198 



CANICHANAS INDIANS. 



While lie was talking, a man came in who had been to Potosi and 

 back for the purpose of getting the governor's place, but the government 

 refused to make a change, so the disappointed expectant governor had 

 to present his passports to the one in office, which he seemed to dislike. 



The crew of the canoe was sent for ; they were fine, stout, open- 

 countenanced, respectable looking Indians of the "Canichanas" tribe, 

 from a town in the province of Mojos, near the Mamore river. These 

 polite mannered men stood before us with straw hats in hand, dressed in 

 a bark- cloth "camisa," listening to what the governor said to our inter- 

 preter — that the President of Bolivia wished them to take particular 

 care of us ; that we wanted to go down and look at the great rivers, and 

 stated how many yards of white cotton cloth he would give them apiece, 

 namely, three yards, about enough to make each a shirt. They promised 

 to do their duty and obey my orders. 



Had I known at the time what I discovered afterwards, I should have 

 made the bargain with the men myself. It appeared that the governor 

 paid them in cotton cloth, while I paid him in silver money. The honest 

 laboring Indian, who was supposed to be ignorant of the act, felt the in- 

 justice and saw its wrong more clearly than he was supposed to do. 

 One day, long after our first meeting, I happened to ask the interpreter 

 which the Indians cared the most for, silver coin or cotton cloth, think- 

 ing of course they preferred the latter, but I found they knew how to 

 make cotton cloth with their own hands. So little do they care for it, 

 that the governor had every one of their canoe p'addles standing up in a 

 corner of his bed room for fear they would leave without a cargo and 

 go home with an empty boat, after landing the chocolate which a creok 

 sent from Trinidad. 



Jose was to leave us here. The good old man had performed his 

 duty in the service of the United States very faithfully. He had not 

 heard from his wife and family for the nine months he has been with 

 us. We engaged him as a guide, but had passed beyond his knowledge 

 of the country before we got to Cuzco ; his fluency in the Quichua lan- 

 guage made him indispensftly necessary to the expedition ; he made 

 himself so useful to our small party we shall long remember his kind- 

 ness. As he was nearly 60 years of age, with a large family in the Juaja 

 valley, in Peru, we could not persuade him to go farther with us ; we 

 shall miss him very much. I gave the old man " Bill," as Richards 

 called his mule, to return home, in addition to his pay, and an honor- 

 able discharge, in writing, from the naval service of the United States. 



Jose had two faults, more or less natural ones — he had a standing 

 rule to get intoxicated periodically, every six months ; and, when he 



