CHAPTER XI._Peru as It Is, Volume 1 (of 2) A Residence in Lima, and Other Parts of the Peruvian Republic, Comprising an Account of the Social and Physical Features of That Country

Account of another route between Pasco and Lima, by Junin,

Huaypacha, Pucara, Tucto.—Mines of Antacona, Casapalca,

Pomacancha, San Mateo, San Juan de Matucana, Surco, Cocachacra,

Santa Ana, and lastly, Chaclacayo.—Enumeration of a series

of rocks, as they appear in succession from the pass of the

Cordillera to the entrance into the Vale of Rimac.

The most frequented route between Lima and Pasco is that which we have

described in the foregoing chapter; but, before we offer any particular

account of Cerro Pasco, we may hastily run over the road which is

sometimes taken from this place to the capital during the heavy falls of

the periodical rains in the inland mountains, when several of the rivers

on the road by Canta are deep and dangerous rapids. This route across a

pass of the Cordillera at Tucto, near Yauli, is occasionally preferred,

as being shorter than the post-road by Tarma.

The traveller, who starts at an early hour from Cerro Pasco, passes

by the villages of Old Pasco and Carhuamayo, and arrives in good time

at the village of Junin, or Reyes. The ride is mostly by the lake of

Chinchaycocha, and on pampa or nearly level ground. From Junin, he,

on his second day’s journey, which is only counted as seven leagues,

traverses the spacious plain of the same name, so justly memorable in

the annals of South American independence, till he reaches that swampy

ground, and crosses the very defile, where, in the year 1824, the

Patriots were charged by the Spanish cavalry; and now, leaving this

field of glory behind, he crosses to Huaypacha along a hilly pastoral

district, with scarcely any regular footpath,—a circumstance which often

renders a guide necessary. The silver ore of Huaypacha is too poor in

the present day to allow its mines to be worked with spirit. Here the

principal metalliferous works are on the mine estate of Olevegoya and

the well-informed Don Miguel Otero; where also a considerable portion of

alcaser, or green barley, is raised as fodder for the cattle employed

at the works. The entrance into Huaypacha is highly picturesque, from

the striking configuration of the limestone rocks in which the silver is

deposited, and which overhang and everywhere surround this neat mining

village.

From Huaypacha we cross the river Jauja, over a soga-bridge of the same

sort of materials with another at Oroya formerly described.[30] The

next day’s ride, of about the same length with the preceding, is made

over hilly pasture-ground to Tucto by Pucara,—the latter place, now in

ruins, being once a famous mining establishment belonging to Don Pedro

Arriarte, the great miner of Peru. At Tucto several Indian huts, and some

of them of ridiculously small dimensions, are to be seen near the road;

but lower down, and situated near a lake at the base of the Cordillera,

is a mining estate in good order, though its mines in these latter times

have proved ruinous to the miner. The soil around this estate is of a

yellowish tint, and is said to abound in gold (a gold mine being also

close to the house); and the stones by the road-side are, in numerous

instances, covered with crusts of iron pyrites, which impart to them a

beautiful appearance, such as, in the imagination of many unacquainted

with mineralogy, may serve to give a very flattering idea of the golden

treasure of this place.

