Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

46
NOTES OF A BOTANIST
of such dimensions that London might be set down
in it entire, and so completely encircled by moun-
tains as to form a vast natural amphitheatre. It is
about 1500 feet above the sea, while the encircling
ridges are 2000 or 3000 feet above the plain, and
some of the peaks one or two thousand feet more.
The town dates only from some seventy years
back, yet according to a census made since my
arrival it numbers nearly 12,000 souls, including
two small hamlets which form a kind of suburb to
it. The dominion of the Incas does not seem to
have extended much to the eastward of the central
ridge of the Andes, and the Spaniards found this
part of the montana occupied by independent
Indian tribes, of which considerable remnants still
exist, both pure and mixed. The first town estab-
lished by the conquerors was Lamas, which stands
on the top of a curious conical hill five leagues
(seventeen miles) westward of Tarapoto and 1500 feet
above the pampa. From my house I can, with the
telescope, distinctly see the white houses glistening
in the morning sun. I have also visited it, and
may have something to tell you of it in a future
letter. It numbers now only from 6000 to 7000
inhabitants, but Tarapoto and several villages on the
and Cumbasa rivers are all colonies of Lamas.
Mayo
Moyobamba, more to the westward, among the
mountains, has about 20,000 inhabitants ; it is the
great centre of the manufacture of those beautiful
straw hats sold extensively in
name of
Brazil under the
" Chapeos de Chile," and of which the
finest sell for an ounce of gold, or even more.
They are made from the same plant as the Panama
hats. All these places are inhabited by the same