Mean temperature52½°Mean minimum at night37¼Highest observed58Lowest37Range21
Azangaro is the capital of the province of the same name. There is a tradition that, when the Indians were bringing gold and silver for the ransom of the Inca Atahualpa, they received news of his murder by Pizarro, at Sicuani, and at the same time orders came from Inca Manco, who was at Cuzco, to remove the treasure to a greater distance; and that they buried it near this town.Asuanis "more,"carun"distant;" henceAzangaro. It is generally believed that this treasure, worth 7,000,000 dollars, as well as the fifteen mule-loads of church-plate brought into the town by Diego Tupac Amaru in 1781, are concealed somewhere, and that some of the Indians know the place well, but will not divulge it. Hence there have been numerous attempts to discover it, and one sub-prefect made several excavations under the pavement in the church, but without any success. On one occasion, not long ago, an old Indian, who had been a servant in the house where Diego Tupac Amaru lodged, told the sub-prefect that in the centre of thesala, after digging down for about two feet, a layer of gravel from the river would be reached; a little further down a layer of lime and plaster; a little further a layer of large stones; and that beneath the stones would be the treasure. The excavation was commenced, and great was the excitement when all the different layers were found exactly as the Indian had described them; but there was no treasure. It is not unlikely that the Indian only knew or only told half the clue; and that these layers were somemark, whence a line was to be measured in some particular direction, and to a certain distance, to denote the spot under which the treasure was deposited. Yet the searches have not been wholly unsuccessful. There are several subterranean passages and chambers under Azangaro, and one was discovered a few years ago which had been made by the Indians in ancient times. It led towards the plaza, and ended in a recess, where there were several mummies, adorned with golden suns and armlets, and golden semispheres covering their ears—now the property of my host, Don Luis Quiñones.
Azangaro ispar excellencethe city of hidden treasure. The houses are built of mud and straw, and thatched with coarse grass (stipa ychu), the better sort being whitewashed. To the north of the town there is a long ridge of rocky heights; to the south an isolated peaked hill nearly overhangs the town; to the east is the river; and to the west is a plain bounded by the mountains towards Pucara. The church, in the plaza, is like a large barn outside, with walls of mud and straw, and a tower with broad-brimmed red-tiled roof; but on entering it I was astonished at its extraordinary magnificence, so entirely out of proportion to the wealth or importance of this little town. The nave is lined with large pictures on religious subjects, by native artists, in frames of carved wood richly gilt. The elaborate gilded carving was very striking; the leaves, bunches of grapes, and twisted columns, being the workmanship of the famous carvers of Cuzco. Over the arch leading to the chancel there is a picture representing the Triumph of the Faith, in bright colours. The high altar is plated with massive silver, with gilded columns, pictures, and images, in gorgeous profusion up to the roof. On either side are two very remarkable pictures, filling the walls between the altar and the chancel-arch. On the right an allegorical picture, and the Shepherds worshipping. One figure, in the latter picture, a girl holding a basket onher head, is of great merit, and exactly resembles the 'Santa Justa' of Murillo in the Duke of Sutherland's collection. On the left is a picture of the 'Woman taken in Adultery,' and an excellent copy of the well-known 'Worshipping of the Magi,' by Rubens, in the Madrid gallery. In a side chapel there is a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's 'Last Supper,' with portraits of two caciques—the heads of the two great families of Azangero—with their wives, one of them very pretty, looking on in a corner. These copies, which are excellent, must have been procured from Europe at very great expense.
THE SONDOR-HUASI, AT AZANGARO.Page 193.
THE SONDOR-HUASI, AT AZANGARO.Page 193.
The author of all this magnificence, according to the inscription on his portrait, which is fixed in a handsome gilt frame by the side of the chancel arch, was the Bachiller Dr. Don Basco Bernardo Lopez de Cangas, a native of Cuzco, and Cura of Azangaro. The interior decorations were completed on January 12th, 1758, and the cura died in 1771. He must have been possessed of enormous wealth, to have enabled him thus to beautify and adorn his church with such lavish profusion.
In the days of the Incas the two great families of Azangaro, whose heads ranked as Curacas, were the Murumallcucalcinas and Chuquihuancas; and they retained the office of cacique until recent Spanish times. The Murumallcucalcina family is now extinct: they lived in the town, and a portion of their house still remains, called theSondor-huasi, dating from the time of the Incas, and the greatest curiosity in the place. It is a circular building, about twelve feet in diameter, with walls twelve feet high, of mud and straw, very strong and thick. The dome-shaped roof of thatch also dates from the time of the Incas. The outside coating consists of a layer ofstipa ychu, two feet thick, placed in very regular rows, and most carefully finished, so as to present a smooth surface to the weather. Next there is a thick layer of the same grass placed horizontally, nettedtogether with reeds; and finally an inner perpendicular layer; the whole thatch being five feet thick. The interior framework consists of twelve perfect circles of bent wands, with others descending in curves from the apex of the roof to the crest of the wall, and where they cross there are lashings of a tough reed. The whole is finished with most admirable neatness, forming a perfect dome. This is the only roof of the time of the Incas still remaining in Peru, and hence its great importance in an antiquarian point of view. It has been said that the colossal and highly-finished masonry of the Incas, and their poor thatched roofs, formed a barbaric contrast; but the Sondor-huasi proves that their roofs rivalled their walls in the exquisite art and neatness of their finish. The Sondor-huasi is now in a very dilapidated state, and is used as a kitchen by the degenerate collateral heirs of the old caciques.
The Chuquihuanca family had a country house about a league from Azangaro, which was destroyed by the army of Tupac Amaru in 1780, because the Chuquihuancas deserted their countrymen and adhered to the Spanish cause. I accompanied Don Luis Quiñones, and the whole of the society of Azangaro, to a picnic at the ruined house of the Chuquihuancas; and it was amusing to see all the masters of families, the Sub-Prefect Don Hipolito Valdez, the judge, the cura, and every one else, locking the great folding-doors leading into theirpatios, and putting the keys into their pockets. Azangaro was entirely deserted. We were all well mounted, and there were fourteen young ladies of the party, fresh pleasant girls, who thoroughly enjoyed a good gallop. The ruined house was in a corner of the plain, and surrounded on three sides by steep overhanging cliffs. There are the remains of a house, with a long corridor of brick arches, behind which several broad terraces rise up the face of the cliff, which are still ornamented with some fineoliva silvestreandqueñuatrees, a few ancient apple-trees, and a dense growth of bright-yellow Compositæ, and Solanums with a purple flower. A noisy torrent foamed down the cliffs and over the terraces to the plain below. It was a very pretty spot, but in a most desolate condition, and many small doves made their nests in the trees. Lupins (ccerra[285]) and nettles (itapallu) were growing in the crevices of the rocks. We had an excellent and very merry dinner; a large amount of Moquegua wine, and of the better-clarified and more generous liquor from Don Domingo Elias's vineyards at Pisco, were drunk; and guitar-playing and samocueca-dancing finished the day's entertainment. We returned to Azangaro after dark. Don Luis assured me that the people of this little town were like one family; and that, though election-time or periods of civil dissension sometimes caused estrangement amongst them, the habitual concord and friendship always returned when the excuse for alienation had passed away.
