Balsa

“ At one end the person who manages the balsa kneels down, and by means of a double-bladed paddle, which he holds by the middle, and strikes alternately on each side, moves it swiftly along; the passengers, or goods, being placed on the platform behind him. The buoyancy of these balsas enables them to cross the surf in safety, and without wetting the passengers, at times when an ordinary boat would inevitably be swamped. ”

“ The traveling family transport their poor possessions to the shore, bring out the balsa from its hiding place in the thick and thorny fog-shrubbery, launch it, lade it with a filled olla and the weapons of a man and implements of a woman, besides any chance food and clothing, and embark lightly to enjoy the semirepose of drifting before the breeze—until the rising gale brings labor still more arduous than that of scouring the spall-strewn slopes or sandy stretches of their hard motherland. ”

“ A large balsa will carry twenty-five tons, and that as free from wet as possible, for the sea never breaks over them, nor does the water rise between the logs, as the whole machine adapts itself to the motion of the waves. ”

“ Sometimes the watermen quarrel, and one sticks his knife into another’s balsa, and as soon as he does so, the man whose balsa has been cut has to strike out for his life towards the shore, for the wind soon gets out of it. ”

“ The journey across consumed close upon two hours, for the balsa, while buoyant enough to support the whole party and their belongings, was, from the very character of her construction, unwieldy and difficult to propel; but she arrived safely at last on the south-western shore of the lagoon. Then a number of canal-like channels being found penetrating the firm ground, as on the side already traversed, the question arose whether the journey should be resumed on foot, or an attempt should be made to continue it on the balsa, through the medium of the water channels. ”

“ The balsa of the Leccos is a raft made of the light, corky wood from which it takes its name. Eight-inch logs of this balsa wood are pinned together with palm spikes from the hard, black palm that is also used as arrow-points and for bows. When floating in the water it looks like some unwieldy amphibian that has risen to the surface for a fresh supply of air. It is generally about twenty-five feet long and about four feet wide. The Leccos lash three balsas together, broadside on, by means of stout cross-logs tied with strips of bark or vine, and this result is called a callapo. ”

“ They conducted their canoe or vessel by long double-bladed paddles, like those used by the Esquimaux.' Vancouver's Voy., vol. ii., p. 5. 'The balsas are entirely formed of the bulrush ... commonly the rowers sit on them soaked in water, as they seldom rise above the surface.' Forbes' Cal., p. 191. Build no canoes, but occasionally make use of rafts composed of one or two logs, generally split. Wilkes' Nar., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. v., p. 192. 'The "Balsa" is the only thing of the boat kind known among them. ”

“ It is calculated for one man only, who directs it with his paddle. I one day witnessed their wonderful skill in the management of the balsa. The surf was breaking so furiously, that the men, accustomed to work in it, advised me not to go on board of my ship. Whilst I was standing on the shore, with several of them around me, a boat appeared just without the heavy rollers that were setting in, filled with people, who it was evident were strangers to the danger they were about to encounter, as they were dashing on fearlessly into the surf. ”

“ The balsa is formed by laying together five, seven, or more large trunks of the palo de balsa or ceibo, which is so porous and light, that a man can carry a log thirty feet long and 12 inches in diameter ”

“ Dewey described the strait as “unsafe for navigation by any except the smallest class of vessels”; it is safe, indeed, only for portable and indestructible craft like the Seri balsas, which may be put off or carried ashore at will by craftsmen willing to wait for wind and tide, and unpossessed of impedimenta of a sort to be injured by wetting. Of such an environment the balsa is a natural product. ”

“ Then there were orange and lemon groves, fields of pineapples, mango and bread-fruit trees, and great numbers of cocoa palms. There were many canoes and balsas on the river; the balsas are nothing but rafts made of the trunks of the balsa trees. Half a dozen logs are lashed together with withes and cords, and braced with cross-pieces of wood so that there is no danger of separation. On the top of the raft a flooring of bamboos or split palms is laid, and on this flooring they build a hut in which the people live, often for weeks at a time. ”

