ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
principally bananas, pineapples, and mamdo . Then we 
stopped at Requena, on the left bank of the river, 
where a wireless telegraphic station of the Telefunken 
system was established. It was quite a nice little place, 
with a few houses, built of unbaked clay and roofed 
with zinc. 
It was entertaining to watch the pride of the local 
gentlemen when they showed me their houses — mere 
sheds of the humblest description, but in their eyes far 
superior to any palace of Europe. An imported chair or 
an antiquated desk would supply them with conversation 
to last hours. The wives of those settlers were generally 
eccentric persons who looked suspiciously at us. One of 
them at Requena made me feel most uncomfortable by the 
annoying way in which she looked at my only shoe — as 
I was unable to put a shoe on the other much swollen foot. 
She never took her eyes off that shoe, and stooped down 
many times to examine it closer. 
A short distance from Requena, still on the left side 
of the river, was the mouth of the Tapiche River, a tribu¬ 
tary of the Ucayalli. On the right bank of this river was 
California, and then Avispa — a pretty spot. Two new 
red-roofed houses with large verandas stood prominent on 
a green grassy hill about 120 feet high, while on the ridge 
in continuation of the hill itself could be seen a number 
of small houses, some with zinc roofs, others with bona 
roofs and walls. 
The Ucayalli was a rich stream. It was interesting to 
notice how many trading launches were to be seen on that 
river, and the amazing part of it was that they could all 
exist. Hardly a day went by that we did not meet two or 
three launches. We were also constantly meeting canoes, 
generally hollowed out of tree-trunks, and larger boats 
of a more solid construction. 
The population was entirely composed of a mixture of 
Spanish and Indian types and of pure Indians. Some of 
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