Azangaro is a great cattle-breeding province, and there is a considerable trade in cheeses with Arequipa and other parts. I found very great difficulty in procuring animals to enable me to continue my journey. At length I succeeded in hiring four miserable-looking, vicious, undersized ponies; and, having crossed the Azangaro on balsas, by far the largest river I had passed over since leaving Puno, the way led over the rocky range of Pacobamba hills into another plain, where there were several cattle and sheep farms; and the village of Corruarini, consisting of a ruined church and a dozen huts. The river Azangaro rises in the snowy mountains of Caravaya, forms an immense curve of nearly half a circle in a course of about two hundred miles, and, uniting with the river of Pucara, falls into the lake of Titicaca as the river Ramiz, the largest of its affluents. After a ride of six leagueswe reached the little village of San José, under a conical hill, and close to the snowy mountains of Surupana.
I dined with the cura, Fray Juan de Dios Cardenas, who gave me a list of medicinal herbs used in Azangaro; and the beasts from that place were so infamous that I was obliged to invoke his assistance to procure fresh ones. It appeared that two Frenchmen had passed a few days before, on their way to establish a saw-mill in the Caravaya forests, with a view to floating timber down the river of Azangaro to lake Titicaca, and that they had ill-treated some Indians. It was thus very difficult to induce them to furnish ponies, but the alcaldes, with their great hats and long sticks, were summoned, and, after some negotiation, they were induced to supply four ponies to go as far as Crucero, the capital of the province of Caravaya. It was most fortunate that I was enabled to do this, for, during the night, the owners of the Azangaro ponies came out to San José, and stole them, so that we should have been left without even this wretched means of conveyance.
From San José the path winds up a long ravine for several leagues, down which a torrent dashes furiously over the rocks, descending from the snowy peak of Accosiri. The mountain scenery, consisting of steep grassy slopes, masses of rock, torrents, and distant snowy peaks, was very fine. The ravine led up to the summit of the pass of Surupana, where it was intensely cold, and the height of which I roughly estimated, with a boiling-point thermometer, at 16,700 feet above the sea. Here I met an active young vicuña-hunter, well mounted, and provided with a gun, who said he was a servant of the Cacique Chuquihuanca of Azangaro, on his way to buy wool in Caravaya. He continued in my company during most part of the day. Loud claps of thunder burst out in different directions, and a snow-storm was drifting in our faces. The ravines were covered with deep snow, betweenhigh dark mountains, with abrupt cliffs cropping out. A flock of vicuñas dashed across our path, disappearing again in the driving sleet. After wading through snow and mud for several leagues the weather cleared up, and we began to descend a splendid gorge, exactly like some of the finest coombs on the north coast of Devon, on a gigantic scale. This led us down into a valley, where I parted with my young vicuña-hunter, who had been a very pleasant companion. Riding down the grassy valley, and passing many flocks of sheep, I rode through the village of Potoni, a dozen huts on the side of a hill; forded the river Azangaro, which is here but a small stream even in the rainy season; and riding up the opposite bank, got a magnificent view of the snowy mountains of Caravaya, with their sharp needle-like peaks. Two leagues brought me to Crucero, the capital of the province of Caravaya, so called from the cross-roads which here branch off to the various villages in the forests on the other side of the snowy barrier which rises up close to the town, to the eastward.
Crucero is a collection of comfortless mud-houses, with a small dilapidated church in the plaza, on a very elevated swampy plain. It was intensely cold, with heavy snow-storms during the nights, and the people sat wrapped up in cloaks without fires, shivering in a dreary helpless way, and going to bed soon after sunset, as the only comfortable place. I was most kindly received by the sub-prefect, Don Pablo Pimentel, a veteran soldier, and an official who had served many years at the head of the Government in Caravaya, and in Lampa. Dr. Weddell had named a new genus of chinchonaceous plantsPimentelia, in honour of the worthy old sub-prefect, which had pleased him very much. I remained a few days in Crucero, before setting out for the chinchona-forests in the valleys of Sandia and Tambopata; and during that time I obtained a good deal of information from DonPablo Pimentel, and from Señor Leefdael the Judge, respecting the province of Caravaya. Don Pablo had travelled over almost every part of it; and I also received much information at Arequipa from Don Agustin Aragon, a former sub-prefect, who has a large estate in the Caravaya forests. From these sources I am enabled to offer some account of those parts of Caravaya which I did not visit, and which will form the subject of the following chapter. Caravaya is a region of which little is known to European geographers, and, so far as I am aware, no traveller has yet given any account of it to the English public.
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THE PROVINCE OF CARAVAYA.
A short Historical and Geographical Description.
ThePeruvian province of Caravaya is drained by streams which form part of the system of one of the largest and least known of the tributaries of the Amazon—the river Purus.
The Purus is the only great affluent flowing into the Amazon from the south, the course of which has never yet been explored. We have detailed accounts of the Huallaga from Maw, Smyth, Poeppig, and Herndon; of the Ucayali from Smyth, Herndon, and Castelnau; and of the Madeira from Castelnau and Gibbon; but of the Purus, the largest apparently, and one which, in course of time, will probably become the most important, we have next to nothing. Its mouth, and the course of its tributaries, near the base of the Andes, are alone described.
Condamine and Smyth, in descending the Amazon, mention the great depth and volume of water at the mouth of the Purus: Herndon heard from a Brazilian trader at Barra, who had ascended its stream for some distance, that it was of great size, and without obstructions; and Haënke, in the last century, arguing from reliable geographical data which he had collected from Indians, stated his conviction that a very large river, flowing from the Andes east of Cuzco, reached the Amazon to the westward of the mouth of the Madeira.
This is the sum of our knowledge of the mouth and lower course of the Purus. The tributaries which flow into it drain the eastern slopes of the Andes, from the latitude of Cuzcoquite to the frontier of Bolivia—that frontier dividing the streams flowing into the Purus, on the Peruvian side, from those which feed the Beni, on the Bolivian. These affluents of the Purus are divided into three distinct systems: the furthest to the north and west, consisting of the streams flowing through the great valley of Paucartambo, which unite under the name of the Madre de Dios, or Amaru-mayu; the middle system, draining the ravines of Marcapata and Ollachea; and the southern and eastern, being the numerous rivers in the province of Caravaya, as far as the Bolivian frontier, which unite as the Ynambari. The Madre de Dios and Ynambari together form the main stream of the Purus.
