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tabardillo. Pleurisies are said to be cured by taking an infusion of mullaca, an herb which grows in the neighborhood. It has very small leaves, and gives a small, round, red fruit.

There is no cultivation in this neighborhood, with the exception of a little barley, which gives no grain, but is cut for fodder. The market, however, is well supplied from Huanuco, and the neighboring valleys. Expenses of living are great, particularly where articles of luxury from the coast are used.

July 12.-I visited some of the haciendas for grinding the ores. These mills are also rude. A horizontal water-wheel turns an upright axis, which passes up through a hole in the centre of the lower stone. The upper stone is bolted to the side of the axis, and is carried round on its edge upon the lower one. A very small stream of water trickles continually on the stones, and carries off the ground ore into a receptacle below, prepared for it, where the water drains off, and leaves the harina to be carried to the circo. A pair of stones will grind nearly a caxon a day. A stone of granite, nine feet in diameter, and twenty inches thick, costs, delivered, one hundred and thirty-five dollars. It will wear away in six or seven months so as to be unfit for an upper stone; it then answers for a lower one.

I had a visit from an enthusiastic old gentleman, the Intendente of Pozuzu, who says that he is about to memorialize Congress for funds and assistance to carry on a work which he has himself commenced— that is, the opening of a road from the Cerro direct to Pozuzu, without taking the roundabout way by Huanuco. He says that he is practically acquainted with the ground; that it is nearly all pampa, or plain; (people told us the same thing of the road between Tarma and Chanchamayo;) and that part of it is over a pajonal, or grassy plain, where there will be no forest to clear. He says that when the road is opened from the Cerro to Pozuzu, and thence to Mayro, (the head of navigation on the Pachitea,) communication may be had and burdens carried between the Cerro and Mayro in four days; also, that roads may run to the southward from Pozuzu, over a plain, by which the commerce of foreign countries, coming up the Amazon, may reach Tarma, Jauxa, and all the towns of the Sierra.

This is the day-dream of the Peruvians of that district. They know the difficulties of the Cordillera passage, and look earnestly to the eastward for communication with the world. Though this gentleman is led away by his enthusiasm, and probably misstates, yet I think he is in the main correct; for between the Cerro and Mayro there is but one range of the Andes to pass to arrive at the Montaña, (as is also the case

between Tarma and Chanchamayo;) whereas, by the route through Huanuco there are at least two, and these very broken, elevated, and rugged. I think that the Ucayali affords the best means of communication with the interior of Peru, and my impression is that it is best approached by the way of Chanchamayo. 1 hinted this, but my friend hooted at the idea; and I find the same jealousy in him that I found in the Tarma people. Both here and there they say it will be a great day for them when the Americans get near them with a steamer.

July 13.-I had unfortunately selected a feast-day, and one, too, on which there was a regular bull fight, (the first that had been seen in the Cerro,) for my departure, and found great difficulty in getting off. The muleteers I had engaged were drunk at an early hour, and not making their appearance, I had to send the police after them. It is really curious to observe how entirely indifferent to the fulfilment of a promise these people are, and how very general the vice is. These muleteers had given me the strongest assurances that they would be at my door by daylight, and yet when they made the promise they had not the slightest idea of keeping it. The habit seems to be acquiesced in and borne with patience by even the true and promise-keeping English. My friend, Mr. Jump, did not sympathize in the least with my fretfulness, and seemed surprised that I expected to get off.

I desire to express my thanks to him, and the amiable members of his family, Mr. and Mrs. Biggs, for those kind attentions that cheer the heart and renew the energies of the worn wayfarer.

CHAPTER VI.

Departure from Cerro Pasco-Mint at Quinua-San Rafael-Ambo-QuicacanHuanuco-Cerro de Carpis-Chinchao valley-Huallaga river.

By cajoling, and threats of appeal to the military, (a small military force is stationed here as a police,) we got our drunken vagabonds to "load up" and set off by half-past 1 p. m. One of them gave us the slip at the outskirts of the town. The other wished to look him up, or at least to get the key of a tambo where two spare mules belonging to them were locked up; but we would not hear of it, and driving the loaded mules on, he was fain to follow. The deserter joined us at our stopping-place for the night, but on finding the condition of things he had to return to the Cerro for his missing beasts.

Almost immediately on leaving the Cerro, and ascending the hills that encircled it on the north, we came in sight of the Eastern Andes, which is here a Cordillera, for it has many abrupt and snow-clad peaks. Close at hand, on the left, was a spot of marshy ground, which had some interest for us, as we were not to quit the waters which we saw trickling in tiny streams from it, until, swelled by many others, they pour themselves into the Atlantic by a mouth one hundred and eighty miles broad. This is the source of the Huallaga, one of the head tributaries of the Amazon.

Seven miles in a N. N. E. direction, and passing many haciendas for the grinding of ore, brought us to the village of Quinua, where a mint was established several years ago, but is now abandoned. The machinery for coining is much better than any I have seen in South America. It was made by a Boston man, named Hacket, who also made nearly all the machinery for the sugar-mills near Huanuco. There are gold mines in this neighborhood, but I think they are not worked. This village is just at the point where, leaving the sterility of the Cerro, we fall in with bushes and flowers.

Four miles further we stopped for the night at a hacienda called Chiquirin, which appears once to have been flourishing, but which is now nearly abandoned, being only tenanted by an old man to take care of the house. The bridge, which crossed the stream in front of the house, had had arched gateways at each end; and a respectable-looking church occupied one side of the patio. A field or two of barley is all the cultivation now about it. Indeed, there seemed little room for

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