On the heights of Tucto, to the extent of about half a league along the

Cordillera, the surrounding rocks appear like vast masses of rusty iron,

which, however, when a specimen is taken up and broken, presents the

character of porphyry; but, as we proceed onward towards the summit of

the Cordillera, no rocks are to be seen on the acclivity along which we

travel, except we look high up, where, in form of mouldering projections,

they rise amidst the débris which covers this part of the Cordillera

down to the verge of the lakes beneath. The mule-road is a sort of track

across the flank of this mass of loose and shuffling fragments, which

consist of porphyry, and extend a considerable way towards Antacona, or

the ruins of a mining village so called, on the very highest ridge of

this mountain-pass. From the extent of the vestiges of industry still

remaining, and the ruins of human dwellings seen among the weather-beaten

cliffs, we may infer that these mines, like many others, abandoned for

want of proper hydraulic machinery, at one time yielded useful metals and

rich returns. On the Antacona side of the pass there is no appearance

of permanent snow, for here, as on the plains, though it fall, it soon

melts away; but just opposite, parallel to the line of road, and only

separated by a marshy hollow in which several little lakes are contained,

there are mountains or summits perpetually covered with snow of great

depth, and the marsh and lakes just mentioned are supplied by rills which

descend from the snow. At the mouths of the mines of Antacona, which are

interspersed among rocks of porphyry or porphyritic green-stone, a great

quantity of rubbish, extracted at a remote period from under ground, is

to be seen. Among this rubbish there appears a large quantity of iron

pyrites with quartz, and there is also a considerable quantity of loose

calcareous matter separated from the ore by partial decomposition. We may

mention that the famous mine of Alpamina, wrought in the present day in

this vicinity, is embedded in a matrix of limestone.

Having descended some way from the cross on the highest point of the pass

of Antacona, the surrounding rock (probably a variety of porphyry) has a

reddish appearance, and is continued for a considerable distance to the

village of Casapalca; and the soil also, at this part of the way, is of

the same colour with the rock. We may likewise remark, that about the

road-side, and in the river or mountain-stream, which is derived from

the contribution of the numberless rivulets issuing from the heights,

we see for the distance of about two leagues numerous large and small

pudding-stones of the same reddish appearance.

Casapalca, distant by common reckoning two long leagues from Tucto, is

now considered as a village or pueblo, though it appears to have been

originally merely a mining establishment. Here the attention is arrested

by a pretty cascade, which, making a great perpendicular descent, is

received into the interior of a jutting rock; and, after a subterranean

passage of some extent, the concealed waters reappear, and in a gentle

stream descend to join the river. From the foot of the Cordillera to

Casapalca the llama thrives on the pasture, which it appears to find

sweetest within a short distance of the snow-line.

From Casapalca to the next village below it, called Pomacancha or

Chicle, there are two leagues of good road; and here green barley may

be sometimes had to feed the hungry cattle, that are often nearly

famished by the time they have arrived this far, after having crossed the

Cordillera.

From Chicle to San Mateo, a distance of three leagues, there are

two roads,—one by a famous steep or cuesta, and the other through a

picturesque but rugged ravine along the windings of the river,—both

of which we took notice of in describing the general features of the

Sierra. San Mateo is a muleteer village like that of Obrajillo already

described, and very much resembles it in climate and productions, though

the temperature of the air may be a little colder here than at Obrajillo.

In crossing by the high mountain-path from Chicle to San Mateo, we

observed that where the ascent commences on the higher side, or that

nearest the Cordillera, the rock at the base of the mountain consists of

porphyry; but, as we ascend the great cuesta, the precipice assumes the

character of porphyritic green-stone. At the base of the descent on the

lower, or San Mateo side of the mountain, there is by the road-side a

projection of rock which has the appearance of mica-slate, but of which

none of our travellers took up a specimen; as by this time the day was

far gone, and both men and cattle were fatigued, and anxious to reach the

lodgings for the night in time to provide convenient accommodation.

From San Mateo to the next stage, or the village of San Juan de Matucana,

the distance is four very long leagues, mostly through a narrow and

rock-bound ravine.

About a quarter of a league below San Mateo, green-stone rock discovers

itself by the way-side; and, soon after we pass this crag, we cross

the first of three bridges that are thrown over the river within the

distance of little more than half a league between the first and last,

on account of the narrowness of the ravine, that sometimes on the one

side, sometimes on the other, hardly leaves space for a mule-road. Before

crossing, in our descent, the first bridge, the rock is of limestone;

but, on having at this place passed the water to the opposite side, the

rock which presents itself is trap, and it continues nearly all the way

from the first to the third or lowest bridge, where we meet with quartz,

rising in very perpendicular and lofty masses. The rafters of the bridge

rest on a projecting part of this towering cliff on the one side, and on

the other on a corresponding projection of a formidable hill of porphyry

opposed to it.

