CHAP. XVII TARAPOTO TO CANELOS 103 
Abstract of Journal 
(By the Editor) 
[As stated in the letter to Mr. Bentham of 
March 14, Spruce arranged to make the difficult 
and costly as well as dangerous journey from 
Tarapoto to Bafios in Ecuador in the company of 
two merchants of the former place, Don Ignacio 
Morey and Don Victoriano Marrieta. Each party 
had its own canoe with a crew of seven Indians, 
and Spruce was accompanied by a youth of twenty 
years, named Hermogenes Arrebalo, probably an 
Indian, as his servant. I cannot find either in the 
letters or journals any further reference to his 
assistant at Tarapoto, the young Englishman, 
Charles Nelson, and we are left in darkness as to 
where Spruce first met with him or why Nelson 
did not accompany him to Ecuador. 
On this journey the travellers first went over- 
land to Chasuta, occupying two days, and the latter 
portion of this route was so full of obstructions 
and mud-holes, the weather being continually 
wet and stormy, that in order not to lose his 
shoes Spruce was obliged to walk barefoot and 
arrived at Chasuta both lamed and suffering from 
fever. 
The canoes in which they descended the river 
were entirely open, in order to pass the falls more 
safely, and the travellers were therefore exposed to 
the rains, which were almost continuous, while the 
passage of the cataracts was difficult, and the boats 
narrowly escaped being swamped. This incident, 
with one of its rather singular results, is well de- 
