FROM MANAOS to TARAPOTO 23 
on every side, it is one of the most picturesque 
places I have seen. Its population is entirely of 
Indians, though many show evident traces of white 
blood, and they are among the tallest and hand- 
somest I have met with — especially the women. 
Even the Governor is an Indian — an old man, 
formerly a soldier, in which profession he learnt his 
Castilian. The pueblo numbers less than 300 
married men, and about 1500 souls. All speak the 
Inca language, and very few have a smattering of 
Spanish. 
Our Indians from Tarapoto were paid to take us 
up as far as Juan Guerra — a small pueblo at the 
junction of the Combasa and Mayo rivers above 
the pongos of the Huallaga. We found it, how- 
ever, impossible to persuade them to proceed 
beyond Chasuta, the reason given for deserting 
us being that the Indians of Chapaja, a pueblo in 
the pongo, were awaiting their arrival to fall on 
them unawares and kill them, as there had been a 
quarrel between them a short time before and 
serious wounds had been given on both sides. It 
was plain, however, that they also wanted to escape 
the labour, as there are three of the worst passes on 
the Huallaga a little way above Chasuta, where the 
whole cargo has to be carried overland among large 
blocks of rock for some hundred yards or more, 
and we had found the Tarapotinos much disinclined 
to work hard. There being no authority at Chasuta 
able to make them fulfil their contract, we had no 
alternative but to engage other Indians at Chasuta 
for the rest of the voyage. W e had already paid a 
dollar apiece to our men, and we now had to give a 
cutlass to each man of our new crews. 
