icts with the peccary, the jaguar comes off only
second best. Of this fact our travellers had ample proofs--having
frequently witnessed, while ascending the Napo, encounters between the
peccaries and the jaguars. One of these encounters they had watched
with an interest more than common: for in its result their own safety
was concerned; and the very position of peril in which they were placed,
enabled them to have a full and perfect view of the whole spectacle; an
account of which we find recorded in the journal of Alexis.

CHAPTER THIRTY.

THE PERUVIAN CINNAMON-TREE.

They had reacted a district which lies between two great branches of the
Napo river, and which bears the name of _Canelos_, or the "cinnamon
country." The name was given to it by the Spanish discoverers of Peru--
from the fact of their finding trees in this region, the bark of which
bears a considerable resemblance to the celebrated spice of the East
Indies. _Canela_ is the Spanish name for cinnamon; and the rude
adventurers Pineda and Gonzalez Pizarro, fancying it was the real
cinnamon-tree itself, so called it; and the district in which they found
it most abundant thenceforward took the name of Canelos.

The tree, afterwards identified and described by the Spanish botanist
Mutis, is not the _Laurus cinnamomum_ of Ceylon; but a species of
_laurus_ peculiar to the American continent--to which this botanist has
given the name _laurus cinnamomoides_. It is not, however, confined to
the region around the Rio Napo, but grows in many parts of the Great
_Montana_, as well as in other countries of tropical America. Bonpland
identified it on the Upper Orinoco, and again in the county of Caraccas;
though nowhere does it appear to be in such plenty as to the east of the
Cordilleras of Ecuador and Peru--throughout the provinces of Quixos,
Macas, and Jean de Bracamoros. In these provinces it is found forming
extensive woods, and filling the air with the delicious aroma of its
flowers. The bark of the _laurus cinnamomoides_ is not considered equal
in delicate flavour to that of the Oriental cinnamon. It is hotter and
more pungent to the taste--otherwise the resemblance between the two
trees is very considerable, their foliage being much alike, and the bark
peeling off of nearly equal thickness. The American, however, becomes
more brownish when dried; and, though it is not equal to the cinnamon
bark of Ceylon, large quantities of it are collected, both