The vegetation is very dense all along the banks. The most common types are large bamboos; numerous palms, such as the palma de la cera or wax-palm, the chonta, the fragrant sia-sia, the royal, and others; setico-trees, already mentioned; the palo de la balsa, or raftwood-tree; the yarina, or vegetable ivory-tree; and a variety of others, intermingled with shrubs and bushes of innumerable kinds, and bound together into one tangled, impenetrable mass by the countless bejucos and climbers everywhere in evidence.
Nearly every tree of any size is covered with innumerable parasites, among which are to be found several varieties of orchids, whose brilliant flowers serve to diversify the universal green of the forest. The most common of these are different species of Epidendrum, Oneidium, Peristeria, Catasectum, Sobralia, Cypripedium, Maxillaria, Stanopœa, &c.
At about two o’clock we reached Materón’s establishment La Sofía, where we were cordially received by the other partner, Gonzalez, and his wife. La Sofía is a good-sized, two-storied bamboo bungalow, with a fine wide veranda extending along its front, while around the building in every direction extend fields of maize, yuca, sugar-cane, &c., with the dark, silent forest in the background. As the place is built on a rather high bank, one can obtain from the veranda an excellent view of the placid, smiling river as it slowly rolls past to join the mighty Amazon on its course to the Atlantic.
La Sofía was formerly the headquarters of General Reyes, ex-President of the Republic, when he was engaged in the collection of quinine in this region years ago. It is at the head of steam navigation on the Putumayo, and it was here that Reyes’ steamer Tundama was lost. When Materón had arrived here, some eleven months before, he had found everything overgrown by the rank, tropical vegetation and all the old buildings almost completely destroyed. Reyes had named the place La Sofía in honour of his fiancée, and Materón and his partner had retained the name.
The company already had about ten peons engaged in clearing the land and cultivating the crops, and had advanced merchandise to all the Cionis, who had agreed to work out their indebtedness by planting rubber-trees, building houses, clearing land, &c. I was pleased to observe that strict morality was the rule, and that Gonzalez permitted no abuses against the aborigines either by taking away their women, by cheating them, or in any way at all. As to the peons, they seemed cheerful and contented.
There are two distinct kinds of rubber—that produced by a tree that must be cut down to extract the milk, which is called caucho negro, or black rubber, and is produced by the Castilloa elastica, and that which is the product of a tree that can be tapped indefinitely, which is known as jebe or siringa, and is collected from the Hevea brasiliensis. These two varieties of rubber are each subdivided into several classifications, according to the quality of the latex or milk and the care and skill employed in their extraction and preparation. As a general rule, siringa is much more valuable than caucho, and is the best kind adapted for cultivation, although Materón was planting both sorts. After showing us some samples of each, he informed us that the whole region of the Upper Putumayo had once abounded in caucho negro, but that at the present date very little remained, owing to the fierce onslaughts of the caucheros many years ago.
The next day Materón had some of his men build a little rancho of palm-leaves over our canoe amidships to protect us from the sun and rain. This sort of awning is called a pamacari, and is in general use in the Amazon Valley; it gave the canoe a very picturesque appearance, and, as we afterwards found, was very convenient.
We spent the rest of the day in inspecting the estate and taking down a Cioni vocabulary, in which language Gonzalez was very proficient and kind enough to give us the benefit of his knowledge. This vocabulary, which I had hoped to take back to civilisation with me, was, however, lost under particularly aggravating circumstances, which will be duly recorded in a succeeding chapter.
Although Materón and Gonzalez implored us to stay a week or so with them, we decided to resume our journey on the following day; but in the morning, just as we were about to start, Perkins was attacked with a heavy fever, and so our departure was postponed. We dosed him up with quinine and put him to bed, where he soon began to perspire freely, which is to be desired in these malarial attacks.
Finding our patient better in the afternoon, Gonzalez, Materón, and myself took a little trip down to San José, a small Cioni town about a kilometre below La Sofía. This village and its inhabitants are very similar to Guineo and San Diego, only a trifle larger than the latter. Here we stopped some time, and I was able to obtain several souvenirs from the Indians, besides a shallow earthen pot, which I determined to fix in the canoe to cook in, thus avoiding the loss of time consequent to performing this operation on shore.