Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/173

 miles from the bank along which we were laboriously warping our course upwards.

After the first two or three days we fell into a regular way of life aboard. Our crew was composed of ten Indians of the Cucáma nation, whose native country is a portion of the borders of the upper river in the neighbourhood of Nauta, in Peru. The Cucámas speak the Tupí language, using, however, a harsher accent than is common amongst the semi-civilized Indians from Ega downwards. They are a shrewd, hard-working people, and are the only Indians who willingly and in a body engage themselves to navigate the canoes of traders. The pilot, a steady and faithful fellow named Vicente, told me that he and his companions had now been fifteen months absent from their wives and families, and that on arriving at Ega they intended to take the first chance of a passage to Nauta. There was nothing in the appearance of these men to distinguish them from canoemen in general. Some were tall and well built, others had squat figures with broad shoulders and excessively thick arms and legs. No two of them were at all similar in the shape of the head: Vicente had an oval visage with fine regular features, whilst a little dumpy fellow, the wag of the party, was quite a Mongolian in breadth and prominence of cheek, spread of nostrils, and obliquity of eyes; these two formed the extremes as to face and figure. None of them were tattooed or disfigured in any way; they were all quite destitute of beard. The Cucámas are notorious on the river for their provident habits. The desire of acquiring property is so rare a