The next variety of rock is one of trap formation; it appears about

half-way between San Mateo and Matucana, and throws off a great quantity

of fragments of a slaty appearance. On the lower side it is flanked by a

hill of porphyritic green-stone, which continues to within half a league

of Matucana. This mass also throws off an immense quantity of débris.

The porphyritic green-stone is followed by trachyte porphyry, the rock

of which commences a short way above the village of Matucana, or San

Juan de Matucana; but, before the junction of these rocks takes place,

the road-way is intersected by a wedge or angle composed of syenetic

green-stone, or porphyry with actynolite.

Having left Matucana (which is a considerable village enjoying a mild

atmosphere, with some open ground around it,) for Surco, two or three

leagues lower down, porphyry continues all the distance between these two

villages. It throws off large fragments or masses, that nearly block up

the road and bed of the river.

Surco is a small village, which possesses the temperature of Yaso on

the Canta road; and, like it, is notorious for its waters producing the

disease called verrugas, or warty excrescences. From Surco to a league

and a half, or thereabouts, below it, we have trachyte porphyry; and,

as we ride along, it becomes gradually coarser-grained, till each grain

at length appears as large as a hazel-nut. It is succeeded by felspar

porphyry, which extends along the side of the ravine in which we travel

to the extent of about two leagues and a half, or a league below the

village called Cocachacra, situated three leagues lower down the river

or ravine than Surco. Cocachacra, within twelve leagues of the capital,

is surrounded by fruit-trees; and here the traveller may recline at his

ease in the grateful shade, while refreshment may be procured for man and

beast.

From one league below Cocachacra we have syenite extending the distance

of half a league by our way. It is followed by syenetic granite, and

continues for some distance with a varying aspect, till it runs gradually

into the coarse granite, which also appears in large loose blocks heaped

on the face of the naked mountains between Saint Ana and Chaclacayo as we

enter the headland of the Vale of Rimac.

The above-named villages of Chaclacayo (six leagues from the city),

Cocachacra, Surco, Matucana, and San Mateo, afford successive stages,

and gradations of changes of air and climate to invalids from Lima,

who are too enfeebled, or otherwise find it not convenient, to proceed

beyond San Mateo, or to cross the Cordillera by Yauli for Tarma, nineteen

leagues to the north-east of San Mateo.

FOOTNOTES

[1] In Piura the temperature of the air, in summer, ranges from 80°

to 96°, and in winter from 70° to 81°, Fahrenheit. The sea-breeze, or

southerly wind, which commences to be felt about ten o’clock in the

forenoon, is here hailed as the messenger of health by the natives, who

are never visited by any sweeping and fatal epidemics.

[2] Lima is situated in lat. 12° 2´ south, and long. 76° 58´ west. It

stands six or seven miles inland from its sea-port of Callao, and the

more elevated part of the city is about five hundred feet above the level

of the sea. It has frequently suffered from earthquakes, which are very

common; and one of the most remarkable occurred in the year 1828. Houses

of one story have their walls usually composed of sun-burnt bricks called

_adobes_; but, that they may be better able to resist the shocks to which

they are so often exposed, they are principally constructed, when of more

than one story high, of wood and cane: the whole work, inside and out,

being plastered over with clay, and white-washed or painted.

[3] The Rimac divides the city of Lima from its suburbs of San Lazaro,

and has over it an excellent bridge close to the palace. This bridge,

accommodated with recesses and seats, is greatly resorted to in fine

evenings. The young ladies of the metropolis, in their imposing evening

party or tertulia attire and decoration, are fond, in times of public

tranquillity, to saunter to the bridge on moonlight nights, and there to

breathe the pure air of mountain and sea blended and eddying as it gives

freshness to the pale cheek, and, in its cool and circling current, wafts

fragrance from the choice flowers at this social hour gracefully wreathed

around the Rimac beauties’ heads.

