and showed so strong a desire to have it that I feared 

 they would rob me. Finding me inexorable, they went off abusing me, 

 which excited the wrath of Ijurra to a high pitch. Our stock of to- 



