ial--split bamboo and palm leaves. It is embowered in
a magnificent grove of plantains and papayas. In the spacious vestibule
is a bench, on which the Indian governor and his staff seat themselves
every morning to confer with the alcalde. In one corner stands a table
(the only one we remember seeing on the Napo); on the opposite side are
heaped up jars, pots, kettles, hunting and fishing implements, paddles,
bows and arrows. Between the posts swing two chambiri hammocks. From
Santa Rosa to Para the hammock answers for chair, sofa, _tete-a-tete_,
and bed. When a stranger enters, he is invited to sit in a hammock; and
at Santa Rosa we were always presented with a cup of guayusa; in Brazil
with a cup of coffee. Sandoval wore nothing but shirt and pantaloons;
the dignity of the barefooted functionary was confined to his Spanish
blood. He had lived long among the Zaparos; and from him, his daughter,
and a Zaparo servant, we obtained much valuable information respecting
that wild and little-known tribe.

[Illustration: Papaya-tree.]

At Santa Rosa we procured Indians and canoes for the Maranon. This was
not easily done. The Indians seemed reluctant to quit their feasts and
go on such a long voyage, and the alcalde was unwilling they should go,
and manufactured a host of lies and excuses. He declared there was but
one large canoe in town, and that we must send to Suno for another, and
for men to man it. There were indeed few Indians in Santa Rosa, for
while we were disputing a largo number went off with shoutings down the
river, to spend weeks in the forest hunting monkeys.[124] It was a
stirring sight to see these untamed red men in the depths of the Napo
wilderness starting on a monkey crusade; but it was still more stirring
to think of paddling our own canoe down to Brazil. After some time lost
in word-fighting, we tried the virtues of authority. We presented the
president's order, which commanded all civil and military powers on the
Napo to aid, and not to hinder, the expedition; then we put into his
hand an official letter from the alcalde of Napo (to whom Pablo was
subordinate), which, with a flourish of dignified Spanish, threatened
Santa Rosa with the doom of Sodom and Gomorrah if any impediment was
placed in our way.

[Footnote 124: Monkeys form an article of food throughout tropical
America. The meat is tough, but keeps longer than any other in that
climate. The Indians told Gibbon that "the tail is the most delica