“ THE PUCUNA. 147
canoes to Huanuco, with the same cargo, and in addition some rice and rare birds. Travellers go up by the river when it is low and by land when the river is high. The returning party were going down on balsas, which they had constructed at Tingo Maria. These balsas are logs of a light kind of wood, called balsa wood, placed side by side, half a foot apart, and secured by other pieces lashed athwart them. A platform raised on small logs is elevated amidships for the cargo to rest on; and the rowers, standing upon the lower logs, have their feet in the water all the time. ”

“ We dared not attempt it under oar, and the canoe was let down along the shore, stern foremost, by a rope from its bows, and guided between the rocks by the popero — sometimes with his paddle, and sometimes overboard, up to his middle in water. I am told that “balsas” pass in mid-channel, but I am sure a canoe would be capsized and filled. The mal-paso is a quarter of a mile long, and an effectual bar, except perhaps at high water, to navigation for anything but a canoe or balsa. ”

“ The balsas are used in the river for loading and unloading the vessels, for carrying the produce of the country from one part to another; also as stages for careening ships, and for heaving them down, besides many other similar purposes: with them also the natives perform voyages to Paita, Sechura, Pacasmayo, and even Huanchaco; beating up against the wind and current a distance of four degrees of latitude, having on board five or six hundred quintals of goods as a cargo, besides a crew of indians and their provisions. ”

“ The balsas were slender rafts of very buoyant logs spiked together with heavy pins of black palm; they had a rough bow made by the crooked center log, which turned up in a snout-like projection, giving the affair a curiously animal-like and amphibious expression. For the return voyage three of these balsas were lashed 178 side by side with cross-logs and strips of the inner bark of some tree. The callapo, as this combination is called, is entirely submerged and except for the cargo platform and the turned-up snouts, nothing is visible above the muddy river. ”

“ The Indians are going to town to celebrate the birth-day of the President of the Republic; old men are mounted on stunted little horses; young ones carry drums, fifes, and large feathered head-dresses, of pink and white, plucked from the crane; while the old women carry babies slung in cotton ponchos over their shoulders. The young girls bring provisions; and donkeys loaded with live chickens, to be sold in the plaza, jog along ahead of the families. On the lake a rush balsa, with a rush mat for a sail, loaded with fish and potatoes, presses on to meet the load of the donkey. ”

“ The crews of these rafts, according to their dimensions, consist of three to fifteen men; these men are Leco Indians, or Mosetenes, or Yuracares, who are highly skilled in this kind of navigation.
"The pilot is the captain of the crew; he is naturally the calmest and the most expert; the punteros, who are stationed at the two ends, are the strongest; the rest are the rowers. The navigation of the balsa is terribly hard work when mounting against a current ”

“ Large canoes and balsas, carrying five or six hundred bunches of this fruit, arrive every day from [Pg 214] different parts at the city, and if the supply happen to be scanty for two or three days, the arrival of canoes or balsas is hailed as a Godsend. Besides the quantity of plantains consumed by the inhabitants, the country ships give rations of them to their crews, instead of bread; and the natives feed their poultry and pigs on the ripe ones. What adds greatly to the curiosity of the market altogether, is the originality of the sight ”

“ Masts and spars and planks were in sight in all directions, sometimes floating singly and sometimes tangled together in little heaps; half a mile away was what seemed to be a large ship lying bottom upward; near me was a perfectly sound boat, having in its stern-sheets a bit of sail that fell in such folds as to make me think that a human form lay under it; and off toward the horizon was a large raft, with a sort of mast fitted to it, and at the foot of the mast I fancied that I saw a woman in a white robe of some sort stretched out as though asleep. ”

“ The balza is a raft, composed of eight or ten large pieces of timber, connected together by transverse beams, having a mast and sail; it is steered by boards about three yards long, and half a yard in breadth, which are placed vertically between the timbers, by raising and lowering which, the raft tacks, wears, and performs all her evolutions with great facility. ↑ See the History of Marine Architecture, vol. iii, p. 338, et seq., together with Grant’s Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery, performed in his Majesty’s vessel, the Lady Nelson, of 60 tons burthen. ”

