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In the year 1549 I was at Charcas; and I went to see the cities in that region, for which purpose the president Gasca gave me letters of introduction to the corregidors, that I might learn all that was worthy of notice.
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NOTE TO CHAPTER XCV.
ON THE RIVER PURÚS, A TRIBUTARY OF THE AMAZON.
BY
Mr. Richard Spruce.
“NOTWITHSTANDING the slow rate at which commerce and civilisation advance in the interior of South America, the opening up of routes of communication is becoming daily of more importance, and is exciting greater interest among the inhabitants. Some of the mighty rivers of that continent might seem to have been made by nature’s hand expressly for steam navigation, being so wide and deep, and flowing with so gentle and equable a descent, as to allow vessels of considerable size to reach the very foot of the mountains whence they take their rise; such are the Amazons, the Magdalena, and the Plata, with its tributary the Paraná; while others, of scarcely inferior volume, such as the Orinoco, the Rio Negro, the Madeira, and the Cauca (the main tributary of the Magdalena), are navigable for a considerable distance in their lower and upper parts, but towards the middle of their course are beset by rapids and cataracts, which can only be ascended, even by small boats, with infinite trouble, risk, and delay. In the case of the Orinoco and Rio Negro, the cataracts occupy so short a space, the actual fall is so slight, and the nature of the ground is such, that the obstructions might be easily turned or avoided by a navigable canal or a railroad, neither of which is likely to be constructed until the exigencies of commerce or colonisation shall make it an imperative necessity. The Madeira, however, the largest tributary of the Amazons, has no less than two hundred and forty miles of its middle course rendered practically unnavigable by a succession of rapids and cataracts, below which it is navigable down to its mouth,—a distance of five hundred miles,—for steamers of a thousand tons; and above them for smaller vessels for an equal distance, counting the navigation of its tributary, the Mamoré, which was explored by Lieut. Gibbon, of the U. S. navy, in 1851. Its other large tributaries, the Béni, the Ubahý, and the Guaporé, are said to be navigable for an equal or even greater distance. Now the navigation of the Madeira is of the first importance to the Brazilians, not only as a means of communication with the western part of the empire, but also with the highlands of Bolivia and Southern Peru, and it has been proposed to obviate its difficulties, 1. By opening a road from the point where it ceases to that where it begins again to be navigable, along which cargos might be transported on beasts of burden, and then be re-embarked above the falls; or, 2. By exploring the rivers running to the Amazon from the southward, between the Madeira and Ucayali, in the belief that some one of them might prove to be navigable up to a point beyond the last falls of the Madeira. The three principal of these rivers, beginning with the most easterly, or that nearest the Madeira, are the Purús, the Yutahý, and the Yauarý (or Javarí). All these rivers are stated by Baena[465] to take their rise in the highlands of Peru, and the Purús has always been considered the largest of the three; for although it drains a far narrower basin than the Madeira, and its stream is much less wide and rapid, it is still a noble river, with deep water for a very long way up. People have gone up it from the Amazon and the Barra do Rio Negro, in quest of turtle, brazil-nuts, and sarsaparilla, for months without encountering any obstacle to its navigation. Lieutenant Herndon, in descending the Amazon in 1851, found the mouth of the Purús to be half a mile wide, with a depth of 16 fathoms, while at one mile up the depth was 18 fathoms.
“The Purús communicates with the Amazon by one principal mouth, and by four narrow channels (called furos) which leave the Purús at a good way up, and enter the Amazon, three above and one below the real mouth. Along these channels the water sometimes flows from the Purús into the Amazon, and sometimes in the contrary direction, according to the variable height of the water in the two rivers; and sometimes, when both rivers are very low, the channels are left nearly dry. The middle one of the three upper channels is called the Furo de Cochiuará, a name which Acuña applies to the whole river, and writes it ‘Cuchiguará.’ It is a famous and navigable river, he says, and adds, ‘Although there are rocks in some places, it has plenty of fish, a great number of turtle, abundance of maize and mandioc, and all things necessary for facilitating the entrance of an expedition.’[466] The rocks of which he speaks, we shall afterwards find to be cliffs rising from the river’s edge, and offering no hindrance whatever to navigation.
“When I was at the Barra do Rio Negro in 1851, a man of colour, named Serafim Salgado, arrived there from the Purús, where he had spent some six months, trading with the Purupurú (or Spotted) Indians, who inhabit the lower part of the river, and from whom it takes its name; and also with the Catauixís, whose settlements extend upwards to a distance of two months’ journey from the mouth.[467] I purchased from him various warlike and other instruments used by the Catauixís, which are now deposited in the Museum of Vegetable Products at Kew; and obtained from him some curious information about the customs of those Indians. They use the powder of the roasted seeds of Acacia Niopo as a stimulant and narcotic, as I have also seen it used by the Guahibos on the Orinoco, where it is called Niopo, and by the Múras and other Indians on the Amazon, where it is called Paricá. For absorbing the Paricá by the nose, a tube is made of the bone of a bird’s leg cut in two, and the pieces joined again at such an angle, that one end being applied to the mouth the other reaches the nostrils; a portion of snuff is then put into the tube and blown from it with great force up the nose. A Paricá clyster-pipe (which seems peculiar to the river Purús, as I have myself nowhere seen it used) is made on the same principle, of the long shankbone of the Tuyuyú (Mycteria Americana). The effect of the Paricá, taken as snuff, is to speedily induce a sort of intoxication, resembling in its symptoms that produced by the fungus Amanita muscaria. Taken as a clyster it is a purge, more or less violent according to the quantity employed. When the Catauixí Indian is about to set forth on the chase, he takes a small clyster of Paricá, and administers another to his dog, the effects on both being (it is said) to clear their vision and render them more alert! His weapon is generally the blowing cane, from which he propels slender darts tipped with Uirarí poison. Attached to the quiver that holds the darts is a slender tube of bamboo, two inches and a half long, filled with soot, with which he smears his face when he approaches his hut, if he returns successful from the chase. By this signal his family are advertised beforehand whether or not they will have to go without supper.—The Catauixí name for the blowing-cane darts is Araráicohí, and for the poison Arinulihá—the only two words I possess of their language.