132 
THE AMAZON AND MADEIRA RIVERS. 
(an alkaloid like cafeine and tkeiinc) that render it so indispensahle 
to those who have been accustomed to it. All the boats that come 
lightly freighted with ipecacuanha and deer or tiger-hides, from Mato 
Grosso down the Arinos and the Tapajoz, in face of the considerable 
cataracts and rapids of the latter, take their full loads of guarana at 
Santarem ; and the hea\'y^ boats of the Madeira also convey large 
quantities of it to Bolivia; for at Cuyaha, as well as at Santa Cruz 
de la Sicri’a and Coehahamha, there ai‘o many who cannot do without 
their guarana, for which tlioy often have to pay 30 francs the pound, 
and who prefer all the rigours of fasting to abstinence from their 
favourite beverage. On the other hand, the mestizo popidation on the 
Amazon, where it is prepared on a large scale by the half-civiKsed 
tribes of the Mauluis and Mundiu’ucus and sold at about 3 francs the 
pound, are not so passionately attached to it; they rather take coffee, 
and a sort of coarse chocolate, ivhich they manufacture for themselves. 
The stimulant most in use with the Indian popidation of Bolivia 
is the coca.* The thin leaves (about inches in length) of the 
coca bush, which already is largely cultivated in Bolivia and Peru, 
are dried iu the sun, and, with the addition of some fine ashes and 
a bit of red pepper, are chewed by the natives. It is said to render 
them less sensible to the cold on the icy heights of the Andes, and to 
reduce the severity of the soroche, that painful oppression of the chest 
with nausea caused by the rareness of the air on the mountain-passes. 
The Quichua Indians, indeed, will not venture there ndthout a plentifid 
provision of coca leaves ; and all travellers concur in admiring their 
strength and endurance in carrying heavy burdens over the steepest 
and roughest paths, with no restorative save their highly prized coca. 
IIow indispensable it is to them is evidenced by the fact that one 
of the last presidents of Bolivia, who, in a fit of reforming zeal, 
conceived the idea of serving out coffee and brandy in lieu of their 
coca ration to his Indian and mestizo array, was forced by the out- 
break of a mutiny to withdraw his ukase and to let them have their 
beloved herb as they desired. I’lie Indians on the Upper Amazon and 
the Solimoes also know it under the name of ipadii. Taken as tea, it 
has a slight aroma of camomile. 
These facts considered, the question naturally arises, how it has come 
* Eryihroxylon Coca. 
