La Sofía was formerly the headquarters of General Reyes, ex-President of the Republic, when he was engaged in the collection of quinine in this region years ago. It is at the head of steam navigation on the Putumayo, and it was here that Reyes' steamer _Tundama_ was lost. When Materón had arrived here, some eleven months before, he had found everything overgrown by the rank, tropical vegetation and all the old buildings almost completely destroyed. Reyes had named the place La Sofía in honour of his fiancée, and Materón and his partner had retained the name. The company already had about ten _peons_ engaged in clearing the land and cultivating the crops, and had advanced merchandise to all the Cionis, who had agreed to work out their indebtedness by planting rubber-trees, building houses, clearing land, &c. I was pleased to observe that strict morality was the rule, and that Gonzalez permitted no abuses against the aborigines either by taking away their women, by cheating them, or in any way at all. As to the _peons_, they seemed cheerful and contented. There are two distinct kinds of rubber--that produced by a tree that must be cut down to extract the milk, which is called _caucho negro_, or black rubber, and is produced by the Castilloa elastica, and that which is the product of a tree that can be tapped indefinitely, which is known as _jebe_ or _siringa_, and is collected from the Hevea brasiliensis. These two varieties of rubber are each subdivided into several classifications, according to the quality of the latex or milk and the care and skill employed in their extraction and preparation. As a general rule, _siringa_ is much more valuable than _caucho_, and is the best kind adapted for cultivation, although Materón was planting both sorts. After showing us some samples of each, he informed us that the whole region of the Upper Putumayo had once abounded in _caucho negro_, but that at the present date very little remained, owing to the fierce onslaughts of the _caucheros_ many years ago. The next day Materón had some of his men build a little _rancho_ of palm-leaves over our canoe amidships to protect us from the sun and rain. This sort of awning is called a _pamacari_, and is in general use in the Amazon Valley; it gave the canoe a very picturesque appearance, and, as we afterwards found, was very convenient. We spent the rest of the day in inspecting the estate and taking down a Cioni vocabulary, in which language Gonzalez was very proficient and kind enough to give us the benefit of his knowledge. This vocabulary, which I had hoped to take back to civilisation with me, was, however, lost under particularly aggravating circumstances, which will be duly recorded in a succeeding chapter.