Thomas Nelson Berkeley Noland's Peruvian Amazon Exploration Journal, 1873 February 18-1874 December 1

The journal kept by Thomas Nelson Berkeley Noland describes his travels and adventures as a member of the Hydraulic Commission of Peru in the upper Amazon region while making accurate navigational charts for the tributaries of the Amazon. The Commission began their mission by leaving Iquitos, Peru, with two boats, the launch “Mairo” and the steamer, the "Tambo, with Noland being aboard the "Mairo" as the civil engineer.

The handwritten journal also contains some drawings, photographs, and news clippings. Apparently some photographs had been removed by Noland, possibly by relatives or for use as illustrations for some articles he wrote for "Appleton's Journal" in 1875.

The "Mairo" first explored the River Nanay from September 17, 1873 until its return to Iquitos, Peru, on October 3, 1873. On October 27, 1873, still aboard the "Mairo," Noland and his group left Iquitos to explore the Morona, Potro, Pastaza and Tigre rivers. They returned on December 4, 1873, to Iquitos from those explorations.

2) Noland described an indigenous settlement at Courahualie, where the people, with heavily painted faces, came to see them off the next day, speaking the Incan language and with the girls carrying monkeys upon their heads (February 23-24, 1873).

Later he described a canoe which was made from a single tree and propelled by ten indigenous men on the Ucayali River. The "Mairo" passed it but later heard the same group of indigenous men during the night coming into Puca-Cura, playing music and singing “a wild kind of melody, as they paddled, very sweet" (March 6, 1873).

The next morning, they saw one of the men, tattooed on his face and hands, being lashed by a man named Martinez (?) who owned the farmhouse, land, and the canoe (March 7, 1873).

3) Anchored at Sara-Yuca, they saw several aboriginal canoes who came along side and offered them masato to drink. One of the individuals, with a “musical instrument made of pieces of reed of different sizes and lengths,” played the same song Noland had heard earlier down the river (March 9, 1873) in “the Incan tongue.”

He also described the Old Church and other buildings constructed by the Jesuits who founded it two hundred years ago (March 10, 1873).

He saw other indigenous people at the Bepuano chacara who he said were “the wildest I have seen and have their war clubs, bows and arrows arranged in their houses ready for use” (March 11, 1873).

4) Noland met a boy who had been captured by the Conibo ethnic group from the Cashibo ethnic group. The Cashibos along the River Pachitea were rumored to be cannibals (March 14, 1873).

He also met an older monk, at the Cashaboya station of the Order of St. Francis, trying to arrange three indigenous languages into some kind of form and prepare a dictionary for the Incan language (March 16, 1873).

They purchased plantains, ground peas and a monkey from some of the indigenous people as they left their anchor site about fifty miles from Calleria. When they anchored for the night at a Conibo settlement two miles from the mouth of the Pachitea River, they also purchased some wild hogs (wangana) and more plantains (March 25-26, 1873).

Noland wrote about being on the border of cannibal country and recounts the story of two Peruvian officers who were killed and eaten about twelve miles above them some time ago (March 26, 1873).

5) Noland described the Commission's arrangement with “Old Clemente” who had his warriors cut wood with axes for use as fuel in the “Tambo” and deliver it in the indigenous canoes.

This production of wood was interrupted when the warriors went on a war expedition against the Cashibos “to steal their women and children.” Noland also described their beliefs about burning the house of any member of the group who dies, cut up his canoe, kill his enslaved persons and destroy all their belongings out of fear of being bewitched.

On page 10, he has also drawn a picture of the Conibo knife carried by each man. (March 31-April 2, 1873).

6) Noland furnished additional information about the indigenous warriors, their preparations, an aside about the production of “masato de yuca” by the older indigenous women, and the failure of the mission of the warriors due to thesuperior numbers of the Cashibos (April 3 and 8, 1873). He described one of the Conibo houses and how it was arranged (May 1, 1873).

