XV FROM MANAoS to TARAPOTO ii 
night and the village was La Laguna, so called 
from a large lake a little behind it, but not visible 
from the village, which is reached by a very narrow 
side-channel. There are perhaps a hundred families 
in fifty houses built irregularly around a square 
open space. There is a very large church dating 
from the time of the Jesuits. The walls are of 
adobe and the roof is supported on pillars formed 
from large trees. The Cura was absent at Moyo- 
bamba. 
Alay 4. — This day (about 4 p.m.) we passed some 
rather high land about 12 feet above the highest 
floods, and the first uninundated land I had seen 
on the banks of the Huallaga. It had been very 
wet, but after 5 p.m. it cleared up and I enjoyed my 
first view of the Andes. The part seen is called 
the Serra de Curiayacu, and in form and extent 
reminded me much of Duida as seen from the Casi- 
quiari, showing a table-like summit with several 
outlying peaks on the right. Yurimaguas was 
reached the next day at 10 a.m. 
We were very kindly received by the priest (Dr. 
Don Silverio Mori), and as I had decided to wait 
here until I could get Indians from Chasuta to 
take us up the pongo, he installed us in the cuartel, 
a commodious building of three rooms, but much 
infested by rats. 
Yurimaguas is a small place (about equal to San 
Regis), but is pleasantly situated on ground rising 
abruptly but to no great height. It is one of the 
most ancient missions in Maynas, and according 
to information derived from the priest, it was 
founded in 1709 by Spanish Jesuits, who, accom- 
panied by a few armed whites, descended the 
