San Pedro River

“ My next stage of thirteen leagues brought me to San Pedro, after passing a small village called Payjan. San Pedro is composed of about a hundred and fifty houses, of baxareque, canes cased with clay: it is a parish belonging to the order of Augustin friars, who have a small convent here. The population is composed principally of indians, whose chief occupation is the cultivation of the lands in the valley of the same name, which is watered by the river Pacasmayo, and produces most abundant crops of wheat ”

“ They are excellent workmen with the axe, and are, I think, less addicted to the use of ardent spirits than the [147] Cayubabas or the Trinitarios. Traders going to San Pedro use the port on the Mamoré instead of going the round by the river Itenez. Their canoes are hauled up on land, and dragged by oxen across the two leagues of pampa between the Mamoré and the Machupa; and when steam navigation on the Mamoré commences, no doubt a corduroy road over this tract would be a great acquisition, so that the town of San Pedro may be accessible during all seasons from the Mamoré. ”

“ It was, as I have already said, recognized from the tide-waters of the Hudson to those of the Columbia as the most thoroughly Godforsaken post of all those supposed to be included in the annual Congressional appropriations. Beauty of situation or of construction it had none; its site was the supposed junction of the sand-bed of the Aravaypa with the sand-bed of the San Pedro, which complacently figured on the topographical charts of the time as creek and river respectively, but generally were dry as a lime-burner’s hat excepting during the “rainy season.” ”

“ This river, likewise, had a net-work bridge which, being broken, made it necessary to ford the stream, and afterwards a very large mountain was ascended which, looked at from below, seemed impossible of ascent by the very birds of the air, and still more so by men on horseback toiling over the ground. ”

“ On the eve of the next day, Monday, Pedro brought in the trunk which he had drawn from the beach at my desire, at the time of my discovery, and now opened it to examine what articles it might contain. He told me he had hitherto kept it secreted in the grass, in the rear of the cot; and had not dared to take out any articles to dry for fear of the deserters and Indians; for should they discover any thing valuable hanging out, they would certainly steal it, and search the house for more. ”

“ They told him that the colony of Buenos Ayres was inhabited and provided with people and commodities; and how Juan de Ayolas, whom Don Pedro de Mendoza had sent on an expedition of discovery into the interior, while returning from his discovery, and intending to take refuge in certain brigantines which he had left in the harbour, named by him Candelaria, in the river Paraguai, had been killed by a certain nation of Indians living on the same river, called Payaguás [304] ”

“ Two leagues of this valley having been travelled, they came to another bridge, a small one over another river, over which the troops passed on foot while the horses forded, as much on account of the bridge being in bad order as on account of the fact that the water was low at that time. Having crossed the river, he [the Governor] began to climb a very steep and long mountain all made of steps of very small stones. [35] Here the horses toiled so much that, when they had finished going up, the greater part of them had lost their shoes and worn down the hoofs of all four feet. ”

“ Leave Exaltacion—Improvement in crew—Mobima Indians of Santa Ana—“Mani” planted on sandbanks—The river Yacuma—Trading up the Yacuma to Reyes, San Pablo, San Borja, etc.—Multitudes of mosquitoes, etc.—Shoal of fish—Storks, ducks, flamingoes—Canichana Indians—The river Apiri and the village of San Ignacio—Poling over the shallows—The river Jamucheo—San Pedro—Traders haul their canoes over a portage to San Pedro—Weather turns very cold—The river Ybari—Arrival at Trinidad. ”

“ If the two banks of the river are stony, they raise upon them large walls of stone, and then they place four [ropes of] pliable reeds two palms or a little less in thickness, and between them, after the fashion of wattle-work, they weave green osiers two fingers thick and well intertwined, in such a way that some are not left more slack than others, and all are well tied. And upon these they place branches crosswise in such a way that the water is not seen, and in this way they make the floor of the bridge. ”