Noland also wrote of being lost deep in the forest on the border between the Conibos and the Cashibos while hunting with a guide and how difficult it was to get back to the river (May 10, 1873). Noland’s entry for May 12th says that the chief of the local indigenous group predicted the “Tambo” was coming up the river and would arrive soon because of the waterfowl which was disturbed by the steamer’s advance and flew in advance of it on the upper Ucayali River.

7) On May 14, 1873, the “Tambo” had finally arrived to join Noland’s group (on the advance launch “Mairo”) near the mouth of the Pachitea River, apparently full of animal and bird species both alive and mounted as specimens.

The arrival of the “Tambo” was so late in the season that it was unsafe for either vessel to proceed up the Pachitea River to do the survey, so the Hydraulic Commission purchased six canoes from the Conibo indigenous group to carry the members of the commission and their provisions for five to six weeks up the Pachitea River, two to three hundred miles.

Noland went on to describe the Conibo canoes, their dimensions, stability, construction, arrangement of the indigenous crew in the canoe, and the distribution of the Commission members and soldiers among the crafts (May 15-19, 1873).

Some indigenous Cashibos, who had been captured and enslaved by Pedro, the brother of Clemente (both being members of the Conibo group) also joined the expedition (May 20-21, 1873).

8) Noland also described the Conibos’ fear of being in the territory of their neighbors, the Cashibos, reported to be cannibals and related a story involving a Peruvian gunboat who landed on a small island (Chouta Isla) and whose captain and 2nd commander were killed by the Cashibos. Both were reported as eaten by the group of Cashibos (May 21, 1873). He described an attack by the Cashibos upon the pilot canoe, during the daylight hours (May 24, 1873).

9) He described the canoes passing under cliffs of colored lava, where some bore a type of “hieroglyphic” writing, possibly the most eastern trace of the Incas yet known (May 26, 1873) and exchanging presents with some of the Cashibos along the banks (May 30, 1873). This “gift exchange” turned into an armed altercation shortly thereafter. They arrived at the mouth of the Pichis River and began its exploration (June 4-6, 1873).

A desertion by eight of their men was caused by fear of the Campas indigenous people, known as “the most fierce of all the Indians of Peru” according to Noland (June 7-11, 1873). They continued on further into the territory of the Campas and he related stories and information about them and the local flora and fauna in his journal (June 12-16, 1873).

10) While headed back towards the steamers, they ran across a larger than normal war party of Conibos about to attack the Cashibos (June 27, 1873) who would be either killed or enslaved by them, and then sold to the whites of Iquitos, Peru, although this was against the law.

Noland mentioned the trafficking of shrunken heads made from captives taken in war by interior indigenous peoples, also against Peruvian law. The Conibo expedition was later reported to be unsuccessful (October 28, 1873).

An account was attached after page 27, describing the story about the shrunken head of Tibi, the fearsome chief of the “Antipas” ethnic group, defeated by the indigenous group, the “Aguaruna.”

11) On June 28, 1873, the group reached the steamers, still anchored within the mouth of the Pachitea, after being aboard the canoes for forty-one days.

Following this entry, Noland began a long paragraph with his own observations about the indigenous people in the region they had been exploring. On July 1,1873, the Hydraulic Commission began traveling up the Ucayali River, stopping at Sara-Yacu on July 9, where he purchased a young “tiger” and employed the local umbrella, a palm thatch, during a severe thunderstorm.

On August 24, 1873, they arrived back at Iquitos, where the boats were greeted by the entire village. Noland then began a lengthy description of the inhabitants of Iquitos, Peru, and their customs. He also mentions meeting James Orton (1830-1877) author of “Andes and Amazon.”

12) On September 17, 1873, the group began the second series of explorations, beginning at the River Nanay. The local indigenous people were called the Iquitos (September 23, 1873).