The Paucartambo system is the only one which has, as yet, been described by modern explorers. In Spanish times the streams which compose it were explored, and farms of cacao and coca were established on their banks; and in the end of the last century an expedition was sent to explore the course of the Madre de Dios, under an officer named Don Tiburcio de Landa. This must have been at some time previous to 1780, for Landa was killed in that year in the great rebellion of the Indians under Tupac Amaru.[286]After the declaration of Peruvian independence, General Gamarra, the first Republican Prefect of Cuzco, sent an expedition to protect the farms in the valley of Paucartambo from the encroachments of the wild Chuncho Indians, and to explore the Madre de Dios. It was commanded by a Dr. Sevallos, now a very old man, retired to a farm in the Caravaya forests, but he has, unfortunately, lost his journal. General Miller made an expedition into the same region in 1835, and penetrated to a greater distance than any other explorerbefore or since. A very brief account of his journey was published in the 'Royal Geographical Society's Journal' for 1836; but there is a much fuller and most interesting journal kept by this gallant veteran, which has never been printed. In 1852 Lieut. Gibbon, U.S.N., entered the valleys of Paucartambo; and in 1853 I explored a part of the course of its principal stream, the Tono.[287]Another expedition to explore this region, under the sanction and with the aid of the Peruvian Government, was undertaken by some native adventurers, accompanied by a few Americans, and an English artist named Prendergast, in 1856, but it completely failed. Since that time the wild Chuncho Indians have continued to attack and encroach upon the few farms which existed in these valleys at the time of my visit in 1853, and at the present moment there is not one remaining. The rich valleys of Paucartambo, once covered with flourishing cacao and coca farms, have again become one vast uncultivated tropical forest.
Following the eastern slopes of the Andes to the south and east, we next come to the streams which drain the valleys of Marcapata and Ollachea, but of these very little is known. These valleys are in the province of Quispicanchi, in the department of Cuzco; and it is said that in times past they were cultivated with advantage, and contained many coca farms. In the beginning of the last century a Jesuit found gold in a hill called Camante, in the Marcapata valley, situated between two ravines, in one of which, called Garrote, a Spanish company established gold-washings. The leading man of this company, named Goyguro, employed hundreds of Indians, and extracted gold from the Camante hill in lumps; but one day an immense landslip fell into the Vilca-mayu,[288]the chief stream of Marcapata, and all the workmen ran away, and could not be induced to return. This was in about the year 1788.
For forty years after this event coca-farms and gold-washings were alike abandoned in Marcapata, until in 1828 the cura of the village of that name, Dr. Pedro Flores, again opened a road into the valleys, and, with some associates, established several farms for raising coca and fruit. In 1836 a company was formed by several young adventurers, the chief of whom were José Maria Pacheco of Cuzco and José Maria Ochoa[289]of Huara, with the object of again discovering the long-lost golden hill of Camante. The party assembled at Ocongate, in the cold region of the Andes, whence the distance to Marcapata, at the commencement of the warm valleys, is fourteen leagues over a bad road, which traverses the cordillera of Ausungate and Pirhuayani. From Marcapata the two adventurers Pacheco and Ochoa, both active and intrepid young men, advanced into the forests with fourteen Indians, and a stock of chuñus and dried meat. These explorers penetrated for several leagues, following the course of the Vilca-mayu, but their expedition led to no practical results.[290]In 1851 Colonel Bologenesi became the manager of an expedition for collecting chinchona-bark in the forests of Marcapata, and proceeded to the scene of his labours, accompanied by a young Englishman named George Backhouse. They advanced into the forests until they fell in with parties of wild Chuncho Indians, who were propitiated by presents of knives and other trifles, and induced to assist young Backhouse and his party in collecting bark. Some of the Chunchos, however, who had received knives, neglected towork, which enraged the Indians in Backhouse's service, and a quarrel ensued, ending in the massacre of Backhouse and all his party. Those who were out collecting bark, on discovering what had happened, fled to Colonel Bologenesi; but in their retreat, while fording a river, the Chunchos poured in a volley of arrows amongst them, and killed forty of their number. Bologenesi then collected a military force and advanced into the forests, where he suffered great hardships, fighting with the Chunchos all day, and harassed by alarms during the night. He, however, collected a thousand quintals of bark, at a cost of fifty lives and three hundred thousand dollars. During this expedition indications were met with of the ancient gold-washings.
It will thus be seen that fevers and perilous roads are not the only dangers to be apprehended in a search for chinchona-plants.
Lastly, and extending for a distance of one hundred and eighty miles, from Marcapata to the frontier of Bolivia, is the watershed along that part of the eastern Andes known as the Snowy Range of Caravaya, where the numerous streams take their rise which unite to form the Ynambari. The Madre de Dios, Marcapata, and Ynambari are thus the three great sources of the Purus. The tributaries of the latter drain the province of Caravaya.
The first mention of this region is to be found in the pages of the old Inca historian, Garcilasso de la Vega, who says that "the richest gold-mines in Peru are those of Collahuaya, which the Spaniards call Caravaya, whence they obtain much very fine gold of twenty-four carats, and they still get some, but not in such abundance."[291]The Jesuit Acosta also mentions "the famous gold of Caravaya in Peru."[292]After the final overthrow of the younger Almagro in the battle of Chupas in 1542, some of his followers crossedthe snowy range, and descended into the great tropical forests of Caravaya,[293]where they discovered rivers, the sands of which were full of gold. On the banks of these rivers they built the towns of Sandia, San Gavan, and San Juan del Oro; large sums in gold were sent home to Spain, and the last-named settlement received the title of a royal city from Charles V. In 1553 these settlers received a pardon from the Viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza, in consideration of the gold they sent home to the Emperor. It is said that they sent him a nugget weighing four arrobas, in the shape of a bullock's head; and that afterwards another nugget, in the shape of a bullock's tongue, was sent to Philip II., but that the ship which carried it was lost at sea. Eventually the wild Chuncho Indians of the Sirineyri tribe fell upon the gold-washers, and overpowered them. In the following century certain mulattos occupied the gold-washings in Caravaya, and the king, as a reward for their labours in extracting treasure, offered to comply with any request they might make. The mulattos asked to be called Señores, and for the privilege of entering every town on white mules with red trappings, and the bells ringing. The Señores mulattos were finally expelled for knocking the priest of San Juan del Oro on the head while he was saying mass, after a drunken broil. There are many vestiges of washings, bridges, and cuttings made by these mulattos, in different parts of Caravaya.[294]
The Spaniards, however, long continued to extract gold from the rivers of Caravaya, and established coca-farms and coffee-plantations in some of the ravines formed by spurs of the cordillera. Gold, however, was the product for which Caravaya was most famous.
