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TARAPOTO TO CANELOS 127
Puca-yacu is a colony of the still considerable
of Canelos. It contains also four or five
pueblo
Jibaros, who are married to women of Canelos.
The Governor has in his house a Jibaro girl whose
history is singular. It seems that among those
Indians when a man of note dies it is the custom
to put his wives to death, in order that their spirits
may accompany him, as they did while in the body.
An old chief died two years ago, leaving four wives,
whereof one was scarcely nine years of age. This
poor creature, knowing that they would seek to
kill her, fled into the woods, and though pursued,
succeeded in reaching Sara -
yacu, where the
Governor then was, and placed herself under his
protection. Her "friends" have since reclaimed
her, but the Governor refuses to give her up, and
she still remains with him, and is an excellent
servant to his wife. She has been baptized by the
name of Magdalena, the Governor and his wife
standing sponsors. She looks little like a widow,
with her slender, girlish figure and smart chitty
face. The Jibaro Indians still abound on the
Pastasa (above the mouth of Bombonasa) and on
its upper tributaries. There is a settlement of
them, commonly called the Jibaria, at three days
from Canelos, near the river Pindu, on the route
to Banos. . . .
There is a magnificent view looking west from
the plateau of Puca-yacu, but I saw it only once,
for about a couple of hours, in all its entirety,
bounded left and
takes in an angle of about 60 ,
right by forest on adjacent elevations.
feet stretched the valley of the I'.ombonasa, taking
upwards a north-westerly direction, its waters not