Noland described the multi-ethnic composition of the crew of his launch, some of their more interesting meals, and the great number of butterflies they had seen on the Nanay River (September 26, 1873).

Upon their arrival back in Iquitos, the entire crew was ill, probably due to malaria (October 1, 1873). On October 13-15, they conducted a short exploration of the River Itaya, which is important only because the river enters the Amazon at Iquitos, Peru.

In October, both the "Tambo" and the steamer "Alceste" arrived with provisions. Unfortunately, the "Alceste" also carried smallpox to Iquitos. Noland described the fear of smallpox by the indigenous people who were known to desert their villages until the disease departed (October 24, 1873).

13) They began their exploration up the River Potro which emptied into the River Marañon (October 26, 1873). Noland mentioned a story about the death of an indigenous man who was known as a good pilot for the upper waters during an attack by the “Mouratos” people (November 5-7, 1873).

He described Borja as being situated at the head of the Marañon River in a rich gold region. The Spanish had garrisoned two hundred soldiers there to force the indigenous people to bring in gold. Upon the independence of Peru and the withdrawal of the soldiers, the local population destroyed the town, killed the inhabitants, and forced the governor to drink liquid gold according to local legend. Borja had never been successfully rebuilt.

14) After about a month spent exploring the four tributaries of the Upper Marañon, they arrived back in Iquitos, Peru (December 7, 1873). Noland comments on the mixture of backgrounds and races of the persons in the villages of the Amazon, which include indigenous, “Negro,” Spanish and Portuguese.

He also refered to the prevalence of smallpox in the town and described the harmonious and beautiful music of the local indigenous people (December 13, 1873). Noland also recorded his disparaging thoughts on the results of “the combination of races” in Brazil and Peru (end of section for January 4, 1874).

15) Noland and Mr. Sparrow decided to leave Iquitos behind for the duration of the Carnival celebrations and avoid some of its excesses (February 20, 1874). On March 21, 1874, Sparrow and Noland sailed on the steamer “Pastaza” to finish the survey of the Marañon River and returned to Borja (March 22-April 5, 1874). He described the town of Iquitos as a kind of Peruvian Botany Bay for offending officers and Peru as weak country with a poor government (April 27, 1874).

16) The finances of Peru were in such bad shape that there was no money for the members of the Commission to be paid or to get home. They were forced to personally borrow money to settle their accounts in the office of the commissary. The steamer “Morona” arrived late and in a damaged condition. They left on the “Morona” still hoping to make the connection with the Brazilian boat in time to get home by October.

On the next day, the steamer “Morona” ran aground on a playa along the river. Although the Peruvian boat, the “Pastaza” came along shortly afterwards, the captain prevented them from boarding his boat and left them stranded in the falling river levels (August 22-September 23, 1874).

17) Noland and the others remain stuck on the playa from September 23 until October 12, 1874, when they managed to get the “Morona” off the playa and back into the river. In this section of the journal, he made several disparaging remarks about the efficiency of the Peruvian navy and the “Latin” temperament.

By October 20th, Noland’s group arrived at the Brazilian frontier fort, "Tabatinga" which he described. He also continued to share his negative opinions about the mixture of races in South America, using an African American Padre as an example (October 23, 1874).

After a six day stay in Manaos, Brazil, they left on the boat “Marajo” (October 26, 1874), and reached Obidos, Brazil, on October 28, the head of tide water on the Amazon and five hundred miles from the mouth of the river. Noland mentioned that there was an American colony there of former Confederates.

18) Noland and Sparrow decide to take the schooner “Charles E. Moody” bound for New York and led by Captain Collamore, a New Englander with early Yankee ancestors who merit Noland’s approval.

He makes much of the crew being white and the captain a Yankee, as opposed to the crews and captains of most of the boats in Peru and Brazil (October 31-December 1, 1874). By November 29, 1874, the schooner was near Cape Henry, Virginia, and on December 1, 1874, the ship made it to a pier in New York City on the East River.