CHAPTER XIX.Leave Exaltacion—Improvement in crew—Mobima Indians of Santa Ana—“Mani” planted on sandbanks—The river Yacuma—Trading up the Yacuma to Reyes, San Pablo, San Borja, etc.—Multitudes of mosquitoes, etc.—Shoal of fish—Storks, ducks, flamingoes—Canichana Indians—The river Apiri and the village of San Ignacio—Poling over the shallows—The river Jamucheo—San Pedro—Traders haul their canoes over a portage to San Pedro—Weather turns very cold—The river Ybari—Arrival at Trinidad.
Leave Exaltacion—Improvement in crew—Mobima Indians of Santa Ana—“Mani” planted on sandbanks—The river Yacuma—Trading up the Yacuma to Reyes, San Pablo, San Borja, etc.—Multitudes of mosquitoes, etc.—Shoal of fish—Storks, ducks, flamingoes—Canichana Indians—The river Apiri and the village of San Ignacio—Poling over the shallows—The river Jamucheo—San Pedro—Traders haul their canoes over a portage to San Pedro—Weather turns very cold—The river Ybari—Arrival at Trinidad.
On the 28th of June I continued my journey up the river Mamoré, starting from the puerto of Exaltacion about 1 p.m., and soon arriving at a landing-place that is used when the river is full in the rainy season. This appeared to me to be a much better place for a permanent port, although it is further away from the village than the lower one, but it has the advantage that when the river is full it fills a creek that runs to within a quarter of a mile of the town, and up which canoes can then ascend, while, in the dry season, it is not so subject to dangerous landslips as the lower port is, for the banks are not nearly so high.
We paddled on up stream till about 9 p.m., when we stopped for the night at a playa, starting the next morning at 5 a.m. with every prospect of a good day’s work, as the men are all strong and well, and of a much better class than my old crew. Ihave now eight Trinitarios and two Cruzeños, these last being much better paddlers than Cruzeños generally are, one of them also bidding fair to make me a very useful servant in place of the lad that decamped yesterday. The river continues to be about half a mile in width, and presents no features of special interest, large playas or sandbanks alternating with long stretches of falling banks. In the afternoon we saw a canoe with Mobima Indians from Santa Ana on the Yacuma River, who come to the large playas on the Mamoré in the dry season, to sow maize and various kinds of beans thereon. We halted at 9 p.m., the night being a very unpleasant one from the great number of mosquitoes, the camarota of the canoe being so full of traps that it was impossible to set up the “toldeta,” or mosquito curtain, without letting in a lot of these bloodthirsty monsters; and on day appearing, I found the curtain was a perfect hive of them, and that I had suffered a serious loss of vital fluid. We started early the next morning (June 30th), the men requiring very little urging. At daybreak I went ashore on a large playa, and found it planted with two sorts of “frijoles,” or beans, and a kind of small pulse, called here “mani,” which, from the description given me, appears to be much like East Indian “gram” (i.e.the large red class). This planting is carried on by the Santa Ana people, who come here in their narrow canoes or dug-outs, very long and very narrow, some being perhaps thirty feet long by sixteen or eighteen inches wide. This is the class of canoe used by the Cayubabas of Exaltacion, and by most of the Indian tribes of the Beni.