“ Mamoré or the Itenez to the various pueblos of the department of the Beni, such as San Joaquin, San Ramon, San Nicolas, and San Pedro on the Machupa River, Magdalena on the Itonama, Concepcion de Baures and El Carmen on the Baures or Blanco River, the before-mentioned town of Reyes and others on the Yacuma, and San Ignacio on the Jamucheo. Considerable trade will doubtless be opened up with these towns and villages, and work will be found for two small steamers ”

“ We stayed three days in this harbour, on one of which Captain Fitz Roy, with a party, attempted to ascend to the summit of San Pedro. The woods here had rather a different appearance from those on the northern part of the island. The rock, also, being micaceous slate, there was no beach, but the steep sides dipped directly beneath the water. The general aspect in consequence was more like that of Tierra del Fuego than of Chiloe. In vain we tried to gain the summit: the forest was so impenetrable, that no one who has not beheld it can imagine so entangled a mass of dying and dead trunks. ”

“ With this agreement, the Indians of Quito crossed [the bridge before mentioned] with the intention that a captain with five hundred of their men should come from the direction of a [certain] mountain and cross a river which is a quarter of a league from the city and place himself on the highest part of the mountain [near Xauxa] in order to assault the city on the day agreed upon between them. The captain Quizquiz and Incurabaliba, [79] who were their [121] chief leaders, were to come by the plains with a greater force of warriors. ”

“ First of all, the treasurer arranged that all the gold of H. M. and of the men which was in the city should be placed in a large house, and he set a guard of the feeblest and sickest Spaniards, ordering that the rest should be prepared to fight; and he ordered ten light horsemen to go out to see how large a number of the enemy had crossed the river in order to take the mountain, and he himself, with the rest of the soldiers, waited on the [122] plaza in case the greater number of the enemy should come by way of the plain. The Spanish scouts attacked the Indians who had crossed the bridge ”

“ Most of the Indians made for the water, thinking to save themselves in it, but the light horsemen crossed the river almost by swimming after them, and they did not leave one alive save some few who had hidden themselves in their flight after their army was broken in pieces. Then the Spaniards ran through the country as far as a league below without finding a single Indian. ”

“ It has a beautiful and fine fortress; there are many well built houses of stone, and it is half-way by road from Xauxa to Cuzco. And on the next day the Governor encamped on the other side of the river, four leagues from Bilcas, and although the day's march was short, it was nevertheless toilsome because it was entirely a descent almost all composed of stone steps, and the troops waded the river with much fatigue because it was very full, and he set up his camp on the other bank among some groves. ”

“ Journeying by forced marches, on the day of Easter, he found himself on the Bilcas river, where he learned from letters and notices from Xauxa, that the warriors of Quito, after they were routed and driven from their last positions by the captain from Cuzco, had withdrawn and fortified themselves forty leagues from Xauxa on the [134] Caxamalcha road in a bad pass in the immediate vicinity of the road, and had built their walls to prevent the [possibility of] the horses [crossing] the pass. ”

“ On the south side, opposite to where we were lying, he espied a cove, off which was anchored a craft which he declared was the same vessel as we had chased, and from which Pedro had thrown himself. Another hour's careful tracking brought him close to the creek, where he saw our comrades being escorted on board by the buccaneers in gangs, twenty-seven all told, so that they were apparently all alive and well. Then he made out a party of men coming down from the hillside, where they had been posted as rearguard, and with them was Pedro. ”

“ The conical peak of San Pedro, wooded to its summit, rose opposite to us on the far side of the lake, and to the left stood the double cones of Atitlan, the lower peak rounded and forest covered, and the higher rising above the vegetation in a perfect cinder cone. Almost all round the lake the hills rise steeply, but here and there by the water’s edge the Indians have found room for their villages, and have planted their “milpas” wherever corn will grow, often on hillsides as steep as the roof of a house. ”

