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THE NORTH-WEST AMAZONS

[Illustration: BORO MEDICINE MAN, WITH MY RIFLE]




                             THE NORTH-WEST
                                 AMAZONS

                       NOTES OF SOME MONTHS SPENT
                          AMONG CANNIBAL TRIBES

                                   BY

                             THOMAS WHIFFEN
                           F.R.G.S., F.R.A.I.
                       CAPTAIN H.P. (14TH HUSSARS)

                                NEW YORK
                          DUFFIELD AND COMPANY
                                  1915

                       _Printed in Great Britain_




                        TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE
                     DR. ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, O.M.
                        THESE NOTES ARE DEDICATED




PREFACE


In presenting to the public the results of my journey through the lands
about the upper waters of the Amazon, I make no pretence of challenging
conclusions drawn by such experienced scientists as Charles Waterton,
Alfred Russel Wallace, Richard Spruce, and Henry Walter Bates, nor to
compete with the indefatigable industry of those recent explorers Dr.
Koch-Grünberg and Dr. Hamilton Rice.

Some months of the years 1908 and 1909 were passed by me travelling in
regions between the River Issa and the River Apaporis where white men had
scarcely penetrated previously. In the remoter parts of these districts
the tribes of nomad Indians are frankly cannibal on occasion, and provide
us with evidence of a condition of savagery that can hardly be found
elsewhere in the world of the twentieth century. It will be noted that
this area includes the Putumayo District.

With regard to the references in footnotes and appendices, I have
inserted them to suggest where similarities of culture or variations of