In 1615 the viceroy Marquis of Montes Claros spoke ofthe richlavaderosor gold-washings of Caravaya;[295]and his successor, the Prince of Esquilache, wrote a long report upon them in 1620. It appears that, at that period, the richest of the Caravaya mines was called Aporuma, and that it had then been worked for fifteen years by a company of adventurers. These men, the chief of whom were named Quiñones, Frisancho, and Perez, had excavated very extensive works to drain off the water, and they petitioned the Viceroy to grant them amitaof Indians to complete the works, for that thus the royal fifths would be augmented. The Prince of Esquilache wrote a marginal note, which may still be seen on the original petition, ordering Don Pedro de Mercado, the "visitador-general" of Caravaya, to grant them amitaof Indians within a circuit of twenty leagues of the Aporuma mine, with three dollars a month each, besides salt-meat and other provisions.[296]In 1678 the yield of the royal fifths from the Caravaya gold-washings was at the rate of 806 dollars in three months.[297]From this time to the end of the seventeenth century Franciscan missionaries were at work amongst the wild Chunchos in the forests of Caravaya.[298]Towards the end of the last century Caravaya was separated from Peru to form part of the new viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, and the population of whites and civilised Indians was then only estimated at 6500 souls. Just before that period the town of San Gavan, with four thousand families and a large treasure, had been surprised and entirely destroyed by the Carangas and Suchimanis Chunchos. This calamity took place on the 15th of December, 1767. The viceroy Don Manuel Amat swore vengeance on the Chunchos; but his famous mistress, Mariquita Gallegas, better known as LaPerichola, interceded for them, and eventually nothing was done. The other town of San Juan del Oro had been abandoned some time before; and the very sites where they stood are now uncertain.
In the great rebellion of Tupac Amaru the caciques and people of Caravaya took part with the Indians, probably owing to the influence possessed by the Inca, arising from the large coca estate which belonged to him near San Gavan.[299]At the independence Caravaya became a part of the Peruvian department of Puno.
In 1846 Don Pablo Pimentel was appointed Sub-prefect of Caravaya, and he endeavoured, by giving a glowing account of its vast capabilities, to induce the government to make roads and develop the resources of this important province. Shortly afterwards, in 1849, Caravaya attracted notice as a land rich in the precious metal, and it soon became the California of South America. In July of that year two brothers named Poblete, in searching for chinchona-bark, discovered great abundance of gold-dust in the sands of one of the Caravaya rivers, and the news soon spread far and wide. Up to 1852 crowds of adventurers, among whom were many Frenchmen, continued to follow in the footsteps of the Pobletes, but most of them returned empty, and the excitement has now died away. The trade in chinchona-bark, which once was remunerative, and in which many Peruvians displayed extraordinary energy and endurance of fatigue, ceased to exist in 1847, owing to the habit of adulterating the Calisaya bark with inferior kinds, which gave the Caravaya article a bad name in the market, and at length rendered it unsaleable. This adulteration was practised either through fraud or ignorance. If the former, it was certainly very short-sighted; but Don Pablo Pimentel declares that it was done through ignorance, the bark-collectors mistaking themotosolo(C. micrantha) andcarhua-carhua(Cascarilla Carua) for the Calisaya bark.[300]
The above meagre notices are all that I have been able to glean respecting the history of Caravaya; and I will now give a brief description of the geographical features of this interesting region.
The province of Caravaya consists of a narrow strip of lofty table-land, bordering on that of Azangaro; the snowy range of the Eastern Andes for a distance of 120 miles; and the boundless tropical forests to the eastward, stretching away towards the frontier of Brazil. It is bounded on the east and south by Bolivia, on the N.W. by the province of Quispicanchi in the department of Cuzco, on the north and N.E. by the illimitable forests, and on the west by Azangaro.
The lofty table-land to the westward of the snowy Andes extends for 120 miles, the whole length of Caravaya, but is only from five to ten miles broad. It is 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, and here, about a century ago, after the destruction of San Gavan, the town of Crucero was founded, as a central position for the capital of the province, and as being free from the attacks of wild Indians. It derives its name from the numerous roads which branch from it to the villages on the eastern slopes of the Andes. This narrow plain, on which Crucero[301]is situated, is very swampy, covered with long tufts ofychugrass, and intensely cold. It yields pasture to immense flocks of sheep; and to the curious hybrid, first bred by the cura Cabrera in 1826, between an alpaca and a vicuña, called the paco-vicuña, with a black and white fleece of long fine wool, which is wove into fabrics like the richest silk.[302]
But the largest and only important part of Caravaya consists of the forest-covered valleys to the eastward of the Andes. On the western side that mountain-chain rises abruptly into peaks covered with snow, from an elevated plateau 14,000 feet above the sea; but on its eastern side the descent is rapid into tropical valleys. Long spurs run off the main chain to the northward, gradually decreasing in elevation; and it is sometimes a distance of sixty or eighty miles before they finally subside into the boundless forest-covered plains of the interior of South America. Numerous rivers flow through the valleys between these spurs, to join the Ynambari; and in these valleys, near the foot of the main chain of the eastern Andes, are the few villages and coca and coffee plantations of Caravaya. In these long spurs and deep valleys Caravaya differs in geographical character from the more northern region of Paucartambo, where the Andes subside much more rapidly into the level plain.
In the warm valleys are to be found all the wealth and population of Caravaya. The population consists of 22,000 souls, almost all Indians; and the wealth, besides the flocks of sheep on the western table-land, is created by the produce of coca, coffee, sugar-cane, and aji-pepper plantations, fruit-gardens, and gold-washings. Correct statistical returns are unknown in Peru; but, as near as I could make out, there is an annual yield of 20,000 lbs. of coffee and 360,000 lbs. of coca.[303]I could obtain no reliable statements respecting the yield of gold.
The Caravayan valley which is furthest to the north and west is that of Ollachea, bordering on Marcapata, where there is a small village at the foot of the Andes. Next comethose of Ituata and Corani. The little village of Ayapata, near the source of the river of the same name, comes next; and thirty miles further in the interior, an intelligent and enterprising Peruvian, named Don Agustin Aragon, has established a sugar-cane estate called San José de Bella Vista. It is situated at the junction of two rivers, and he is thus protected from the attacks of the savage Chuncho Indians who prowl about in the surrounding forests. He has made a road practicable for mules from the village of Ayapata to his estate; and he finds the manufacture of spirits from the sugar-cane far more profitable than digging for gold or hunting for chinchona-bark. He is a man full of energy and resource. His attempt to establish a manufactory of india-rubber only failed through the refusal of the Peruvian government to give him a contract for supplying the army, and thus assist his first efforts; in 1860 he sent an expedition into the forests to collect wild cacao-plants; any scheme for developing the resources of the country is sure to receive his advocacy; and he looks forward with confidence to the day when a steamer shall ascend the Purus and Ynambari, and return to the Atlantic with a cargo of the produce of Caravaya. It would be well for Peru if she contained many such men as Don Agustin Aragon.
