ENTRANCES INTO THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRITORIES OF PERU. 405 



ENTRANCE OR DESCENT BT THE MARANON, FROM TOMEPENDA, IN THE PRO- 

 VINCE OF JAEN, TO THE TOWN OF THE LAKE OF GRAN COCAMA. 



From the port of Tomependa, situated on the bank of the river Chinchipe, the 

 descent to the town of the lake is made in nine days, in the manner following : 

 from the above-mentioned port, the thirty leagues by computation to the mouth of 

 the Imasa*, are navigated by balsas in one day. It will cease to excite surprize, that 

 these balsas should run over such a distance in ten or twelve hours, when attention 

 IS paid to the extraordinary rapidity of the united currents of the rivers Chinchipe, 

 Chachapoyas, and Maranon. In the intermediate distance, the following pongos 

 occur : Rentema, Cunugiacu, Ujure, Zinquipongo, Puyaya (a little below the 

 town of that name), Yullpa, Tariquisa, Cacangarisa (this is the narrowest of all 

 the pongos), Yamburana, Moape, Huanguana, and sixteen others, the names of 

 which I omit. These pongos are straits formed by high and pendant cliffs, over 

 which the descending torrents force a passage with such a degree of violence, as to 

 occasion terrible billows, eddies, and whirlpools, by which the balsas are sub- 

 merged. The latter are composed of fifteen logs or beams of woodf, twelve yards 

 in length, and somewhat less in their united breadth, the narrowness of the pongos 

 not admitting a greater extension. They are furnished with a lofty and solid tilt, 

 formed of canes, beneath which the cargoes are made secure with strong cords J. 

 At the extremities, as well as at the parts where the beams are united, other beams, 

 half a yard in height, are firmly attached in the manner of small pillars ; and by 

 these the navigators secure themselves, at the time when the balsa, which, how- 

 ever, speedily returns to float on the water, is submerged in the pongos. The na- 

 vigation from the mouth of the Imasa to the town of la Barranca, requires five 

 days, during which the traveller has to pass the pongos of Cumbinama§, Escurri- 



bragas. 



* But a few 3^ears have elapsed since this navigation was first practised. The Indians of Tomependa 

 are, notwithstanding, extremely dexterous in performing it ; and by this route several days are saved. 



f This wood is pale, of a soft texture, and extremely light. It is named by the Indians, balsa ; by the 

 Spaniards, canna veja; and is conjcAured to be the ferula of the Romans. — Ulloa. 



\ These cords, and those which are employed to lash the beams, &c. are made of the interwoven 

 fibrous stems of the bejuco, a plant of the kind denominated creepers. 



§ Instead of pongo, this may with more propriety be named salto, by which a craggy inlet is implied ; 

 since, the river being here pent up, the water forsakes its course, and rushes into a hollow rock, the one 

 half of the cavity of which it occupies. In its sudden fall, it occasions such furious and lofty billows, 



3 O that 



