Identifier: narrativeofjourn00smyt (find matches)
Title: Narrative of a journey from Lima to Para, across the Andes and down the Amazon: undertaken with a view of ascertaining the practicability of a navigable communication with the Atlantic, by the rivers Pachitea, Ucayali, and Amazon
Year: 1836 (1830s)
Authors: Smyth, William, 1800-1877
Subjects:
Publisher: London, Murray
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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upon our return to the Padreswere very kindly received by him, and we took upour quarters in his house. Chasuta occupies a considerable space of ground,and is Ijuilt with more regularity than the townswe had previously met with. It has a plaza, thewest side of which is formed by the church, thenorth by the convento, and the east by a row ofhouses; the south is open. Its population isabout 1100. The countenance and dress of theinhabitants are much the same with those of therest of the people we had met with on the banksof the Huallaga, and they smeared themselvespretty much in the same manner. The womencarry their infants in a net slung round theirheads, and hanging behind. There is a school,but the Padre complained that the boys were veryidle, which we could easily believe. The samearticles were in request here as at Pachiza—suchas knives, small axes, lish-hooks, and trinkets.The Sunday was passed precisely in the samemanner as at Tarapoto. January 12th.—Our guide had procured two
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i-x ^ CHASUTA. 155 canoes and fourteen men to take us across to Sa-rayacu; but the Huallaga had risen so high inthe night, that it was unsafe to proceed in ourlight canoes, which had been chosen to enable usto get up the Chipurana, and we were obligedto spend the day at Cliasuta. In our rambleround the place, we were surprised at the terrorwhich our appearance seemed to inspire; for thepeople whom we met, and especially the women,generally ran away : but the Padre explained thecause of it—which was, the unusual appearance,to their eyes, of our beards and mustachios, whichwe had allowed to grow for protection against themusquitoes and sand-flies; and which are scarcelyever seen as an appendage to the Indian face. The Padre, JMariano de Jesus, had made severalvoyages up the Ucayali to Ocopa, where a collegehad formerly existed for the education of mission-ary priests, and which is farther south than thesource of the Pachitea; and he asserted that theUcayali was certainly navigable for

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