It is supposed that the old Spanish town of San Gavan was situated near a river of the same name, about twenty miles from Aragon's estate. The site is now overgrown with dense forest, and it has never been visited since its destruction; yet it is believed that vast treasure lies concealed amongst the tree-covered ruins, because the attack of the Chunchos was sudden, and at once successful; they care nothing for the precious metals, and San Gavan contained a royal treasury, and was a central deposit for the gold of Caravaya. The Chunchos, in former times, were in friendly communication with, and even took service under, the Spaniards; but thetyranny of the latter at length exasperated them, and led to the destruction of San Gavan. Since that time the Chunchos have wandered in the forests in small tribes,[304]the implacable enemies of all white men and Inca Indians.
Following the eastern slopes of the Andes to the south-east, the next village to Ayapata, at the head of another deep ravine, is Ccoasa, and next follow Usicayus, Phara, and Limbani. Phara is in a ravine on the eastern slope of the Andes, about thirty-five miles from Crucero. Here many gold-mines were worked by the Señores Mulattos, and at no great distance is the famous gold-mine of Aporuma, in the ravine of Pacchani. Phara is on the road to the gold-diggings, which were discovered by the brothers Poblete, and which attracted so many luckless adventurers between 1849 and 1854. They are at a distance of fifteen leagues to the northward. The path lies along a long ridge, gradually descending for six leagues to a little hamlet called La Mina. Thence to the banks of the river Ynambari, here called Huari-huari, is a distance of three leagues, down a very dangerous road, covered with huge blocks of schist, and skirting along fearful precipices. For this distance the road is passable for mules. The river is seventy yards broad, and is crossed by anoroya, or bridge of ropes, traversed by a sort of net or cage, into which the passenger gets, and is hauled over to the other side, at a giddy height above the boiling flood. On the other side, at the junction of the Huari-huari and the golden river of Challuma,[305]there is a place which has been named Versailles bysome French adventurers, of whom the most daring and energetic is a M. La Harpe. The road, so far, was opened by a party of soldiers of the batallion Yungay. From Versailles to thelavaderosor gold-washings is a distance of six leagues up a narrow forest-covered ravine; and, in this distance, it is necessary to wade across the river Challuma no less than fifty-three times—the water coming up to the waist, the feet constantly slipping over loose rounded stones, the only support a long staff, and where one false step would be inevitable destruction. At the end of this perilous journey there is a place called Alta-garcia, where theadministradoresof the company of first discoverers were established in 1850. Thence to Quimza-mayu (three rivers) is half a league, and here thelavaderoscommence. In this part of its course the river is called Taccuma. Many of the gold-seekers, such as the Señores Carpio, La Harpe, Valdez, Tovar, Cardenas, and Costas, have been men who were formerly engaged in the chinchona-bark trade, and who know the country thoroughly. The tributaries of the Challuma, called Quimza-mayu, rise in hills completely isolated from the Andes, and their sands are full of gold, both in dust and nuggets. Immediately above thelavaderosrises a hill called Capacurco, and by the French adventurers Montebello, formed of quartz and other primitive rocks, with rich veins of gold. Here Don Manuel Costas of Puno erected a house, and brought out machinery for crushing the quartz, but the undertaking failed through the badness of the machinery, and the immense cost and difficulty of transporting materials through such a country. A few adventurers, however, still continue to wash for gold in the Challuma or Taccuma. In the part of its course above thelavaderosthis river descends rapidly from an isolated range of forest-covered precipitous hills, and in one place its waters plunge down in a cascade,with a sheer fall of forty feet.[306]The gold-seekers of the Challuma have penetrated further into the forests, and nearer to the main stream of the Purus, than any other explorers; and their discovery of the Challuma, and of the auriferous hills near its banks, has added something to our geographical knowledge of this region.
The remaining villages on the eastern slopes of the Caravayan Andes are Patambuco, Sandia, Cuyo-cuyo, Quiaca, Sina, and the farm of Saqui, on the frontier of Bolivia. The river of Sandia has one of its sources near the pass twenty miles north-east of Crucero, whence it flows past Sandia, and for many leagues down a narrow gorge, with magnificent mountains rising up abruptly on either side. At a distance of twenty miles below Sandia, in a part of the ravine called Ypara, the coca and coffee plantations commence, at a height of 5000 feet above the sea. Beyond Ypara cultivation ceases, and the river, now increased to double its former size by its junction with the Huari-huari, flows for many leagues between mountains covered from their summits with a dense tropical forest. This region is known as San Juan del Oro, once famous for its gold-washings; and here the royal town of the same name stood, founded by the fugitive Almagristas, and afterwards tenanted by the Señores Mulattos, but long since destroyed and abandoned. The forests contain chinchona-trees of valuable species, and, until the last fourteen years, they were frequented by bark-collectors.
While flowing through the forests of San Juan del Oro the river takes a turn to the westward, and, at a distance of sixty miles from Sandia, enters the Hatun-yunca, or Valle Grande, where the people of Sandia have very extensivecoca and coffee plantations. The curve here made by the river is so considerable that the people from Sandia reach their farms in the Valle Grande by leaving the ravine above Ypara, and making their way across the grass-covered mountains. The coffee-plants in these farms receive no attention whatever from the time they are planted, so that, instead of the dense well-pruned bushes of India or Ceylon, they grow into tall straggling trees about twelve feet high, with a very small harvest of berries on each, but each berry well exposed to the sun. The coffee is certainly excellent.
Passing through the Valle Grande the river flows on past Versailles, where it receives the golden Challuma, and, uniting with all the other rivers of Caravaya, becomes that great Ynambari which finally effects a junction with the Madre de Dios, and forms the main stream of the mighty Purus.
The river Huari-huari, which is formed by two streams flowing from the villages of Sina and Quiaca, joins the river of Sandia about thirty miles below that town, and their united streams compose the Ynambari. Finally the river Tambopata rises near a farm called Saqui, just within the boundary between Peru and Bolivia, at the foot of a ridge of the Eastern Cordillera. After a course of forty miles it receives the river of San Blas, on the banks of which the people of the Sina village have their coca-plantations. Eighty miles lower down the Tambopata unites with the river Pablo-bamba, on its right bank, at a place called Putina-puncu. The Pablo-bamba rises in a hill called Corpa-ychu on the very frontier of Bolivia, and is only divided from the Tambopata, during its whole course, by a single range of hills. The frontier between the two republics has never been surveyed. Below Putina-puncu the united waters of the two rivers enter the vast forest-covered plains into which the spurs of theAndes finally subside, and henceforth its course is entirely unknown. I think it probable, however, that the Tambopata finds its way direct to the Purus, without previously uniting with the Ynambari.
The respective distances and populations of the villages of Caravaya are as follows:—
But some of these villages are at greater distances from the foot of the Andes than others; thus they are not in a straight line, and the direct distance from Ollachea to the Bolivian frontier is a good deal under 180 miles. The valleys in which the Caravaya villages are situated are separated from each other by spurs of the Andes, many of them so wild and precipitous as to be quite inaccessible; and there is no means of passing from village to village, in many instances, without crossing the Andes to Crucero or Macusani, and descending again by another pass. For this reason Crucero, being in the most central position, has been chosen as the site of the capital of the province, though in a bleak and intensely cold region.
The geological formation of Caravaya is composed of non-fossiliferous schists, micaceous and slightly ferruginous, with veins of quartz. It is a portion of the extensive system of rocks which Mr. Forbes has grouped together as belonging to the Silurian epoch, and which extends almost continuously over an extent from north-west to south-east of more than seven hundred miles, forming the mountain-chain of the Eastern Andes, continuous from Cuzco, through Caravaya, to Bolivia. These rocks throw off spurs along the eastern side of the main chain. Of this formation, too, are the loftiest mountain-peaks in South America:—Illampu, or Sorata (24,812 feet), and Illimani (24,155 feet). Illampu, Mr. Forbes assures us, is fossiliferous up to its very summit.[307]
Such is a brief account of the geography of Caravaya, and especially of the streams which combine to form the great river Purus, from the rivers of the Paucartambo valley on the extreme north-west, to the Pablo-bamba on the frontier of Bolivia. The streams flowing from the Eastern Andes to the north-west of the Paucartambo system combine to swell the Ucayali, while those to the south-east of the Pablo-bamba fall into the Beni, one of the chief tributaries of the Madeira. The intermediate streams are the sources of the unknown Purus, they are all more or less auriferous, they flow through forests abounding in valuable products, and through countries of inexhaustible capabilities. Yet the courses of very few of them have been explored to distances of seventy miles from their sources, and the main stream of the Purus, one of the principal affluents of the Amazon, may be said to be entirely unknown to geographers.
CARAVAYA.—THE VALLEY OF SANDIA.
Onthe 18th of April I left Crucero, on my way to the chinchona forests, rather late in the afternoon, accompanied by Mr. Weir the gardener, a young mestizo named Pablo Sevallos, and two cargo-mules. After a ride of three leagues along the bleak plain of Crucero, covered with coarseStipaand stuntedCacti, we reached a little shepherd's hut, called Choclari-piña, at dusk. It was built of loose stones, with a sheepskin hung across the doorway, but with no plaster or mud between the interstices of the stones, so that the piercingly cold wind blew right through the hut.[308]The poor Indian family were kind and hospitable, and gave us plenty of fresh milk. Next morning we continued the journey along the same plain, with the snowy peaks of the Caravayan Andes on the left, and the glorious nevada of Ananea ahead, whence rise the rivers of Azangaro flowing into lake Titicaca, and of Ynambari finding its way to the Atlantic. A ride of twelve miles brought us to a hut called Acco-kunka (neck of sand), at the foot of long ridges of dark-coloured cliffs, with huge boulders of rock scattered over the sides of the hills. A hard white frost covered the ground.
At Acco-kunka I met a red-faced man, about fifty years of age, who gave his name as Don Manuel Martel. He said that he had been a colonel, and had suffered persecution for being faithful to his party; that he had lost much moneyin thecascarillatrade; and that he was now making a clearing in the forests of Caravaya, for the purpose of growing sugar-cane. He talked about M. Hasskarl, the Dutch agent, who was employed to obtain chinchona-plants in 1854, under his assumed name of Müller; said that he employed an agent named Clemente Henriquez to collect the plants; and vowed that if he, or any one else, ever again attempted to takecascarilla(chinchona) plants out of the country, he would stir up the people to seize them and cut their feet off. There was evidently some allusion to myself in his bluster; and I suspected, what afterwards proved to be the case, that Martel had, by some means, got information respecting the objects of my journey, and was desirous of thwarting them. I had always carefully avoided any mention of the subject since leaving Arequipa. Martel said he was going to buy gold-dust at Poti, so I soon got rid of him; and, passing an alpine lake, full of water-fowl, we began the descent into the golden valleys of Caravaya.
On the left a black cliff, perpendicular, and fully 2000 feet high, formed one side of the descent, and the space on its inner side was occupied by a small glacier, the only one I have ever seen in the Andes; whence descends, in a long waterfall, the source of the little river Huaccuyo, which dashes down the ravine. For the first thousand feet the vegetation continues to be of a lowly alpine character, consisting of coarse grass and flowering herbs, chieflyCompositæ, of which there were severalSenecios, generally with yellow flowers, a gentian with violet-coloured flowers, aBartsiawith a yellow flower, a littlePlantago, and aRanunculus. As we continued the descent, the scenery increased in magnificence. The polished surfaces of the perpendicular cliffs glittered here and there with foaming torrents, some like thin lines of thread, others broader and breaking over rocks, others seeming to burst out of the fleecy clouds; while jaggedblack peaks, glittering with streaks of snow, pierced the mist which concealed their bases. After descending for some leagues through this glorious scenery, the path at length crossed a ridge, and brought us to the crest of the deep and narrow ravine of Cuyo-cuyo.
The path down the side of the gorge is very precipitous, through a succession ofandeneria, or terraced gardens, some abandoned, and others planted with ocas (Oxalis tuberosa), barley, and potatoes; the upper tiers from six to eight feet wide, but gradually becoming broader. Their walled sides are thickly clothed with Calceolarias, Celsias, Begonias, a large purple Solanum, and a profusion of ferns. But it was not until reaching the little village in the bottom of the hollow that all the glories of the scene burst upon me. The river of Sandia, which takes its rise at the head of the ravine, flows by the village of Cuyo-cuyo, bordered by ferns and wild flowers. It is faced, near the village, with fern-covered masonry, and is crossed by several stone bridges of a single arch. Almost immediately on either side, the steep precipitous mountains, lined, at least a hundred deep, with well-constructedandeneria, and faced with stone, rise up abruptly. In several places a cluster of cottages, built on one of the terraces, seemed almost to be hanging in the air. Above all the dark rocks shoot up into snowy peaks, which stood out against the blue sky. A most lovely scene, but very sad, for the great majority of those carefully-constructed terraces, eternal monuments of the beneficence of the Incas, are now abandoned. The alcalde of Cuyo-cuyo received me most hospitably. In the early morning numbers of lambs and young llamas were playing about in the abandoned terraced gardens near the village. Besides Cuyo-cuyo, there are two small hamlets, called Muchucachi and Sullanqui, and several scattered huts in the ravine, the population of which is estimated at 2000 souls.