[4] We shall have, by and by, further occasion to speak of Amencaes,

where there grows a handsome yellow flower of the same name, which on the

first approach of slight showers and vapours, at the commencement of the

wet season on the coast, is the pioneer of vegetation; as the primrose,

in our own glens, presages the returning verdure of spring.

[5] The proportion which the different sexes, castes, and conditions, &c.

of the inhabitants of Lima bore to one another in the year 1818, may be

learned from the subjoined summary taken from the census of Juan Baso,

Oidor.

+----------------+-------------+-------+---------------+----------------+

+----------------+-------------+-------+---------------+----------------+

| | | | | |

| | | | | |

| | | | | |

| | | | | |

| | | | | |

|Id. slaves 4705|In wards 4662| — | — | 3884 Id. |

| ------| ------| ------|------ |------ |

| 22,883| 27,545| 54,098|26,553 |26,553 |

+----------------+-------------+-------+---------------+----------------+

To convey a more particular idea of the different races of people in

Lima, as these are divided and subdivided, and change in colour by

intermixing with one another, we shall add tables on the subject, given

by Dr. Unanue, in his work titled “Observaciones sobre el clima de Lima.”

+----------------------+------------+---------+----------------------+

+---------+------------+------------+---------+----------------------+

| Men. | Women. | | | |

+---------+------------+------------+---------+----------------------+

+---------+------------+------------+---------+----------------------+

The same author gives the following as the retrograde intermarriages, by

which the offspring are of a more dingy appearance, and made to recede

more and more from white, which he takes as the standard primitive colour.

Marriages. Offspring. Colour.

Negro, Negress, Negro.

Negro, Mulatta, Zambo, 3/4 negro, 1/4 white.

Negro, Zamba, Dark Zambo, 7/8 negro, 1/8 white.

Negro, Dark Zambo, Negro, 15/16 negro, 1/16 white.

Negro, China, Zambo.

[6] This idea is not founded on experience; for that the Indian women are

really good nurses is proved by the fact, that the offspring of European

fathers and Indian mothers,—viz. the Mestizo race,—are very robust.

[7] See Appendix, Art. Ecclesiastical Jubilee.

[8] This dress, peculiarly characteristic of Lima, is little known in

other parts of the country, if we except Truxillo. Captain Basil Hall in

his Journal, vol. i. p. 106, describes it very correctly. “This dress,”

says he, “consists of two parts, one called the saya, the other the

manto. The first is a petticoat, made to fit so tightly, that, being at

the same time quite elastic, the form of the limbs is rendered distinctly

visible. The manto, or cloak, is also a petticoat; but, instead of

hanging about the heels, as all honest petticoats ought to do, it is

drawn over the head, breast, and face; and is kept so close by the hands,

which it also conceals, that no part of the body, except one eye, and

sometimes only a small portion of one eye, is perceptible.”

We may observe that, though strange pranks are sometimes indulged in

under this disguise, yet it is considered, by those accustomed to it,

a convenient dress in itself, in a country where it is usual to hear

morning mass before there has been time to braid and adjust the hair,

which is sometimes so long as almost to reach the pretty foot and ancle.

It is therefore considered a convenience by women of every class, and

even of every age, to slip over their ordinary house-dress a saya and

manto when they desire to go to the street “tapada,” or with the head

and face covered with the thin silken petticoat or manto as described,

without being put to the trouble of appearing dressed in a more elegant

and formal manner, or after European fashion, as they do at evening

parties, or when they frequent places of public amusement,—as the theatre

or bull-ring, and promenade in calashes or carriages in their different

alamedas, or public walks. In allusion to the custom of going veiled in

the street, the true Limeña lady is agreeably characterized by their

common saying,

En la calle, calladita;

En la casa, señorita.

