being a large ant that ate the coca-leaves, and which, when once established in a plantation, was difficult to get rid of; and another was the scarcity of labor—that it was barely to be had in the Quebrada; that he had six laborers on his hacienda; and that he was at least two thousand dollars in advance to them. This money, of

course,

had been advanced to them in the shape of supplies, and I suppose these laborers are now as effectually slaves as if they were so by law.

Nothing is sold from this valley but coca. Only sufficient coffee and surgar-cane are planted for the use of the inhabitants. Señor Martins gave us some very good caçacha, or rum made from the cane, and some tolerable pine-apples and plantains. A little cotton is cultivated, and a coarse cloth is woven by hand from it. Every old woman goes

about her household avocations with a bunch of cotton in her hand, and a spindle hanging below. I was surprised not to see any wild animals, though I am told that there are deer, hares, tiger-cats, and aniinals of the mink kind, that occasionally run off with the poultry. There are not so many birds as I expected; those I have seen are generally of a gay and rich plumage. Insect life is very abundant, and nearly all sting or bite. The climate is very pleasant, though the sun is hot in mid-day. The diseases, which occur rarely, are cutaneous affections, tabardillo, and sometimes small-pox.

We met, at Cocheros, an English botanist, named Nation, upon whose track we have been ever since leaving Lima. He was the gardener of Souza Ferreyra, the Brazilian chargé in Lima, and I believe was collecting plants for him; poor fellow! he had had a hard time of it. He lost his mule not long after leaving Lima, and walked from Surco to Moroco cha, where some kind persons supplied him with another. He has also had tertiana whenever he has gone into the Montaña. He was alone, and spoke no Spanish, but he had combated obstacles and difficulties with a spirit and perseverance deserving all praise. I was sorry for his mishaps, but could not help laughing at him a little when I observed that the bats had nearly eaten his mule up. The poor beast was covered with blood all over, and had nearly lost an eye from their bites. Mr. Nation has sent a great many specimens to Lima, and says that the "flora” of this country is rich, and almost identical with that of Brazil.

On our return from Cocheros we stopped at the house of a man who had the day before promised to sell us a fowl; with the usual want of good faith of these people, he now refused. Tjurra took the gun from my hand, and, before I was aware what he was about to do, shot a turkey. The man and his wife made a great outcry over it, and he was hurrying off, with furious gestures and menacing language, to report the matter to his patron, when a few kind words, the helping myself to a

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chew of coca out of his huallqui, or leathern bag, in which it is carried, and the offer of a dollar and a half, which before he had indignantly spurned, changed his mood, and he smiled and expressed himself satisfied, now that the thing was done and it could not be helped. I had been often told by travellers that this was frequently necessary to get something to eat, but had always set my mind resolutely against any such injustice and oppression; and I expressed my opinion of the matter to Ijurra, and requested that the like should not occur again. The elevation of Chihuangala is three thousand four hundred and twentyone feet above the level of the sea.

July 30.-At 10 a. m., when we had begun to despair of the coming of our Indians, and Ijurra was about to start alone for Tingo Maria, for the purpose of fetching them, they came shouting into the chacra, thirteen in number. They were young, slight, but muscular-looking fellows, all life and energy; and wanted to shoulder the trunks and be off at once. We, however, gave them some charqui, and set them to breakfast. At noon we started, and descended the valley of Chinchao in a N. N. E. direction; the path steep and obstructed with bushes.

At about six miles from Chihuangala we arrived at the junction of the Chinchao river with the Huallaga, in a heavy shower of rain, with thunder and lightning. By leaving the Huallaga at Acomayo, below Huanuco, crossing a range of mountains at the Cerro de Carpis, striking the head of the valley of Chinchao, and descending it, we had cut off a great bend of the river, and now struck it again at the junction of the Chinchao. It is here some sixty yards wide, and the Chinchao thirty, both much obstructed with shoals and banks of gravel. The peons waded the Huallaga above the junction, and brought up a canoe from the hacienda of Chinchayvitoc, a few hundred yards below, and on the opposite side. We passed in the canoe, which the Indians managed very well. It was a great treat, after the tedious walk we had had, to feel the free, rapid motion of the boat as it glided down the stream. The stream seemed to run at the rate of five or six miles the hour; but, by keeping close in shore, two Indians could paddle the light canoe against it very well.

Chinchayvitoc is a hacienda established by a Bolivian gentleman named Villamil, for the collection of Peruvian bark. He brought some Bolivians with him to search for the bark; but it is not to be found in this country of good quality, and the scheme seems a failure. There is a mayordomo and a family of Indians living at the hacienda, but nothing is doing. Our peons cooked our dinner of cheese and rice, and made us a good cup of coffee. These are lively, good-tempered fellows, and, properly treated, make good and serviceable travelling companions Let them but be faithfully paid, a kind word now and then spoken to them, and their cargoes rather under than over the regular weight, (eighty-seven and a half pounds,) and they will serve faithfully and honestly, and go singing and chattering through the woods like so many monkeys. Above all, let them stop when they wish, and don't attempt to hurry them.

We had Mr. Nation in company. He had collected some valuable plants, and showed me one which he said was a present for an Emperor, and that its very name would make my journal famous. I of course did not ask it of him; but was very glad to be able to repay to him, in some slight measure, the many kindnesses I have received from his countrymen, by giving him a part of my bed-clothes, and making him comfortable for the night, which he seemed to be much in need of, for he was wet and sick; and to sleep on the ground in that condition must be very dangerous. There is much moisture in the atmosphere; and I find it almost impossible to keep the guns in serviceable order.