In the morning of April 20th I rode down the beautiful gorge to the confluence of the rivers of Sandia and Huaccuyo. After this junction the stream becomes a roaring torrent, dashing over huge rocks, and descending rapidly down the ravine towards Sandia. On both sides vast masses of dark frowning mountains rear themselves up for thousands of feet, and end in fantastically shaped peaks, some of them veiled by thin fleecy clouds. The vegetation rapidly increased in luxuriance with the descent. At first there were low shrubs, such asBaccharis odorata,Weinmannia fagaroides, &c.; which gradually gave place to trees and large bushes; while all the way from Cuyo-cuyo there were masses of ferns of many kinds, Begonias, Calceolarias, Lupins, Salvias, and Celsias. Waterfalls streamed down the mountains in every direction: some in a white sheet of continuous foam for hundreds of feet, finally seeming to plunge into huge beds of ferns and flowers; some like driven spray; and in one place a fall of water could be seen between two peaks, which seemed to fall into the clouds below.
A most glorious and enchanting scene, allowing little time to think of the road, which was very bad, and in many places most perilous. In its best parts it was like a steep back-attic staircase after an earthquake. Three leagues from Cuyo-cuyo is the confluence of the torrent of Ñacorequi with the river of Sandia; and after this point maize begins to be cultivated, where the craggy jutting cliffs permit, between the river and the mountains. The Indians live in eyrie-like huts, perched at great heights, here and there, amongst the maize terraces. The village of Sandia is at a distance of fifteen miles from Cuyo-cuyo, down this ravine, a dilapidated little place, with more than half the houses roofless and in ruins. It is built along the banks of the river, and has a church in theplaza. The mountains rise up all round it, almost perpendicularly, forming a close amphitheatre; andin two places glittering cascades foam down from their very summits, into the bushes on a level with the town.
The descent from the summit of the pass over the Caravayan Andes to Sandia is very considerable, nearly 7000 feet in thirty miles, from an arctic to a sub-tropical climate. The height of Crucero is 12,980 feet; of the pass 13,600; of Cuyo-cuyo 10,510; and of Sandia 6930 feet above the sea.[309]
The four mountains closely hemming in the village of Sandia are mount Chicanaco, which is beautified by a splendid cascade; mount Vianaco, which ends in two fine wooded peaks, between which a long slender thread of water descends into the foliage midway; mount Camparacani, on the other side of the river, which rises up to a stupendous height, ending in a jagged rocky peak; and mount Catasuyu, which completes the circle, rising abruptly above the church. The name of Sandia is probably a corruption of the Spanish wordsandilla, the first settlers having mistaken the quantities of gourds which grow here forsandillasor water-melons.
When I arrived in Sandia the governor was absent on his estate; the cura, my good friend Dr. Guaycochea, was getting in his maize-harvest on his land near Cuzco; and the principal remaining inhabitants were the Juez de Paz, Don Francisco Farfan, and one Don Manuel Mena, who was drunk in bed when I arrived, but who afterwards received me very hospitably. These good people are, in manners and education, the roughest backwoodsmen, much too fond of aguardiente, and addicted to chewing coca to excess; but they are warm-hearted and neighbourly, while they display some energy in working the coffee and coca estates in the distant montaña, and in making roads, such as they are, from these estates to Sandia. The richer people of Sandia all have more or less of Indian blood, and their wives and daughtersare unable to speak any language but Quichua; and thus they seem to be more closely united in interests and feelings with the mass of the population than in any other part of Peru. The Indians of the district of Sandia are divided into sixayllusor tribes, besides the inhabitants of the villages of Sandia, Cuyo-cuyo, and Patambuco. Theseayllusare established on the mountains around Sandia, living in scattered huts, some cultivating maize and potatoes, others raising barley and alfalfa for mules. Theayllusare called Laqueque, about a league up the river, on the right bank; Cuyo-cuyo (not the village), behind mount Camparacani; Oruro, on the heights below Cuyo-cuyo; Quiaca (not the village), near Oruro; Quenequi, about a league down the river; and Apabuco, behind mount Catasuyu. The population of the parish of Sandia is about 7000; 4000 in Sandia and its sixayllus, 2000 in the village and ravine of Cuyo-cuyo, and 1000 in Patambuco. As many as 1000 souls fell victims to the dreadful pestilence of 1855, which raged over all parts of the Andes of Peru. Nearly every Indian family, besides land near Sandia, owns a small farm of coca or coffee down in the montaña, to which men, women, and children go at harvest-time. As in all parts of the Andes, so in the Sandia ravine, I constantly found the Indians civil, obliging, and respectful, always saluting with an "Ave Maria Taytay!" and a touch of the hat in passing. They are reserved and silent, it is true, and superficial observers take this for stupidity. Never was there a greater mistake: their skill in carving and all carpenter's work, in painting and embroidery, the exquisite fabrics they weave from vicuña-wool, the really touching poetry of their love-songs andyaravis, the traditional histories of theirayllus, which they preserve with religious care, surely disprove so false a charge.
The houses in Sandia are the merest barns, with mud-walls, and roofs which let the water in. All the family sleeptogether in a promiscuous way; pigs and fowls wandering over the floor at early dawn. The Juez de Paz, Francisco Farfan, administers justice in such a place as this, lounging on a sort of mud-platform at one end of the room, where his bed is made up, while the culprit, and a crowd of alcaldes and spectators, stand before him. Every one chatters at the same time for about ten minutes, and the prisoner is sent to the lock-up. The Jueces de Paz have to render periodical accounts of all their cases, attested by witnesses, to the Juez de Primera Instancia in the capital of the province.