About half-past two in the afternoon we passed the mouth of the river Yacuma, on which is the pueblo of Santa Ana, the head-quarters of the Mobima Indians. From the breadth at its mouth, the river appears to be of considerable size; and the village is said to be “doce tornos,” or twelve bends up river, this being the method by which the Indians describe a distance on these rivers. Probably the village is a good day’s paddle from the junction of the Yacuma with the Mamoré. It is by this river that traders take goods for the pueblos of Reyes, San Pablo, San Borja, and Santa Cruz, all of which are peopled by the Maropa Indians, and from which villages a trade is carried to the towns of Apolobamba in Bolivian territory, and Sandia in Peruvian. The river Yacuma is said to be navigable all the year round for large canoes, and is free from savages; therefore a small steamer may be advantageously employed here, after the construction of the railway of the cachuelas. The Beni River is said to be known from its sources, near La Paz, down to Cavinas, where there is a small village and a mission; but below that point few persons, if any, have of late years navigated, for the savages, who infest the lands near the junction of the Beni and the Mamoré, at the Madeira Falls, are much dreaded. Doubtless these savages would be easily driven off when navigation commences in earnest on these waters, but it is just as well to have two lines of communication with the south-eastern towns of Peru. One of the merchants who accompanied me up the rapids, sold goods, to the value of £3400, in Exaltacion to a trader who sends canoes up the affluents of theMamoré or the Itenez to the various pueblos of the department of the Beni, such as San Joaquin, San Ramon, San Nicolas, and San Pedro on the Machupa River, Magdalena on the Itonama, Concepcion de Baures and El Carmen on the Baures or Blanco River, the before-mentioned town of Reyes and others on the Yacuma, and San Ignacio on the Jamucheo. Considerable trade will doubtless be opened up with these towns and villages, and work will be found for two small steamers; one to run on the affluents of the Mamoré, and the other on those of the Itenez, the head-quarters of both being at Exaltacion or El Cerrito, just below.
July 1st. Started at 5 a.m., having had better luck with the mosquitoes last night, as I only had about half a dozen under the curtain instead of about a hundred, as I had the night before; but the men, who slept on shore on a high sandbank, passed a bad time and got no sleep at all, as the wind continually lifted up the toldetas and allowed the mosquitoes a free right of way. As soon as it was light I had pretty good sport, getting a “cabeça seca,” three ducks, and a pava in a very short time. There is always plenty of game to be had on this part of the river—so much so that one need scarcely provide any charqui, if it were not rather imprudent to trust entirely to one’s gun for the supply of a canoe’s crew of boatmen.
THE BATA.
THE BATA.
THE BATA.
The country we pass through is very uniform, “playas” and “tierras disbarrancandas,” and bits of pampa land, alternating with each other. There are no “barbaros” hereabouts, and I should say the lands from Exaltacion to Trinidad would be very valuable for emigration; climate splendid, land of excellent quality for the production of crops of sugar-cane, rice, maize, plantains, and every other description of tropical produce, together with capital pampas for cattle rearing. The bag to-day was splendid—two cabeça secas, a very large stork, called a “bata,” four ducks, and a pava; total eight. Also, we got about a dozen good-sized fish, which the men pulled out with their hands, there being a shoal of them close inshore; and if we had had a net we could have got a canoe full with ease. The “bata” is of the stork tribe; it stands about five feet high. Its wings, fully extended, cover eight feet six inches; colour white, head without feathers, but deep black skin, with red bag or wattle on the breast, where the body-feathers commence. The beak is black, with a curious upward turn, and is about twelve inches long. This fellow I shot withthe rifle at about 200 yards. He had strength left to make for the bush, but my young retriever “Burro” bolted after him and kept him prisoner amongst a heap of dead timber, until one of the Indians got up to him and finished him off with sundry blows on the head. The flesh of these birds is excellent eating, a steak off the breast, toasted over the wood fire, being very tasty. We saw a pair or two of flamingoes, and also some spoonbills; but these birds seem very wary, and do not allow one to get even within a rifle-shot of 200 or 300 yards.
July 2nd. Started at 3.30 a.m. This morning we see but few ducks or other birds, the wind perhaps driving them to cover, as it blows strong from the north-east. We have now passed the run of the Santa Ana people, for we do not find the playas sown with anything; nor do we meet with canoes, as we did yesterday, when we saw two or three lots of these Santa Ana Indians. This was a very uneventful day, with no shooting to speak of. Stopped for the night about 7 p.m.
July 3rd. Started about 4.30 a.m., rather later than usual, the men having overslept themselves; for we had intended to make the start about two instead of after four o’clock. Soon after sunrise we met a canoe with Canichana Indians, going to some chaco that they have near here, so we are now in the San Pedro district. We don’t make the progress I had hoped for, and it is clear that my canoe is undermanned; so I fear we shall take eight or ten days from Exaltacion to Trinidad instead of the usual six or seven. I found to-day that we had passed the river Apiri yesterday morning, aboutbreakfast-time. This river appears to be placed in the maps (Johnston’s) too high up the Mamoré by about a day’s journey—say fifteen or twenty miles. The pueblo of San Borja is on this river, but is a very small and insignificant place.
