RIVER JUT AY. 



247 



on the other side. I was misled by Smyth's map. He places the 

 island of Mapana some distance above the mouth of the Jutay, and 

 represents the Amazon as clear of islands where that river enters. A 

 large island commences just abreast the factoria, which the people 

 then told me was called Invira, though they did not seem certain of 

 this. They told me that in rounding the lower end of that island, I 

 would find myself at the mouth of the Jutay. This was not so, for, 

 when I doubled the point, I was two or three miles below it. I saw 

 where it emptied into the Amazon ; but both myself and people were 

 too tired to turn back and examine it. 



The Indians of the Jutay are Maraguas, (christianized Indians,) who 

 inhabit the banks at a distance of two days up. (Their houses are built 

 of wood and plastered, and they show a taste and fondness for mechan- 

 ics.) Maragua-Catuquinas, of whom a few are baptized, two days fur- 

 ther up; and Catuquinas Infidels, four days still further. 



The products of the river are one hundred and fifty arrobas of sarsa- 

 parilla yearly, one hundred pots of manteiga, and a great quantity of 

 farinha. In the last four years, five men of Egas have been killed by 

 the Indians of the Jutay. My informant is Senhor Batalha, a merchant 

 at Egas. M. Castelnau estimates, from the report of traders, that this 

 river is navigable upward for about five hundred and forty miles, and 

 that its sources are not far from those of the Yavari. From Tunantins 

 to the mouth of the Jutay is seventy -five miles. 



I was surprised to find in this part of the river between Tunantins 

 and Fonteboa but a mile and a quarter current per hour. I attrib- 

 uted it to bad measurement— from having only a two-pound weight as 

 a lead; yet as the line was not larger than ordinary twine, and was 

 suffered to run freely over the gunwale of the boat, without friction or 

 impediment of any kind, I can scarcely suppose that the lead dragged. 

 The frequent remark of both Ijurra and myself was, " The river does not 

 run." (JVo corre el rio.) Below Fonteboa, where I bought a four-pound 

 lead, I found the current at its usual velocity of two and a half miles. 

 I think that I have used up nearly all the four-pound weights on the 

 river, having lost at least half a dozen. My lines, generally made of 

 chambira, rot with the rain and sun, and break with little strain. We 

 anchored at 8 p. m. off a sandy beach, where there was another fac- 

 toria, thirty miles distant from the upper one. 



The Ticunas whom I brought with me from Tabatinga are even 

 more lazy and careless than the Sarayaquinos. I fancied that it was 

 because they were forced into the service, and did not think that they 

 would be paid; so I gave each one, as a gratuity, a knife, a pah- of 



