บทที่ บทที่ 3 · THE GARRAL FAMILY

. THE GARRAL FAMILY

The village of Iquitos is situated on the left bank of the Amazon, near

the seventy-fourth meridian, on that portion of the great river which

still bears the name of the Marânon, and of which the bed separates Peru

from the republic of Ecuador. It is about fifty-five leagues to the west

of the Brazilian frontier.

Iquitos, like every other collection of huts, hamlet, or village met

with in the basin of the Upper Amazon, was founded by the missionaries.

Up to the seventeenth year of the century the Iquito Indians, who

then formed the entire population, were settled in the interior of the

province at some distance from the river. But one day the springs in

their territory all dried up under the influence of a volcanic eruption,

and they were obliged to come and take up their abode on the left of the

Marânon. The race soon altered through the alliances which were entered

into with the riverine Indians, Ticunas, or Omaguas, mixed descent with

a few Spaniards, and to-day Iquitos has a population of two or three

families of half-breeds.

The village is most picturesquely grouped on a kind of esplanade, and

runs along at about sixty feet from the river. It consists of some forty

miserable huts, whose thatched roofs only just render them worthy of the

name of cottages. A stairway made of crossed trunks of trees leads up to

the village, which lies hidden from the traveler’s eyes until the steps

have been ascended. Once at the top he finds himself before an inclosure

admitting of slight defense, and consisting of many different shrubs and

arborescent plants, attached to each other by festoons of lianas, which

here and there have made their way abgove the summits of the graceful

palms and banana-trees.

At the time we speak of the Indians of Iquitos went about in almost a

state of nudity. The Spaniards and half-breeds alone were clothed,

and much as they scorned their indigenous fellow-citizens, wore only

a simple shirt, light cotton trousers, and a straw hat. All lived

cheerlessly enough in the village, mixing little together, and if they

did meet occasionally, it was only at such times as the bell of the

mission called them to the dilapidated cottage which served them for a

church.

But if existence in the village of Iquitos, as in most of the hamlets

of the Upper Amazon, was almost in a rudimentary stage, it was only

necessary to journey a league further down the river to find on the same

bank a wealthy settlement, with all the elements of comfortable life.

This was the farm of Joam Garral, toward which our two young friends

returned after their meeting with the captain of the woods.

There, on a bend of the stream, at the junction of the River Nanay,

which is here about five hundred feet across, there had been established

for many years this farm, homestead, or, to use the expression of the

country, _“fazenda,”_ then in the height of its prosperity. The Nanay

with its left bank bounded it to the north for about a mile, and for

nearly the same distance to the east it ran along the bank of the larger

river. To the west some small rivulets, tributaries of the Nanay, and

some lagoons of small extent, separated it from the savannah and the

fields devoted to the pasturage of the cattle.

It was here that Joam Garral, in 1826, twenty-six years before the date

when our story opens, was received by the proprietor of the fazenda.

This Portuguese, whose name was Magalhaës, followed the trade of

timber-felling, and his settlement, then recently formed, extended for

about half a mile along the bank of the river.

There, hospitable as he was, like all the Portuguese of the old race,

Magalhaës lived with his daughter Yaquita, who after the death of her

mother had taken charge of his household. Magalhaës was an excellent

worker, inured to fatigue, but lacking education. If he understood the

management of the few slaves whom he owned, and the dozen Indians

whom he hired, he showed himself much less apt in the various external

requirements of his trade. In truth, the establishment at Iquitos was

not prospering, and the affairs of the Portuguese were getting somewhat

embarrassed.

It was under these circumstances that Joam Garral, then twenty-two years

old, found himself one day in the presence of Magalhaës. He had arrived

in the country at the limit both of his strength and his resources.

Magalhaës had found him half-dead with hunger and fatigue in the

neighboring forest. The Portuguese had an excellent heart; he did not

ask the unknown where he came from, but what he wanted. The noble,

high-spirited look which Joam Garral bore in spite of his exhaustion

had touched him. He received him, restored him, and, for several days to

begin with, offered him a hospitality which lasted for his life.

Under such conditions it was that Joam Garral was introduced to the farm

at Iquitos.

Brazilian by birth, Joam Garral was without family or fortune. Trouble,

he said, had obliged him to quit his country and abandon all thoughts

of return. He asked his host to excuse his entering on his past

misfortunes--misfortunes as serious as they were unmerited. What he

sought, and what he wished, was a new life, a life of labor. He had

started on his travels with some slight thought of entering a fazenda

in the interior. He was educated, intelligent. He had in all his bearing

that inexpressible something which tells you that the man is genuine and

of frank and upright character. Magalhaës, quite taken with him, asked

him to remain at the farm, where he would, in a measure, supply that

which was wanting in the worthy farmer.

Joam Garral accepted the offer without