CHAP. XVI RESIDENCE AT TARAPOTO 57 
delicately outlined by Spruce and the shading added 
by Mr. Young under my directions. — A. R. W.] 
The river Mayo — a broad, shallow stream, 
whose sources are in the summits of the Eastern 
Cordillera — runs half round the base of the hill of 
Lamas, first from north to south, then eastward to 
unite with the Huallaga. 
The inhabitants of Lamas are a mixed race, 
descended partly from Spanish colonists, partly 
from the ancient Indian inhabitants, of the tribe 
of Motilones or Shaven Crowns ; so called by the 
first Europeans who visited them from their custom 
of cutting off the hair close to the head, with the 
exception of a fringe left hanging in front to the 
level of the eyebrows. The custom is still common 
among the Indians and half- Indians throughout 
that region ; but nowadays the barber's tools are 
scissors — anciently they were sharp-edged mussel- 
shells. In 1541, only a few years after the con- 
quest of Peru, Felipe de Utre (or Von Huten) set 
out from Coro in Venezuela, in quest of El Dorado 
and the Omaguas, and after travelling southwards 
ten years, reached the province of the Motilones in 
Peru, by way of a large river that flows thence to 
the Amazon. That large river we now know to 
be the Huallaga. Some years later (in 1560) the 
famous expedition headed by Pedro de Ursua, and 
numbering many hundred men, reached Lamas, 
described as a small village of Motilones, on the 
banks of the river Moyobamba, where he delayed 
to build vessels for navigating the Amazon. In 
his train was the infamous Lope de Aguirre, whose 
name — synonymous with traitor " throughout 
that region — is still given to one of the malos 