“ Lake Titicaca is perhaps the most remarkable lake in the world. A body of fresh water, 12,500 feet above the sea, and two hundred miles long, upon which we navigate out of sight of land, is perhaps unique. From the steamer the imposing range of the White Cordillera of Bolivia is seen, the snow-covered Andes, from Sorata to Illimani, whose crests or peaks rise to over 20,000 feet. We remark the craft of the natives, the curious balsas of woven grass, sometimes with mat sails, in which they navigate the lake. ”

“ The coast off which the little brig, floating upright above her anchor, seemed to guard the high hull of the yacht has no distinctive features. It is land without form. It stretches away without cape or bluff, long and low—indefinitely; and when the heavy gusts of the northeast monsoon drive the thick rain slanting over the sea, it is seen faintly under the grey sky, black and with a blurred outline like the straight edge of a dissolving shore. ”

“ The fleet was returning like a frightened herd in stampede, each boat plunging in the combers with the bellow of the tempest upon its heels. Would they make the lee of the Breakwater? The wind in devilish playfulness would here tear off a shred of canvas, there a yard, and there a mast or a tiller, till a rudderless craft, caught abeam by a mountain of greenish water, would seem surely to be swallowed up. ”

“ Forests of masts are at the docks, one or two huge vessels of war out in the stream, some great, dismantled hulks on an opposite shore, and a fresh sea breeze coming in, curls the dark-blue waves over with a white fringe, making the whole scene appear very like dozens of "marine views" that we have seen in art galleries. ”

“ EBB-TIDE. Long reaches of wet grasses sway
Where ran the sea but yesterday,
And white-winged boats at sunset drew
To anchor in the crimsoning blue.
The boats lie on the grassy plain,
Nor tug nor fret at anchor chain;
Their errand done, their impulse spent,
Chained by an alien element,
With sails unset they idly lie,
Though morning beckons brave and nigh;
Like wounded birds, their flight denied,
They lie, and long and wait the tide. ”

“ In other parts of the harbour white gigs are bottomed on the sand in companies of two and three. As the tide slowly rises, the masts which have been lying over on one side in a sleepy stillness begin to stir, then to sway, until with each new impulse of the sea all the boats are dancing, and soon the whole harbour is awake and merry as if every mast were a steeple with a peal of bells. It is not long till the fishermen arrive. One meets them in every cobbled lane. How magnificent the noise made by a man in sea-boots on the stones! ”

“ The mast yet holds firm. The sail stretches tight like a bubble ready to burst. The raft flies at a rate that I cannot reckon, but not so fast as the foaming clouds of spray which it dashes from side to side in its headlong speed. ”

“ When I say the yard and sail are never lowered, I mean while we are getting up the stream, before the wind; for, otherwise, when the vessel returns, they take out the mast, lay down the yards, and put by their sails, so that the boat descends like a wreck broadside forwards; otherwise, being so heavy a-loft, were she to touch with her stem going down the stream, she could not fail to carry away her masts, and perhaps be staved to pieces. ”

“ The little boats that lie tethered to the rings and stanchions of the old sea-wall are gaily painted as those I clambered in and out of in my own childhood; the salmon leap on the flood tide, schools of mackerel flash and play past quay-sides and foreshores, and by the windows the great vessels glide, night and day, up to their moorings or forth to the open sea. ”

“ As the lines of steamers dwindle the river widens; and when we come to the bend of a long reach, it opens into a metal-coloured surface of gleaming water trembling with the speeding of its own rushing, though it retains polish enough to serve as a mirror, and to hold under each vessel the dark, inverted shadow of a phantom ship. ”

“ A square of canvas spread between two extemporised masts, a couple of casks, an empty biscuit-box, some oars, handspikes, and other maritime implements, lie upon the raft; and around these are more than thirty men, seated, standing, lying,—in short, in almost every attitude. ”

“ A long boom, attached obliquely to the mast, serves to support an enormous sail, which, when the boat is on the tack, bellies out to such a remarkable extent that it resembles the section of a balloon. ”