Chap. III. ' CUCAMA IIsTDIANS. 
159 
miles from the bank along which we were laboriously 
warping our course upwards. 
After the first two or three days we fell into a re- 
gular way of life aboard. Our crew was composed 
of ten Indians of the Cucama nation, whose native 
country is a portion of the borders of the upper river 
in the neighbourhood of Nauta, in Peru. The 
Cucamas speak the Tupi language, using, however, a 
harsher accent than is common amongst the semi- 
civilized Indians from Ega downwards. They are a 
shrewd, hard-working people, and are the only Indians 
who willingly and in a body engage themselves to na- 
vigate the canoes of traders. The pilot, a steady and 
faithful fellow named Vicente, told me that he and his 
companions had now been fifteen months absent from 
their wives and families, and that on arriving at Ega 
they intended to take the first chance of a passage to 
Nauta. There was nothing in the appearance of these 
men to distinguish them from canoemen in general. 
Some were tall and well built, others had squat figures 
with broad shoulders and excessively thick arms and 
legs. No two of them were at all similar in the shape 
of the head : Vicente had an oval visage with fine 
regular features, whilst a little dumpy fellow, the wag 
of the party, was quite a Mongolian in breadth and 
prominence of cheek, spread of nostrils, and obliquity 
of eyes ; these two formed the extremes as to face and 
figure. None of them were tattooed or disfigured in 
any way ; they were all quite destitute of beard. The 
'Cucamas are notorious on the river for their provident 
habits. The desire of acquiring property is so rare a 
