CHAPTER XVII 
IN SMALL CANOES FROM TARAPOTO TO CANELOS I 
500 MILES ON THE HUALLAGA, MARANON, PASTASA, 
AND BOMBONASA RIVERS 
{March 23/(9 June 14, 1857) 
[This journey up the little-known Pastasa and 
Bombonasa rivers in small canoes for a distance 
of perhaps 500 miles, following the curves of the 
rivers, was a very painful and tedious one, owing to 
the whole country being almost depopulated, and 
provisions not to be obtained. It occupied nearly 
three months, of which Spruce kept a very full 
account in his Journal, and as the whole route is 
almost unknown to English naturalists, I have 
selected all the more interesting portions (about 
one-half) for presentation here. It is full of 
details which may be useful to future travellers, 
and contains a good deal of curious information as 
well as several rather strange occurrences. Some 
German botanists who descended the rivers from 
Canelos in 1894 found the villages rather better 
peopled on account of the increasing rubber-trade, 
but otherwise just as Spruce described them.] 
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