46 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
of such dimensions that London might be set down 
in it entire, and so completely encircled by moun- 
tains as to form a vast natural amphitheatre. It is 
about 1500 feet above the sea, while the encircling 
ridges are 2000 or 3000 feet above the plain, and 
some of the peaks one or two thousand feet more. 
The town dates only from some seventy years 
back, yet according to a census made since my 
arrival it numbers nearly 12,000 souls, including 
two small hamlets which form a kind of suburb to 
it. The dominion of the Incas does not seem to 
have extended much to the eastward of the central 
ridge of the Andes, and the Spaniards found this 
part of the montana occupied by independent 
Indian tribes, of which considerable remnants still 
exist, both pure and mixed. The first town estab- 
lished by the conquerors was Lamas, which stands 
on the top of a curious conical hill five leagues 
(seventeen miles) westward of Tarapoto and 1500 feet 
above the pampa. From my house I can, with the 
telescope, distinctly see the white houses glistening 
in the morning sun. I have also visited it, and 
may have something to tell you of it in a future 
letter. It numbers now only from 6000 to 7000 
inhabitants, but Tarapoto and several villages on the 
Mayo and Cumbasa rivers are all colonies of Lamas. 
Moyobamba, more to the westward, among the 
mountains, has about 20,000 inhabitants ; it is the 
great centre of the manufacture of those beautiful 
straw hats sold extensively in Brazil under the 
name of ''Chapeos de Chile," and of which the 
finest sell for an ounce of gold, or even more. 
They are made from the same plant as the' Panama 
hats. All these places are inhabited by the same 