[9] The following lines, penned by an ancient Spanish poet, are so

exactly descriptive of Lima, as the paradise of women, that one might

imagine they had been written to describe it.

“Aqui gobierna y siempre goberno

Aquella reina que en la mar nacio.

Aqui su cetro y su corona tiene

Y desde aqui sus dadivas reparte,

Aqui su ley y su poder mantiene

Mucho mejor que en otra cualquier parte.”

“Sobre una fresca y verde y grande vega

La casa de esta reina esta asentada:

Un rio al deredor toda la riega,

De arboles la ribera esta sembrada,

La sombra de los cuales al sol niega

En el solsticio la caliente entrada;

Los arboles estan llenos de flores

Por do cantando van los ruiseñores.”

_Rimas Antig. Castellanas._

[10] The ancient Indian temple of Pachacamac is situate about six leagues

from Lima on a sandy height, now deprived of irrigation, which overlooks

the delicious vale of Lurin. From this adoratory the sun is seen as he

sinks in majesty under the face of the ocean—when

“O’er the hush’d deep the yellow beam he throws,

Gilds the green wave, that trembles as it glows.”

BYRON.

[11] The yanacones usually possess from their employers a small piece of

land which they cultivate for their own use, and in return give to the

masters one or two days’ labour weekly for this holding of the estate

or farm. On other days they have a right to demand payment in money,

according to the current rate of wages in their district.

[12] The following very scholar-like inscription for the English

burial-ground, his countrymen owe to our accomplished and excellent

friend, Mr. Thomas Lance of Lima:—

Degentes per hæc loca

Britanni,

auspice suo Consule

Belford Hinton Wilson,

gratissimoque hujus Reipublicæ

concessu et beneficio,

è communibus copiis,

Regiâ, censente Senatu, auctis munificentiâ,

hoc Cœmeterium

struxerunt, sacraveruntque,

A. D. ——:

ut, posthac,

suæ gentis

qui procul à patriâ, longinquâ hâc scilicet,

sed amicissimâ terrâ,

supremum obierint diem,

spe fideque patrum innixi,

in his sedibus

requiescant.

[13] See Appendix.

[14] See paper in vol. ii. of Mercurio Peruano for July 1791; and the

Inaugural Oration on opening the Anatomical Amphitheatre, inserted, for

February 1793, in vol. vii. of same work.

[15] Unanue, “Sobre el Clima de Lima,” p. 313.

[16] Sheriff John Wood, the gratuitous and philanthropic teacher of the

Sessional School of Edinburgh.

[17] Homer must have visited Lima, either in the body or in the mind,

when he penned those beautiful lines which so precisely describe it, and

are thus translated by Pope:

Stern winter smiles on that auspicious clime:

The fields are florid with unfading prime:

From the bleak pole no winds inclement blow,

Mould the round hail, or flake the fleecy snow;

But from the breezy deep the blest inhale

The fragrant murmurs of the western gale.

_Odyssey_, Book iv. l. 767.

[18] “Cruachan,” the loftiest mountain in Argyleshire, well known to

tourists in Scotland.

[19] By this embrace the victorious troops under General Bermudes forsook

his cause, and at once terminated hostilities by changing sides and

declaring themselves soldiers of Orbegoso and the republic, which they

ratified by embracing the troops that fled before them on the day of

battle.

[20] On the day a curate performs church service, he does not breakfast

until after mass.

[21] We say “Romish policy,” because on this subject St. Paul’s precept

is,

Quod si non se continent nubant.

[22] When the Spaniards took possession of Peru, the monarchy of the

Incas, according to the tradition of the Indians, ascended to an epoch of

about four centuries.

