TARAPOTO TO CANELOS 127 
Puca-yacu is a colony of the still considerable 
pueblo of Canelos. It contains also four or five 
Jibaros, who are married to women of Canelos. 
The Governor has in his house a Jibaro girl whose 
history is singular. It seems that among those 
Indians when a man of note dies it is the custom 
to put his wives to death, in order that their spirits 
may accompany him, as they did while in the body. 
An old chief died two years ago, leaving four wives, 
whereof one was scarcely nine years of age. This 
poor creature, knowing that they would seek to 
kill her, fled into the woods, and though pursued, 
succeeded in reaching Sara - yacu, where the 
Governor then was, and placed herself under his 
protection. Her "friends" have since reclaimed 
her, but the Governor refuses to give her up, and 
she still remains with him, and is an excellent 
servant to his wife. She has been baptized by the 
name of Magdalena, the Governor and his wife 
standing sponsors. She looks little like a widow, 
with her slender, girlish figure and smart chitty 
face. The Jibaro Indians still abound on the 
Pastasa (above the mouth of Bombonasa) and on 
its upper tributaries. There is a settlement of 
them, commonly called the Jibaria, at three days 
from Canelos, near the river Pindu, on the route 
to Banos. . . . 
There is a magnificent view looking west from 
the plateau of Puca-yacu, but I saw it only once, 
for about a couple of hours, in all its entirety. It 
takes in an angle of about 60°, bounded left and 
right by forest on adjacent elevations. At my 
feet stretched the valley of the Bombonasa, taking 
upwards a north-westerly direction, its waters not 
