CHAPTER X

FROM IQUITOS TO PEVAS

ON THE 6th of June, the very next day, Joam Garral and his people
bade good-by to the superintendent and the Indians and negroes who
were to stay behind at the fazenda. At six o'clock in the morning the
jangada received all its passengers, or rather inhabitants, and each
of them took possession of his cabin, or perhaps we had better say
his house.

The moment of departure had come. Araujo, the pilot, got into his
place at the bow, and the crew, armed with their long poles, went to
their proper quarters.

Joam Garral, assisted by Benito and Manoel, superintended the
unmooring.

At the command of the pilot the ropes were eased off, and the poles
applied to the bank so as to give the jangada a start. The current
was not long in seizing it, and coasting the left bank, the islands
of Iquitos and Parianta were passed on the right.

The voyage had commenced--where would it finish? In Para, at Belem,
eight hundred leagues from this little Peruvian village, if nothing
happened to modify the route. How would it finish? That was the
secret of the future.

The weather was magnificent. A pleasant _"pampero"_ tempered the
ardor of the sun--one of those winds which in June or July come from