[i]

THE NORTH-WEST AMAZONS

[ii]

BORO MEDICINE MAN, WITH MY RIFLE

[iii]

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

[iv]

Printed in Great Britain

[v]

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

[vi]

[vii]

PREFACE

In presenting to the public the results of my journey throughthe lands about the upper waters of the Amazon, I makeno pretence of challenging conclusions drawn by such experiencedscientists as Charles Waterton, Alfred RusselWallace, Richard Spruce, and Henry Walter Bates, nor tocompete with the indefatigable industry of those recentexplorers Dr. Koch-Grünberg and Dr. Hamilton Rice.

Some months of the years 1908 and 1909 were passedby me travelling in regions between the River Issa and theRiver Apaporis where white men had scarcely penetratedpreviously. In the remoter parts of these districts the tribesof nomad Indians are frankly cannibal on occasion, andprovide us with evidence of a condition of savagery thatcan hardly be found elsewhere in the world of the twentiethcentury. It will be noted that this area includes thePutumayo District.

With regard to the references in footnotes and appendices,I have inserted them to suggest where similarities of cultureor variations of a given custom are to be found. Thesenotes may be of some use to the student of such problemsas the question of cultural contact with Pacific peoples, andat the least they represent the evidence on which I havebased my own conclusions.

THOMAS WHIFFEN.

London, 1914.

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CONTENTS