path, and the walker either knocks his shins against these or has to climb over obstacles sometimes breast high. No food is to be obtained on these routes except from the few Indians who may be dwelling in the neighbourhood, and these poor people now have little enough for themselves. For several years after its foundation all the rubber collected at Matanzas was carried down this route by Indian carriers to La Chorrera. The Indians were not supplied with food for this journey. They were guarded by armed men both going and returning, and Barbados men frequently were employed for this work, just as they were used, in the first instance, in forcing the Indians to collect the rubber in the forest and bring it into Matanzas. During the last three years the journey from Matanzas to Chorrera has been shortened by the placing of a small launch on the river above the cataract which blocks river navigation at Chorrera. Rubber from Matanzas still goes under armed escort a distance of forty-five or fifty miles through the forest to be shipped in this launch at a place called Puerto Peruano for conveyance thence to Chorrera by water. The duties fulfilled by Barbados men at Matanzas were those that they performed elsewhere throughout the district, and in citing this station as an instance I am illustrating what took place at a dozen or more different centres of rubber collection. "At the date of my visit there were only two Barbados men left in Matanzas, one of whom had been there six years from the foundation of that station. I found the twenty men still remaining in the company's service when I was on the Putumayo scattered at various points. With the exception of three men at La Chorrera itself, whose duties were those of ordinary labour, all the men still remaining at the time of my visit were employed in guarding or coercing, or in actively maltreating, Indians to force them to work and bring in india-rubber to the various sections. The men so employed at the time of my visit were two men at Matanzas, one man at Ultimo Retiro, four men at Santa Catalina, three at Sabana, one at Oriente, and three at Abisinia, and two others temporarily employed on the river launches who had just come in from forest duties. Another man was employed at the headquarters station of the Caraparaná at the place called El Encanto. This man was sent for to Chorrera while I was there, and I interrogated him. In addition to La Chorrera, the headquarters station, I visited in succession the following among its dependent stations, or _succursales_: Occidente, Ultimo Retiro, Entre Ríos, Matanzas, Atenas, and Sur, the latter practically an outpost of La Chorrera, being situated less than two hours' march away. With the exception of La Matanzas, which is situated in the Andokes country, all these stations are in the country inhabited by the Huitoto tribe. This tribe, formerly the most numerous of those inhabiting the so-called Putumayo region, at the date of my visit was