Maranon (for so the natives call
the Upper Amazon) does not appear very much broader than the Napo; but
its depth is far greater, and there are few sand-bars.[133] The water is
always of a turbid yellow; while the Napo, though muddy during our
voyage, is usually clear. The forest, moreover, on the banks of the
Maranon, is not so striking as on the tributary. The palms are not so
numerous, and the uniform height of the trees gives a monotonous,
sea-like horizon.

[Footnote 133: Herndon makes the mouth of the Napo 150 yards broad, and
the soundings six or seven fathoms. This is not a fair representation;
for the Napo, like all the other tributaries, empties its waters by
several mouths. At Camindo, five miles above the confluence, the Napo is
certainly a mile wide.]

We arrived at Pebas December 12, ten hours after leaving the mouth of
the Napo, and a month and a half from Quito. The first individual we met
addressed us in good English, and proved to be Mr. Hauxwell of birds and
insects, who has resided thirty years on the Amazon. His house, the
largest and best in town, though but a roofed stockade, was generously
placed at our disposal, and the fatted calf--an immense turtle--was
immediately killed. To us, after the transit of the Andes and the
dangers and hardships of the wilderness and the river, it seemed as if
we had reached the end of our journey, though we were over two thousand
miles from the Atlantic. Pebas is situated on a high clay bluff beside
the Ambiyacu, a mile above its entrance into the Maranon. Excepting Mr.
Hauxwell, the Peruvian governor, and two or three other whites, the
inhabitants are Indians of the Orejones and Yagua tribes. The
exportations are hammocks, sarsaparilla, palo de cruz, and urari. Palo
de cruz is the very hard, dark-colored wood of a small leguminous tree
bearing large pink flowers. Urari is the poison used by all the
Amazonian Indians; it is made by the Ticunas on the Putumayo, by boiling
to a jelly the juices of certain roots and herbs, chiefly of the
_Strychnos toxifera_, though it does not contain any trace of
strychnine. Tipped with urari, the needle-like arrow used in blow-guns
will kill an ox in twenty minutes and a monkey in ten. "We have reason
to congratulate ourselves (wrote the facetious Sidney Smith) that our
method of terminating disputes is by sword and pistol, and not by these
medicated pins." But the poison appears to be harmless to man and other
salt-eating anima