In the afternoon Acosta and Prieto set out for La Unión in order to inform the Colombians there of the measures Orjuela had decided to take—viz., to demand an interview with Loayza, while Orjuela and Sánchez made preparations to set out on the following day for El Dorado, the last Colombian establishment, and there invite Loayza to the meeting. They intended going by canoe down the Caraparaná.
At about six o’clock, in the midst of a pouring rain, Perkins arrived with the cargadores carrying the effects that we were to sell Serrano. After he had changed his clothes and got outside of some food I told him of Serrano’s proposal, which, after several gasps of amazement, he pronounced worthy of investigation. Then, after some more talk, we resolved that we should stop here with Serrano, look over the estate, and, if satisfied, come to an agreement with him, while I accompanied Orjuela to the conference with a view of informing the Peruvian Amazon Company’s agent, Loayza, that, as we were contemplating the purchase of a part of La Reserva, we should be obliged by their keeping their hands off it.
Assured by Orjuela that his mission was a peaceful one and that there was no probability of any conflict with the Peruvians, I asked permission to accompany him to the conference, which was readily granted; so I made preparations for an early departure on the following morning. Serrano approved of this idea, for he thought that the Peruvians would have some respect for a foreigner.
At six o’clock the next morning Orjuela, Sánchez, myself, a peon of Orjuela’s, and three of Serrano’s Indian boatmen set out on the trip to El Dorado. We made our way but slowly down the crooked, muddy course of the Caraparaná. This river is, I believe, one of the crookedest in the world, for it continually doubles on itself as it winds its way through the dense vegetation that rises up on either bank. At about 10.30 we reached Filadelfia, a deserted establishment formerly belonging to some Colombians, who had sold it to the “civilising company,” by whom it had been abandoned some time previously.
At about four o’clock we arrived at a station, which Orjuela informed me was Argelia, one of the chief centres of the Peruvian Amazon Company. As Orjuela wished to see the agent we disembarked, and, climbing the long hill that rose up from the bank, reached the house, a fairly large structure of unpainted boards, where we were received in a friendly manner by the man in charge, Don Ramiro de Osma y Pardo. We chatted for about half an hour on trivial subjects, had tea, and then took our departure.
When we had disembarked Orjuela had, somewhat to my surprise, ordered the boatmen to go on. I now saw the reason, for I perceived that the river wound around in the woods and formed an enormous peninsula, upon the narrow neck of which Argelia was situated. We then descended the opposite side of the hill and, reaching the river’s bank again, waited several minutes before the men arrived with the boat.
Embarking again, we continued for an hour or so, and then, not finding any convenient playa, Orjuela, Sánchez, and myself stretched out in the bottom of the boat, while the men slept in the brush on the bank. The monteria was small, and we were three; consequently there was not much room, and we passed a veritable night of torture, cramped and rolling over each other in a manner hardly conducive to a night’s rest.
The next morning the trip was resumed, and, after a tedious descent of several hours, we reached El Dorado at 4.30 p.m. Here we were cordially received by Don Tobias Calderón, the man in charge, who informed us that Señor Gonzalez, tired to death of the continual raids, robberies, and other abuses of the Peruvians, had gone over on the right bank of the Putumayo to look for some other suitable place to establish himself, where he might be left in peace.
Immediately upon our arrival Orjuela dispatched a note to Loayza by an Indian, who would reach El Encanto within a few hours, travelling by an overland trail. This operation concluded, we took a look at the estate, which was situated on a gently sloping knoll on the left bank. The house was of good size and of the usual elevated construction. The space around it had once been cleared, but was now grown over with bushes and shrubs. I was informed that there were about thirty Indian families attached to the estate; one or two of these were employed at the house, while the rest lived out at their village in the heart of the forest.
The next morning we were surprised to see a number of canoes coming up the river; as they approached nearer Orjuela recognised several of the occupants as Colombian employees of the El Encanto branch of the “civilising company.” Arriving at the house, they informed us that they had all resigned their positions on account of the ill-feeling exhibited towards them by the Peruvians and that they were going to Guepí. Another interesting piece of news was that sixty Peruvian soldiers had just arrived from Iquitos on the Liberal, one of the Peruvian Amazon Company’s launches. These ex-employees, although naturally kept in the dark as much as possible by their Peruvian employers, suspected some attack was about to be made on La Unión or La Reserva before long, as a Peruvian gunboat had also recently arrived. They had seen Martínez, the unfortunate Corregidor, whom they reported as being kept in close confinement at El Encanto.