“ Santa Cruz is a tolerably good looking town, and is said to contain, with the surrounding settlements, about 5,000 inhabitants. The San Pedro creek runs by the town; it is a clear mountain stream, that comes from the western mountains about 100 miles west of Santa Cruz, and takes a semicircular turn from southeast to northwest, through the plain, till it falls, some distance below San Pablo, into the Conchos. Cotton trees grow along its borders. ”

“ Some of these streams flow through broad and fertile valleys within the mountain's range, and, from thence emerging, irrigate the plains of the great valley for the distance of twenty or thirty miles. The largest of these rivers is called by the Spanish inhabitants the river Reyes, and falls into the lake near its northern end; it is a well-timbered stream, and flows through a country of great fertility and beauty. The tributaries of the San Joaquin are all on the east side. ”

“ As next morning’s sun breaks over the Llano Estacado they descend its western slope into the valley of the Rio Pecos.
Traversing its bottom, of no great breadth, they reach the crossing of the old Spanish trail, from Santa Fé to San Antonio de Bejar.
Fording the stream, on its western bank, they discover signs which cause them to come to a halt, for some time perplexing them. Nothing more than the tracks of the troop they have been all the while pursuing, which entered the river on its left side. ”

“ With the little of daylight that remained, he conducted us along the same path trodden by the Indians centuries before, to the top of the cone rising at the corner of the table-land, from which we looked down on one side into an immense ravine several thousand feet in depth, and on the other, over the top of a great mountain range, we saw the village of San Pedro, the end of our next day's journey, and beyond, over the range of the mountains of Palenque, the Lake of Terminos and the Gulf of Mexico. ”

“ The roads were perfectly level, dry and sandy; at times we scented the ocean air, borne along by the regular sea breeze, and the atmosphere was filled with knats and musquitoes, that by no means enlivened the journey. The vegetation had changed, and we passed for leagues through groves of tapering palm trees, broad-leafed bananas, rank vines and vegetation. Fording the Rio San Pedro, we traversed the little towns of Rosa Morada and Buena Vista, thence over the Rio Caña to Acaponeta. ”

“ The heaviest piece of work on the canal is a rock cut through the “divide” on the eastern portion of the summit level, commencing about four miles to the west of lock No. 3. This cut is about 2·9 miles long and the average depth is about 150 feet, involving a removal of about 2,150,000 cubic yards of earth, and 7,500,000 cubic yards of rock.
Lake Nicaragua has a watershed of 8000 miles. The only outlet of the lake is the San Juan river, which discharges, at its lowest stage, near the close of the dry season, 11,390 cubic feet of water per second. ”

“ We must come down from our heights, and leave our straight paths, for the byways and low places of life, if we would learn truths by strong contrasts; and in hovels, in forecastles, and among our own outcasts in foreign lands, see what has been wrought upon our fellow-creatures by accident, hardship, or vice.
Two days brought us to San Pedro, and two days more (to our no small joy) gave us our last view of that place, which was universally called the hell of California, and seemed designed, in every way, for the wear and tear of sailors. ”

“ There was, however, also a compartment-car in which we had taken the precaution of making a reservation some time in advance. The darkness prevented our seeing the landscape through which we passed, but on our return we noted that there was little change from that around Perico as far as San Pedro. There were, however, numerous fields of sugar-cane, some of very great size. Beyond San Pedro the country is all of the Chaco type; that is, vast stretches of pampas liberally sprinkled with islands of forest. ”

“ Following along the west shore, we rounded Point Pedro in plain view of the Chinese shrimp villages, and a great to-do was raised when they saw one of their junks towing behind the familiar fish patrol sloop.
The wind, coming off the land, was rather puffy and uncertain, and it would have been more to our advantage had it been stronger. San Rafael Creek, up which we had to go to reach the town and turn over our prisoners to the authorities, ran through wide-stretching marshes, and was difficult to navigate on a falling tide, while at low tide it was impossible to navigate at all. ”