Climbing the porch, I found myself in the presence of three men, one of them being a short, middle-aged, coffee-coloured gentleman, while the other two were white and had the appearance of travellers. Introducing myself, I was cordially welcomed by the dark man, who proved to be Serrano, as I had supposed. He, in turn, made me acquainted with the other two, who turned out to be two of the exiles brought down by Becerra, General Miguel Antonio Acosta and Don Alfonso Sánchez. The other exiles, it appeared, had gone down to the Peruvian establishment of El Encanto to catch one of the launches which was about to sail for Iquitos. These two, however, had decided to stop with Serrano a few days on account of the illness of Sánchez, who was prostrated by a fierce attack of malarial fever. As Serrano was about to set out for Iquitos himself on business within a week or so, accompanied by the exiles in case Sánchez was better, he readily agreed to take us with him and, moreover, to buy our canoe and anything else that we had for sale. Accordingly, I sent word to Perkins by means of an Indian that Serrano loaned me for the purpose to descend with the canoe from Remolino to Josa, Serrano's port on the Putumayo, and, arriving there, to leave the canoe and our personal effects--for we should pass Josa on our way to the _varadero_--and bring over to La Reserva everything we had for sale, for which purpose we would send some _cargadores_ there to meet him. This business satisfactorily arranged at last, I felt considerably relieved, and hoped that soon we would be on the _varadero_ to the Napo and out of harm's way. Serrano then took me out and showed me the place. In addition to the large plantations already mentioned he had planted several thousand rubber-trees in the forest, which were now from two to four years old and in a very flourishing condition. Under the house he had 170 odd _arrobas_ of rubber, which had been collected by his Huitoto employees, of whom he had about forty-five families, one or two of which were then at the house. During the course of the evening I happened to make a remark about the Peruvians to the effect that they were probably not so bad as represented. This somewhat aroused Serrano, who thereupon recounted to me one of the most diabolical deeds committed by the murderous employees of the Peruvian Amazon Company that I had ever heard of up to that time. The following is an outline of it:--