At 3 p.m. a heavy storm of rain, with thunder and lightning, came up with the wind, which has for the last two or three days been blowing from the north-east. About a third of an inch of rain fell. We stopped for the night about seven o’clock, and started the next morning, July 4th, shortly before 3 a.m., making a good early morning run. At daybreak plenty of duck were about, and I got a couple of marrecas and five cuervos, the latter a kind of black teal that I consider to be very good eating. In the afternoon my captain, one Pedro Yche, a Trinitario Indian, left his steering for a time, and took a spell at the paddles. He is a remarkably fine Indian, and very strong, being far above the ordinary stamina of the Indians. On the journey up the rapids he was the moving spirit amongst Don Miguel’s men, and whenever he put his shoulder to the canoes, in hauling them over the land portages, they had to go! To-day he started paddling with such good will that the paddle broke with the force he exerted in pulling it through the water. As we were short of paddles, he made the men cut a lot of long “chuchia” (wild cane) poles, from twelve to fourteen feet in length, and over the shallow waters of the playas we poled along, progressing very fairly. This is a favourite method with the Brazilians when travelling on the rivers, but the Bolivian Indians soon tire at it, and seem to prefer the monotonouswork of paddling. At night we stopped opposite to the mouth of the river Jamucheo or Tijamuchi, seven days’ journey up which is the pueblo of San Ignacio. To-day my total shooting was three ducks, eight cuervos, and a pava—a good bag, sufficient for a good “pot” and a grill for all hands.
July 5th. We started very early—at 3 a.m.—and about mid-day stopped for breakfast at the “puerto” or landing-place for the village of San Pedro, which is situated at the head of the river Machupa, which is an affluent of the Itenez. This village is peopled by the Canichana tribe of the Beni Indians, and is about a couple of leagues from the eastern bank of the Mamoré. There must be some slightly raised land, sufficiently elevated to form a watershed, a short distance from this bank of the great river, for the Machupa and other affluents of the Itenez run in a north-easterly direction, but the elevations are not of sufficient size to be seen as hills. There are two ports for San Pedro, at the upper one of which we stayed for the night. The sheds at these ports are large and well built, an Indian always living at them, who is termed the sentinel, and whose duty is to take care of the canoes of the villagers or traders, who leave their craft at the port while they visit the pueblo. From the style of the work, the quality of the timber, and the tidiness of the place, my previous favourable opinion, obtained by the employment of a few Canichanas in San Antonio, was confirmed, to the effect that these Indians are the most desirable of any of the various tribes of the Beni. They are excellent workmen with the axe, and are, I think, less addicted to the use of ardent spirits than theCayubabas or the Trinitarios. Traders going to San Pedro use the port on the Mamoré instead of going the round by the river Itenez. Their canoes are hauled up on land, and dragged by oxen across the two leagues of pampa between the Mamoré and the Machupa; and when steam navigation on the Mamoré commences, no doubt a corduroy road over this tract would be a great acquisition, so that the town of San Pedro may be accessible during all seasons from the Mamoré.
July 6th. We started again about 3 a.m., and at daybreak came to a playa where the current ran very strong; so tried the other side, but found the current worse, and the bank falling. We therefore returned to the playa, and dragged the canoe about a mile with a light rope, the men walking on the sand, and a couple of men in the canoe keeping her in a straight course with their chuchia poles. This morning the river was rising, and so the current was more rapid than usual, and the sandbanks were falling away as the water rose. In the afternoon we passed the port of the village of San Xavier, which is situated on a creek running into the Mamoré on its right bank, and at 5.30 p.m. stopped for the night at some “chacos” on the left bank of the river. During the night there was a little rain, and the wind changed from the north, where it had been for the last few days, round to the south, thus promising us some more cold nights.
