December 2.—Much rain during the night. Sailed from Caballococha at half past 2 p. m. Ijurra liked the appearance of things so much at this place that he determined, when he should leave me, to return to it and clear land for a plantation, which he has since done.
I lost my sounding-lead soon after starting, and had no soundings to Loreto, where we arrived at half-past 7 p. m., (twenty miles.) The river is much divided and broken up by islands, some of them small, and with sand-beaches. I believe they change their shape and size with every considerable rise of the river.
Loreto is situated on an eminence on the left bank, having the large island of Cacao in front. The river is three-fourths of a mile wide, and has one hundred and two feet of depth in mid-stream, with three miles the hour of current. The soil is a light-colored, tenacious clay, which, in the time of the rains, makes walking almost impossible, particularly as there are a number of cattle and hogs running about the village and trampling the clay into mire.
There are three mercantile houses in Loreto, all owned by Portuguese. They do a business of about ten thousand dollars a year—that is, that value in goods, from above and below, passes through their hands. They tell me that they sell the goods from below at about twenty per cent. on Pará prices, which of course I did not believe. Senhor Saintem, the principal trader, told me that the business above was very mean; that there was not a capitalist in Moyobamba able or willing to buy one thousand dollars' worth of goods; and that they pay for their articles of merchandise from below almost altogether in straw-hats, as the Tarapoto people do in tocuyo. I saw a schooner-rigged boat lying along-side the bank. She was about forty feet long and seven broad; was built in Coari, and sold here for two hundred dollars, silver. The houses at Loreto are better built, and better furnished, than those of the towns on the river above. We are approaching civilization.
The population of Loreto is two hundred and fifty, made up of Brazilians, mulattoes, negroes, and a few Ticunas Indians. It is the frontier post of Peru. There are a few miles of neutral territory between it and Tabatinga, the frontier of Brazil.
December 4.—We left Loreto at half past 6 a. m., with a cold wind from the northward and eastward, and rain. Thermometer, 76°. It seems strange to call the weather cold with the thermometer at 76°; but I really was very uncomfortable with it, and the monkeys seemed nearly frozen.
I estimate the length of the neutral territory, by the windings of the river, at twenty miles.
Since I purchased a boat at Nauta I had worn an American flag over it. I had been told that I probably would not be allowed to wear it in the waters of Brazil. But when the boat was descried at Tabatinga, the Brazilian flag was hoisted at that place; and when I landed, which I did dressed in uniform, I was received by the commandant, also in uniform, to whom I immediately presented my Brazilian passport, of which the following is a translation:
[SEAL OF THE LEGATION.]
I, Sergio Teixeira de Macedo, of the Council of his Majesty, the Emperor of Brazil, his Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary near the United States of America, Officer of the Imperial Order of the Rose, Grand Cross of that of Christ, and Commendador of various Foreign Orders, &c., &c.: