TARAPOTO TO CANELOS 105 
impeded by swollen rivers and steeping rains. 
. . . Join to this a monotonous river whose fiat 
shores rarely rose 2 feet above water, almost desti- 
tute of settled inhabitants (we once passed fifteen 
days without meeting a soul), and you will have 
some idea how heart-sickening such a journey must 
have been. From embarking on the Huallaga till 
entering the mouth of the Bombonasa (which is 
now the frontier of Ecuador), we had the usual 
accompaniment of mosquitoes by day and zan- 
cudos by night. 
[A few details of this portion of the voyage will 
now be given from the Journals and letters. At 
La Laguna, near the mouth of the Maranon, the 
travellers stayed three days in order to get fresh 
men and make toldos (thatched cabins) in the stern 
of the canoes. They also had to collect provisions 
for the voyage up the Pastasa to Andoas at the 
mouth of the Bombonasa river, the greater part of 
the shores of those rivers being without inhabitants. 
At La Laguna Spruce witnessed a curious example 
of voluntary fiagellation which he thus describes : — ] 
The Indians of La Laguna have a custom of scourging them- 
selves in the Holy Week. We were setting out a fortnight before 
Easter, so that there would be no opportunity of performing this 
at the proper time, our Indians therefore determined on under- 
going their "penitencia" on the Saturday evening. For this 
purpose whips of a most barbarous description had been prepared 
— cylinders of pitch six inches long were stuck full of bits of 
broken glass, projecting about half an inch. About four in the 
afternoon the penitents began to promenade the streets, giving 
themselves smart blows on the naked shoulders with thongs of 
thick skin of cow-fish, that the blood might flow more freely on 
application of scarifiers, which was done by themselves in like 
manner when all assembled in a large house. At the Oracion 
they sallied forth to the church, walking by twos — their backs 
one mass of gore and their white trousers (their only garment) 
soaked and dripping with blood. I have never seen a more 
