Lieutenant Herndon embarked on the Huallaga at Tinga-Maria, the head of canoe navigation, and 335 miles from the city of Lima, and descended to its junction with the Amazon, and thence to the mouth of the latter, a distance of not less than 3,500 miles. The first place he came to was Tarapoto, situated in a beautiful plain, watered by many rivulets, and producing cotton, coffee, sugar, cocoa, and drugs in great abundance. The district is very healthy, and free from annoying insects. Indigo grows wild, and storax, cinnamon, and gums may be procured of the Indians in any quantity, and at prices merely nominal. A great deal of good cotton cloth is made here by the women, and exchanged at Egas for straw hats and English prints brought from Pará. There is very little money in circulation, cotton cloth, wax, and balls of sewing cotton being used instead. English goods brought over the Andes sell in Tarapoto for four times their value in Lima. All the land carriage is performed by Indians, for want of roads: an Indian will carry 75 lbs. of goods on his shoulders from Tarapoto to Juan Guerra, whence he paddles in a canoe to Tinga-Maria, and there shoulders his burthen again, and carries it to Huanaco, the distance of which town from Tarapoto is 390 miles. The population of the place in 1848 was 3,500. Concerning its natural advantages and future prospects, Lieutenant Herndon thus speaks:—
‘I spoke with an active and intelligent young Spanish trader, named Morey, about the feasibility of a steamboat enterprise upon these rivers, bringing American goods and taking return-cargoes of coffee, tobacco, straw-hats, hammocks, and sarsaparilla to the ports of Brazil on the river. He thought that it could not fail to enrich any one who would attempt it; but that the difficulty lay in the fact that my proposed steamer would never get as far as this, for that my goods would be bought up and paid for in return-cargoes long before she reached Peru. He thought, too, that the Brazilians along the river had money which they would be glad to exchange for comforts and luxuries. Were I to engage in any scheme of colonization for the purpose of evolving the resources of the Valley of the Amazon, I think I should direct the attention of settlers to this district of Tarapoto. It combines more advantages than any other I know; it is healthy, fertile, and free from the torment of musquitoes and sand-flies. Wheat may be had from the high lands above it; cattle thrive well; and its coffee, tobacco, sugar-cane, rice, and maize are of fine quality. It is true that vessels cannot come up to Shapaja, the port of the town of Tarapoto; but a good road may be made from this town eighteen miles to Chasuta, to which vessels of five feet draught may come at the lowest stage of the river, and any draught at high water. Tarapoto is situated on an elevated plain twenty miles in diameter; is seventy miles from Moyobamba, the capital of the province, a city of seven thousand inhabitants; and has close around it the villages of Lamas, Tabalosas, Juan Guerra, and Shapaja. The Ucayali is navigable higher up than this point, and the quality of cotton and coffee seems better, within certain limits further from the equator. But the settler at the head-waters of the Ucayali has to place himself in a profound wilderness, with the forest and the savage to subdue, and entirely dependent upon his own resources. I think he would be better placed near where he can get provisions and assistance whilst he is clearing the forest and planting his fields. I am told that the governors of the districts in all the province of Mainas have authority to give titles to land to any one who desires to cultivate it.’