We met at this place some Indians carrying tobacco from Tocache and Saposoa (towns of the Huallaga) to Huanuco. Enterprising men have frequently tried to establish a trade along this river, carrying down cotton goods, knives, hatchets, beads, &c., and getting returncargoes of tobacco, rice, straw hats, rare birds, and animals; but the difficulties of the route seem to have baffled enterprise. About two and a half years ago Vicente Cevallos made a large venture. He carried down thirty-five trunks or packages of goods, and the people of the river still talk of his articles of luxury; but in passing one of the malos pasos, or rapids of the river, bis boat capsized, and he lost everything.

The Indians here had blue limestone, which they were burning to mix with their coca.

July 31.-I bathed in the river before starting. This is wrong humid an atmosphere. I became chilled, and did not get over it for some hours. A native traveller in these parts will not even wash his face and hands before the sun is well up. Soon after starting we crossed a small stream, and ascended a hill that overlooks the falls of Cayumba, beyond which canoes cannot ascend. I did not see the falls, but am told that there is no cascade of height, but rather a considerably inclined plain, much obstructed by drift. Smyth says: “From hence, (the cave of Cayumba, below the falls,) we had a very picturesque view of both the Huallaga and Cayumba—the former rushing between two high perpendicular rocks, and the latter rolling down a steep ravine. They

in so

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unite with great violence at a point where there is a small island covered with trees, and roll past the cave in an impetuous torrent.”

The ascent of the hill was very tedious, and I should complain of the fatigue but for shame's sake; for there were Indians along, young and rather small men, who were carrying a burden of nearly one hundred pounds on their back. Their manner of carrying cargoes is to have a sort of cotton satchel, of open work, with a broad stout strap to it. The end of the trunk or package, which is placed on end, is put into the bag, and the Indian, sitting down with his back to it, passes the strap over his forehead, and then, with a lift from another, rises to his feet, and, bending forward, brings the weight upon the muscles of his neck and back. A bit of blanket, or old cotton cloth, protects the skin of the back from chafe. The traveller in these parts should be as lightly clad and carry as little weight as possible, for the path is very steep and muddy. I had been thoughtless enough to wear my heavy Sierra clothes, and to load myself with a gun of a greater weight, I believe,

I than a standard musket—and so had occasion to envy Ijurra his light rig of nankeen trousers and cotton shirt, long but light staff, and twilled cotton “Jeffersons."

The descent of this hill, which is nearly as tedious as the ascent, brought us to the banks of the river opposite the mal-paso of Palma. This is the first rapid I have seen, and it looked formidable enough. The river, obstructed in its rapid course, breaks into waves, which dash with thundering violence against the rocks, and rush between them in sluices of dazzling velocity. Cargoes must always be landed at this place, and carried around. The canoe, thus lightened, under skilful and practical management, may shoot the rapid; but this should not be attempted where it can be avoided. By prudence, these malos pasos (the dread of travellers) are stripped of all danger; but the Indians sometimes get drunk and insist upon the attempt; and thus these places have become the graves of many. Since my return home I have a letter from Castillo, the young man I met in Huanuco, enclosing others which were sent to him at Tarapota from Lima to be forwarded to me. He begged me to excuse the condition in which I should receive these letters, for they had been shipwrecked in their transit. “Three persons," said he, “were drowned, but the letters fortunately escaped."

Nearly all the malos pasos are at the mouth of a tributary. These, in the floods, bring down quantities of drift, with heavy boulders, which, thrown crosswise into the stream, lodge and form the obstructions. Little labor would be required to clear away the rocks, and make the river passable for canoes at least, if not for light-draught steamboats.

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The trees of the forest are large, tall, and without branches for a great distance up. Ijurra pointed out one to me, of smooth bark, about four feet diameter near the ground, and which ran up sixty or seventy feet without a branch. He said that it was so hard that it resisted all attacks of the axe; and, to get it down, it was necessary to remove the earth and set fire to the roots; and that, suffered to lie in the water for a long time, it turned to stone of so hard a character, that, like flint, it would strike fire from steel. Unfortunately for the accuracy of the statement, we next day saw gigantic trees of this species that had been felled with an axe. The wood is, however, very hard and heavy-too

— much so for any practical use here. The tree is called capirona. It has a smooth bark, which it is continually changing. The old bark is a very pretty light red; the new, a pea-green.

At half-past 4 p. m., we arrived at the Cave, a place where a huge rock, projecting from the hill-side, made a shelter which would cover and protect from dew or rain about a dozen persons. The Indian who carried my bag of bedding wished to make my bed there; but I decided that it was too damp, and made him spread it out on the shingle by the river brink. The largest part of the cargo had not arrived, and I feared that we were without drink or cigars, which would have been a great deprivation to us after the fatigue of the day. The rice and cheese were on hand; and, to our great delight, Ijurra found in his saddle-bags a bottle of cherry-brandy that Mr. Jump had insisted upon our taking from Cerro Pasco, and which I had forgotten. A tin-pan of hot boiled rice flavored with cheese, a teacup of the brandy, and half a dozen paper cigars, made us very comfortable; and, lulled by the rustling of the leaves and the roar of the river, we slept in spite of the ants and other insects that left the mark of their bites upon our carcasses. I saw here, for the first time, the luciernago, or fire-fly of this country. It is, unlike ours, a species of beetle, carrying two white lights in its eyes, (or, rather, in the places where the eyes of insects generally are,) and a red light between the scales of the belly—so that it reminded me something of the ocean steamers. It has the power of softening the light of the eyes until it becomes very faint; but upon irritating it, by passing the finger over the eyes, the light becomes very bright and sparkling. They are sometimes carried to Lima, (enclosed in an apartment cut into a sugarcane,) where the ladies, at balls or theatres, put them in their hair for ornament.

August 1.-We started, without breakfast, at a quarter to seven, thinking that we were near Tingo Maria. But it was ten miles distant, and I was weary enough ere we arrived. My principal source of annoy

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