The daily union., 1854-12-22
LETTER NO. 10.
For the Union.

Determined still prosecute their Journey the party
revived in hope with the renewal of the journey Having
lost all below Balsapeura before their return they
determined route and proceeded to Tarraporta,
which the head of navigation the Huallaga river
about seven hundred miles from its mouth Here they
found party of Americans who had delivered Dr. Whit
steamers for the Peruvian government under
the lead of Mr. Robert Nesbt The steamers after lying
some time Loreo and Nauta had proceeded up the HUI
aaga far Omargus about $50 miles below Tarrapor
h which the highest point that they could reach
account of the low They had to assist the
agent Of Dr. Whtmore and of the Peruvian government
Messrs Cavelly and Captain Tanning their route to
Lima which lay through Moyobamba and Chachapoyas,
and obtain provisions starvation in Nauta
Our party were unable obtain any valuable aid of the
steamers party except purchasing trinkets they
were circumstances almost reduced themselves
ing the delay Peru in receiving the steamers and paying
the money them Governor Ores had accompanied the
steamer Omargus and sent his agent Mr.. Mathews,
to Tarrapora with funds to purchase the provisions
am informed that the people all leaving the towns
of Peru The l8O immigrants taken to the settlement
Cabalo Cocha two years since have all left dsgusted
with the country which is soaked with rains for the great
part of the year. and where mosquitoes sand es and
large poisonous ants say nothing of disease render
impossible for human beings to live with any tolerable
comfort Loreo and Naua have each about three hundred
population Of Indians only with business feel salts
fed that important change will in that portion
of the Peruvian territory in very few years Brazil is
looking it with anxious eyes; and unless stronger OPP
posing influences than those of Peru present themselves
she will have it in due time
Finding the country IN this condition, party en-
every species of hardshp They descended the
Huaaga 6alsas RATS made Of the balsa tree which
almost as light cork They subsisted pantans and
fish almost solely, with occasionally few monkeys
they found agaors in the Huallaga From the mouth
they assembled more than five hundred miles to Santiago
de Borja. The Marathon deep, with rapid current
The river being wide and filled with large islands, and
both shores being cut up by lagoons and egarpes or
canals and side streams they found the navigation
ingy difficult for their They generally took the side
streams, which not so rapid and would enable them
to paddle against the current until they arrived at Baran
ca three hundred miles below Santiago, where they
found the current rapid that for the remaining three
hhndred miles they had to wade the rough stony bot
of the side streams and shove their against the
current This exceedingly painful process They
had their feet SO cut TO pieces that at times they
PEELED to encamp for than week for them to heal
sufficiently TO try it again Some idea may be conceived
of the difficulty of this ascent from the fact that they
eighteen days in ascending, and but thrtyx hours
on the descent
At Baranca they found ample provisions The forest
abounded in wild hogs, very large, and with skin
tough that takes several rifle balls to kill them The
meat could not be preserved by sang although when
split into thin slices and dried in the sum- it preserved
$ easily jerking beef They found turkeys also very
plentiful but the chief reliance artarugas turtles
in which the river abounds from Santiago to the Bana in
Brazil When the party put up" at night sand bar
they had only to few turtles for USE they
found thousands of them and hunt up few thousands of
their eggs AT time they had five barrels of these
eggs which much used in making oil, and which,
although too gross for food under ordinary circumstances
yet greatly shed by the usually keen appetite of the
Upper Amazonan traveller. For party of twelve they
cooked nine hundred for breakfast they breakasted
gror, p,idr;r l., sooJa do peru Thay
found that the flesh of the aarugas could be easily
served as beef
Arriving finally at the head OF steamboat navigation
the Marahon the great Pungo Manserche they found
Santiago three miles above at the head of the pungo and
Villa de Bora the foot All Of Captain Tabotts party
had left and disbanded after casting their implements
guns &c, into the river They had cut road through
the thick around the falls to enable them visit the
ruins of Santiago which the Indians burnt some years
since in vengeance for their stolen children the
time masacrng the whole city of whites but since their
stay at the pungo they had found gold Our party be-
ing later and finding the river lower obtained some au
rieous sands from the sandbars from which fifty
to dollar per day might probably be wrought if by
the best of processes and the Of quicksilver But the
great difficulty to find provisions. The immediate
country had nothingEot plantan-whilc the In
dans savage and erce and had last year only driven
back Peruvian governor and party of two hundred who
had esayed TO coonize and open the country Thus s
ated the party determined return. The Pungo Manse-
richie is three miles long, four hundred yards wide, and
about sixty feet deep the water rushing down in torrents
and whirlpool great violence The river here joined by the
Santiago river breaks through the solid mountain The
smooth strait perpendicular sandstone walls rise with
beautiful regularity to the height of 1000 to 1900 feet
The view is imposing and grand in the extreme especially
when the above is snrcharged with all the waters
collected from Lima down, and rushing through this
pass When the river above is very low canoes
padded up the pungo and of the American parties
came through the puDgo balsa but had of their
men Ia senman) drowned They found all of the rivers
remarkably clear of snags and sawyers" The timber is
either very heavy to sink to the bottom light
all the species of palms, readily float off The
parties had all the time been encouraged that they would
find gold in f@w days. Everybody knew where there
present the tangible and solid evidence the party re-
turned Baranoa they found about sixty Indians washing
the sands at Santa Cruz about hundred miles below
the pungo, and obtaining about twenty cents per day
They found the people of Moy yobamba the most ndepen
ent and agreeable population this side Of the
ins Being an independent city, it governed to suit its
fancy They recently sent back to Lima in irons
project who happened to suit them and told our par
ties that they would rejoice the United States would con-
quer and annex them The whole population is en-
gagged in making the fine Panama hats where the traders
sold here With forty pounds of tobacco traveller
pay his expenses from Moyobamba to Para. The to-
bacco of Peru sells AT home for about ten cents per pound
aud in Brazil from fifty cents to dollar. The poems
generally prefer being paid in cotton CLOTH which they