Making my way to the principal house, a large structure of split-palms, similar to those already described, I entered the yard, ascended the steps to the porch, and asked for Señor Ordoñez. A young man, who introduced himself as Don Fabio Duarte, the assistant manager, then informed me that Ordoñez was out in the forest with his Indians, but that he was expected back on the following day; meanwhile he invited me to stop with him until Ordoñez came. A seat near the fire soon dried my wet clothes, and a good hot lunch braced me up considerably. In addition to this principal house there were two or three smaller structures, standing at some distance from each other and from the large one. All the forest for some distance round the establishment was cut down, and upon the fresh, green grass that took its place numerous sleek cattle and horses grazed in peaceful quiet. Some parts of this cleared area were, however, fenced in, and here large plantations of _yuca_, plantains, maize, &c., were under cultivation, for which purpose the fifteen or twenty _racionales_ that I observed about the house were employed. Under the principal house I observed about a thousand _arrobas_ of rubber stored away, awaiting shipment. Duarte, who was a very affable and communicative youth, informed me that all this rubber was collected by the Indians in the Company's service, who came in periodically with what they had collected and exchanged it for merchandise, &c., sold to them at rather exorbitant prices. These aborigines, who belonged to the tribe known as the Huitotos, numbered about two hundred, and lived in villages of their own in the heart of the forest. Other Huitotos were employed by David Serrano, another Colombian settler, living some distance down the Caraparaná, while the greatest portion of them were in the service of the Peruvian Amazon Company,[92] which, Duarte informed me, treated them very harshly, obliging them to work night and day without the slightest remuneration. I spent the rest of the day in getting data about the Huitotos and in collecting from the _racionales_--many of whom spoke the language perfectly--a short vocabulary of the most common Huitoto words. Among other interesting facts, I learned that this whole region had first been settled by Colombians, who had been afterwards squeezed out by the Peruvians, until now in the whole district of the Caraparaná and Igaraparaná there remained but three Colombian establishments--La Unión, La Reserva (Serrano's), and El Dorado, belonging to a negro called Ildefonso Gonzalez.