Chap. Y1. 
PASSENGERS. 
369 
to watch for floating logs, and one man placed to pass 
orders to the helmsman ; the keel scraped against a 
sand-bank only once during the passage. 
The passengers were chiefly Peruvians, mostly thin, 
anxious, Yankee-looking men, who were returning home 
to the cities of Moyobamba and Chachapoyas, on the 
Andes, after a trading trip to the Brazilian towns on 
the Atlantic sea-board, whither they had gone six 
months previously, with cargoes of Panama hat^ to ex- 
change for European wares. These hats are made of 
the young leaflets of a palm-tree, by the Indians and 
half-caste people who inhabit the eastern parts of Peru. 
They form almost the only article of export from Peru 
by way of the Amazons, but the money value is very 
great compared with the bulk of the goods, as the hats 
are generally of very fine quality, and cost from twelve 
shillings to six pounds sterling each ; some traders 
bring down two or three thousand pounds' worth, folded 
into small compass in their trunks. The return cargoes 
consist of hardware, crockery, glass, and other bulky or 
heavy goods, but not of cloth, which, being of light 
weight, can be carried across the Andes from the ports 
on the Pacific to the eastern parts of Peru. All kinds 
of European cloth can be obtained at a much cheaper 
rate by this route than by the more direct way of the 
Amazons, the import duties of Peru being, as I was 
told, lower than those of Brazil, and the difference 
not being counter-balanced by increased expense of 
transit, on account of weight, over the passes of the 
Andes. 
There was a great lack of amusement on board. The 
VOL. II. B B 