While upon the subject of these local authorities, it will be well to give an account of the powers placed in their hands by the Constitution of 1856, by which Peru is now governed; both because the measures then adopted will, I believe, have a lasting and beneficial effect on the people, and because the persons so vested with power endeavoured to display their patriotic zeal by throwing obstacles in my way. By this constitution it was provided that in the capital of each department there should be aJunta Departmental,[310]the members of which should be elected in the same way and with the same qualifications as those for the National Congress, to meet every year. TheseJuntaswere to deliberate and legislate for the advancement and material progress of the departments, their decrees being null if contrary to any law of Congress. The evident objection to this measure is its tendency to split the country up into small communities with separate interests, which has always proved to be most disastrous in thinly-peopled and half-civilized states. This view is taken in a very able article on the constitution, in a periodical published at Lima, where theJuntas Departmentalesare declared to be the initiation of a system of "federation," the result of which has always been to dismember countriesinto so many small depopulated districts, as in Mexico, Central America, New Granada, and the Argentine Republic, introducing civil war, anarchy, and dissolution. The writer might now add the dis-United States of North America also.[311]
But the institutions to which I before alluded, as having had a beneficial effect, are theJuntas Municipales,[312]which were to be established in every district where materials existed to form them, and to have the regulation of the local funds and improvements. They were to consist of the most influential citizens, elected by their fellow townsmen, and were to attend to local interests, have charge of the civic registers, take the census, &c. The same writer speaks of these municipalities in terms of unqualified praise, and says that their establishment is a positive good, without in any way promoting a federation which would be ruinous to Peruvian nationality.[313]They will give young men the opportunity of becoming acquainted with public affairs, teach them habits of business, and gradually train them for more important political duties. I look upon these institutions as one of the sources of hope for a brighter future for Peru; and as long as they show activity, whether in a right or wrong direction, they must be productive of good. The habit of taking an active part in public affairs must be better than the torpor and indifference which formerly prevailed. I saw several signs of activity in theseJuntas Municipalesduring my journey from Puno. At Lampa they were actively engaged in an endeavour to re-establish a manufactory of glazed tiles in that town; in Azangaro they were collecting subscriptions for a bridge across the river, to which one of their body had contributed half the required sum; and inSandia they were drawing up a report on the state of the roads, with an estimate of the sum required for their thorough repair and bridging. I was happy to be able to assist the Sandia Municipality, by preparing a map for them, to illustrate their report. TheJuntas Municipalesof Sandia and Quiaca also, especially the latter, took measures to prevent me from procuring a supply of chinchona-plants or seeds, influenced by motives which exposed their ignorance of political economy, while it displayed their activity and patriotic zeal.
In Sandia the municipal body consists of the Alcalde Municipal, who presides, the Teniente Alcalde, the Syndic, two Judges of the Peace, three Regidores, one of whom is Don Manuel Mena, and a Secretary.
My original plan had been to examine the chinchona forests during this month, make as many meteorological and other observations as was possible, and perhaps send down a small collection of plants to the coast; but to make the principal collection of plants and seeds in August, the month when the seeds ofC. Calisayaare ripe. I had not, however, been two days in Sandia before I discovered that Martel had already written to several of the inhabitants, urging them to prevent me from taking chinchona plants or seeds out of the country, and to bring the matter before theJunta Municipalof the district. I heard also that he was busying himself in the same way in other villages bordering on the chinchona forests. My mission was becoming the talk of the whole country; and I at once saw that my only chance of success was to commence the work of collecting plants without a moment's delay, and, if possible, anticipate any measures which might be taken to thwart my designs.
It was at Sandia that it became necessary to make final preparations for a journey into the forests, for beyond this point the possibility of procuring supplies of any kind isvery doubtful. I here laid in a stock of bread to last for about a month, which was toasted in the oven belonging to the cura, the only one in the place, and which, together with some chocolate and cheese, formed the provisions for myself and the gardener. I then persuaded the judge to order the alcaldes of four of theayllusto procure four Indians and two cargo-mules, the Indians to bring their own provisions with them, for which I advanced them money. After considerable delays my little expedition was ready to start, consisting of myself, Mr. Weir the gardener, Pablo Sevallos the mestizo, four Indians, and two mules. The supplies and provisions were packed in six leathern bags, containing tea and sugar, chocolate, toasted bread, cheese, candles, concentrated beef-tea, changes of clothes, instruments, powder and shot, besides a tent, an air-bed, gutta-percha robes, ponchos, a wood-knife and trowel, and maize and salt meat for Pablo and the Indians. It took several days to complete these preparations.
The climate of Sandia, at this time of the year, is exceedingly agreeable, the days being fine and clear until late in the afternoon, and not too hot. The prevailing wind blows up the ravine from the north-east, being the trade which comes across the vast forest-covered plains of the interior. It is this warm trade-wind which produces a much milder climate and more tropical vegetation in Cuyo-cuyo than in Arequipa, though the former place is three thousand feet higher than the latter. In Sandia, just after sunset, it feels rather chilly, and during the middle of the day the sun is exceedingly hot. Light clouds generally hang about the highest peaks. The variety of most beautiful and graceful ferns on the walls of the houses, and near the banks of the river, is endless.
I had the satisfaction of seeing, in the house of Don Manuel Mena, before leaving Sandia, a bundle of small branches of theychu cascarilla(C. Calisaya, var. β Josephiana), withleaves and flowers, which had been collected as a tonic medicine for a little daughter of my host.
On the 24th of April, late in the afternoon, we left Sandia, and reached thetambo, or travellers' hut, called Cahuan-chaca, before dark. The road leads down the ravine, along narrow ledges overhanging the river, which dashes furiously along, in most places between perpendicular cliffs. The path is very narrow and dangerous, but the scenery is superb, and the vegetation becomes richer and more tropical at every league of the descent.
One of the Indians traitorously fled on the first day, and my party was thus reduced to three, who were barely able to carry the necessary provisions. These three men proved faithful and willing fellow-labourers. Their names were Andres Vilca of the OruroAyllu, Julian Ccuri of Cuyo-cuyo, and Santos Quispi of Apabuco. They were fine-looking young fellows, wearing their hair in long plaits down their backs, coarse canvas trousers and shirts. They carry the cargos in large cloths tied in bundles, and placed in other cloths, which are passed over one shoulder and tied across the chest, calledccepis. They stoop forward and step out at a great rate; and it is in this way that Indians carry their burdens along the roads, and women their children, throughout Peru. Thetamboof Cahuan-chaca is a shed, with one side open, and we slept in company with three Indians and a woman on their way to get in a coca-harvest in the Hatun-yunca, who were living very well on salt mutton, eggs, and potatoes.
The river rushing down the valley winds along the small breadth of level land, striking first against the precipitous cliffs on one side, and then sweeping over to the other, so that a road in the bottom of the valley would require a bridge at almost every hundred yards. It has, therefore, been necessary to excavate a path in the sides of the mountains, high above the river, which in some places has a breadth ofthree feet only, with a perpendicular cliff on one side, and a precipice six or seven hundred feet deep on the other; while, in others, it zigzags down amongst loose stones, where one false step would be immediate destruction. But the scenery continued to increase in beauty, and the cascades were really splendid:—