July 7th. The south wind caused the day to break cold and dull, the thermometer going down to 66° Fahr., and not beginning to rise until past eight o’clock in the day; nevertheless, the men startedearly, because they hoped to get to the puerto of Trinidad, on the river Ybari, before nightfall. No shooting to-day, and very dull, unpleasant travelling on account of the cold; so I wrapped myself up in my Scotch maud, and read till twelve o’clock, when we stopped for breakfast. During the morning we were much delayed by the strong wind, which, being from the south, was right in our faces, and we were quite unable to make head against it in the shallow waters over the playas; we had, therefore, to keep under the banks in order to be somewhat sheltered from the wind, but as these banks were falling ones (“tierras disbarrancandas”), it was very unpleasant work. I had some sharp words with my captain, Pedro Yche, who is a good fellow, but very self-willed, and was far too fond of risking the canoe and our lives under these banks rather than brave the cold wind on the exposed playas. In consequence of all this trouble we did not make the progress we had hoped for, and at nightfall I ordered the canoe to the left bank of the river, where the banks were not falling, and where we could pass the night secure from the danger of being crushed by a heavy fall of earth; but we had a very bad night on account of the powerful wind, which many times during the night I fancied would cause the canoe to drag her moorings.
July 8th. The thermometer went down to 57°, and the night appeared to me to be about the coldest I had yet passed in the tropics; but perhaps above the cachuelas, when the south wind was blowing, it might have been as cold. I had not then a thermometer to register by, and was able to keep underthe toldeta; but last night this arrangement was quite useless, for the wind blew right through the camarota with a force so great as to render the fixing up of a curtain an utter impossibility. I think that Humboldt says that 21·8° Centigrade, equal to say 71° Fahrenheit, kept him from sleeping, so that our 57° may be considered as very trying indeed; and so we found it.
We made a start about 5.30 a.m., as soon as daylight appeared—for there was no temptation to linger under our blankets, which were quite unable to keep out the searching wind—and about 7.30 we left the Mamoré, entering a river called Ybari, about 100 yards wide at its mouth. In this part of the Mamoré there are two rivers of the same name, “Ybari,” and on one of these, the one now referred to, the town of Trinidad, the capital of the department of the Beni, is situated; on the other, about a couple of days’ journey southward, is the village of Loreto. This Ybari has plenty of water all the year round, and at present appears to be fairly navigable for small steamers, as it is perfectly free from dead wood or sandbanks, and the Indians tell me that even in the dry season there is water enough for large gariteas that draw, when loaded, four or five feet.
About mid-day we got to some chacos, or plantations, and stopped at one for breakfast, as it belonged to a “pariente,” or relation, of my captain Pedro. The barraca was, however, empty, and the whole place seemed left to take care of itself. It was said that the people had gone to Cuatro Ojos, on the river Piray, the port for the town of SantaCruz de la Sierra, the most important place in the north-east of Bolivia. There was not much to lose in the chaco, for the chocolotales have no fruit at this season, and the “caña,” or sugar-cane, was not ripe, and the only edible things to be found in the clearing were pumpkins, called here “oquejos” (the nearest spelling that I can get in Spanish, the “qu” standing for “k,” but “okehose” in English would give the nearest pronunciation), and in Brazil “jurumus” and “sapallos.” We helped ourselves to some of these as an addition to our chupe, and after our meal proceeded on our journey, the wind blowing so cold and strong that we made very poor progress. At nightfall we were still a good way from the puerto for Trinidad, so we stopped for the night at another of the chacos, which are now encountered pretty frequently on either side of the Ybari.
July 9th. The thermometer during the night went down to 52½°, and from one’s feelings it might easily be thought that we were travelling in the northern hemisphere instead of in the southern. We arrived at the port of Trinidad about 9 a.m., and finding that the town was about two leagues from the river, we prepared our breakfast and sent messengers to the town for horses to ride there on, and for bullock-carts for the baggage. The so-called port of Trinidad is like all the other ports on the rivers, simply a place where, from the depth of water, canoes can be moored to the bank, a few steps being cut up the bank to the shed at the top where the sentinel, whose duty it is to watch the canoes, finds shelter.