Pass the mouth of Chimoré river — White cranes — Rio Mamoré — Woodbridge’s Atlas — Night watch — Masi guard-house — Pampas — Ant-houses — Cattle — Religion — Sugar cane — Fishing party of Mojos Indians — River Ybaré — Pampas of Mojos — Pasture lands — City of Trinidad — Prefect — Housed in Mojos — Don Antonio de Barras Cordoza — Population of the Beni — Cotton Manufactures — Productions — Trade — Don Antonio’s Amazonian boats — Jesuits — Languages — Natural intelligence of the Aborigines — Paintings — Cargoes of foreign goods in the plaza.
We ran down the river by the light of the moon; sounding in from three and a half fathoms to four; half the crew pulled at a time, until we passed the mouth of the Chimoré river, which empties into the Chapare from the south. We were obliged to come to as the morning became cloudy and dark, which made it unsafe for us to pass through the drift wood flowing from the Chimoré.
Canoes ascend the Chimoré in the rainy season to the town. Near its mouth, the river resembles the Chapare in width, color of water, and swiftness of current; but, from what I can learn, the Chapare is the largest stream, and deeper at the head.
The rains have been to the southeast; therefore we find more driftwood coming out of the Chimoré than we have in the Chaparé.
The country at their junction is all low, uninhabited, and unfinished. The current of the Chaparé continues the same below the junction. Unless we had seen the Chimoré enter, we should probably not have known that the quantity of water was nearly double, the width of the river and soundings being the same.
Lightning flashes to the south during the night; and, as the clouds thicken, thunder roars among the distant mountains.
MAY 30, 1852 — We have a strong wind from the east this morning, with light rain and thunder to the south. The drops are small compared with those which beat against the Andes in the boisterous region.
Files of white cranes of equal size stand in good order on the mud-beach, with a tall one at each end of the file, of from fifteen to twenty individuals, like sergeants. As we approach, a sergeant steps proudly out, gives orders by a “quack,” and the party either faces back over the mud-beach into a hollow, or flies down the river. The manners
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and habits of these birds are very amusing. A large crane walks through the drizzle, holding his head and body as straight as possible, which gives him the air of an elderly gentleman leisurely walking out for his health, with hands crossed under his coat-tail.
We entered the river Mamoré, which, at Cochabamba, is called “Grande;” and where the Chaparé empties into it, is named Rio “Sara.” It seems the inhabitants upon the banks of this great stream call it by a name to suit their own neighborhood. Those who lived on its more slender parts called it “Grande,” probably without knowing where it flowed, or if it was a tributary to the Paraguay or Madeira; while those inhabiting the lower waters changed the name again and again. Grande is the Spanish, and Mamoré the Indian name.
We find it interesting to see how the people on the Andes supposed the rivers of South America flowed towards the Atlantic. The Beni, for instance, is represented as the source of the Amazon, while it is only the second tributary of the Madeira. The headwaters of the southern tributaries of the Amazon, over which we passed, are laid down in ordinary maps too far to the westward. They are made to appear to the student too near to the Pacific; there is a mountainous strip of land between the headwaters of the Amazon and the Pacific shore.
The long travel of Lieutenant Smyth, of the royal navy, before he reached the navigable waters of the Maranon from Lima, and the still longer journey taken by Lieutenant Maw, royal navy, over the mountains from Truxillo, in Peru, to the same point, show that these officers did not find the head of navigation as soon as was generally supposed they would, by the appearance of the maps they had studied in 1829.
Not only the Beni, but the Mamoré, is made, by recent publications, to flow into the Amazon, not through the Madeira, but by an imaginary course, through a ridge of mountains, distinctly laid down. This map represents the Paraguay and Madeira both flowing from the same source in Brazil, while the source of the Madeira is on the Andes, in Bolivia. Some credit is due to Mr. Woodbridge for endeavors, twenty-four years ago, to lay before the schools a map, which is useful and truthful, with only such errors as are consequent upon an existing want of information.