Chap. YI. 
INDIANS OF THE ISSA. 
377 
beiju, or mandioca-cakes. The women are not allowed 
to taste of the meat, but forced to content themselves 
with sopping pieces of cake in the liquor. 
I obtained a little information here concerning the 
inhabitants of the banks of the Issa, a stream 700 miles 
in length, which, having its sources at the foot of the 
volcanoes near Pasto, in New Granada, enters the 
Amazons about twenty miles to the west of Tunantins. 
I once met a mulatto of Pasto and his wife, who had 
descended this river from its source to its mouth. They 
lost all their luggage in passing the cataracts ; but 
found, after the first fifteen days of their journey (about 
150 miles), no more obstructions to navigation down to 
the Solimoens. It is not so unhealthy a river as the 
J apura ; but the natives are much less friendly to the 
whites than those inhabiting that river. To the distance 
of about 400 miles from Tunantins, its banks are now 
almost destitute of inhabitants. A few half-civilised 
and peaceable Passes, Juris, and Shumanas, are settled 
near its mouth ; but higher up the Mariet^s occupy the 
domain, and towards the frontiers of New Granada, 
Miranhas are the only Indians met with, whose territory 
extends overland thence to the Japura. The Marietes 
and Miranhas have been for many years constantly at 
war, and the depopulation of the country is owing 
partly to this circumstance, and partly to diseases in- 
troduced by the whites. These wars are not carried 
on by the whole of each* tribe at once, but in a series 
of partial hostilities between separate hordes or clans. 
The hordes of each nation live apart ; indeed these 
tribes have no villages, but are scattered in families 