“That country had been, time immemorial, inhabited by scattered, rude,

and savage tribes, whose civilization originated from the austral

regions, among the people who inhabited the vicinity of the great lake

of Titicaca, in the district of Callao. These Indians were probably more

warlike, active, and intelligent than their neighbours; and as there is

scarcely any people who do not, either from pride or superstition, trace

themselves to a heavenly origin, so did the Peruvians relate, that there

once suddenly appeared among them a man and woman, whose aspect, dress,

and language inspired them with wonder and veneration. He called himself

Manco Capac, she Mama Oello; and they proclaimed themselves children of

the sun, whose worship and adoration they inculcated.”

“The kingdom remained in the line of their descendants, who were ever

regarded as the pure race of the sun; the princes marrying their sisters,

and the offspring of these unions being alone eligible to the throne.

From Manco to Huayna Capac they counted a succession of twelve princes,

who, partly by persuasion and partly by arms, extended their religion,

dominion, and laws, through the immense region which runs from Chili to

the Equator, gaining or subduing all the people they encountered, either

in the mountains of the Cordilleras, or on the plains of the coast. The

Inca who most extended the empire was Topa Yupanqui, who carried his

conquests southward as far as Chili, and on the north to Quito; although,

according to most authors, it was not he who conquered the latter

province, but his son Huayna Capac, the most powerful, wealthy, and able

of all the Peruvian princes.”

“In his reign were established, or greatly perfected, three grand mediums

of communication, necessary to provinces so distant and various,—the

use of a general dialect, the establishment of posts for the prompt

conveyance of intelligence, and lastly, the two great roads which extend

from Cuzco to Quito, a distance of more than five hundred leagues. Of

these two roads one passes over the Sierras, the other crosses the

plains, and both were provided, at proper and convenient distances, with

lodgings or quarters, which were called tambos, where the monarch, his

court, and army, even though amounting to twenty or thirty thousand men,

might find rest and refreshment, and even renew, if necessary, their arms

and apparel.”—See pages 158-161 of the interesting work entitled, “Lives

of Balboa and Pizarro, from the Spanish of Don Manuel Josef Quintana,” by

Mrs. Hodson.

[23] To separate wheat and barley from the ear, it is customary to tread

the grain by oxen or young cattle.

[24] The Indian gardens on the hills of the Sierra are by the Spaniards

called _Andenes_, whence Andes.

[25] Cuzco, situate in latitude 13° 32´ 20´´ S. in a cool and bracing

climate, in the midst of a valley, between the eastern and western chains

of Cordillera, has in its vicinity warm and fertile ravines or glens.

It is said to have been founded by Manco Capac, the first Inca, in the

middle of the eleventh century; and Francis Pizarro took possession of

it, in the name of Charles I. King of Castile, on the 13th March 1534.

In the year 1590, this celebrated capital of the old Peruvian empire

suffered from a violent earthquake, which ruined a great part of its

ancient monuments. The architecture of the great Temple of the Sun, and

fortress, close to the city, still exhibit a different style of masonry

from that which we have described above, and is most usual in the

Sierra of Peru, where there are numerous ruins of villages and tambos,

constructed with stone of very ordinary size. But, at Cuzco, the ruins

of the temple and fortress yet remaining are formed of stones of vast

magnitude, and of irregular shapes; yet, so exactly are they adjusted,

that no void, or cement, is visible at their points of junction.

[26] Commentarios Reales de los Incas, lib. viii. cap. xii.

[27] Corral means a cattle pen.

[28] Ignorant of this, and believing no roof to be near under which to

take shelter, we have known travellers obliged to pass the night very

miserably, and with no small risk of health, on the plain, or by the

cascade at the base of the Viuda.

[29] The name of this place is very appropriate, as it implies the fare

it affords. _Casa_ is the Spanish word for house, and _cancha_ is the

Quichua name for toasted Indian corn: hence Casa-cancha, or the House of

Toasted Maize.

[30] See p. 241.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,

Dorset Street, Fleet Street.

Peru as It Is, Volume 1 (of 2) A Residence in Lima, and Other Parts of the Peruvian Republic, Comprising an Account of the Social and Physical Features of That Country · 第 11 / 11 章