JOURNEY FROM PUNO TO CRUCERO, THE CAPITAL OF CARAVAYA.
ON April 7th we left Puno on the road to the chinchona forests
of Caravaya. There are three modes of travelling in Peru: one by
purchasing all the required mules and employing servants; the second,
by hiring an _arriero_, or muleteer, who supplies the mules at so much
for the journey; and the third, by using the wretched animals which
are provided at the post-houses, and changing them at each stage, but
this can only be done on the main roads. The latter way, though the
least comfortable, is by far the most economical, and I therefore
determined to adopt it, yet I should probably have hesitated had I
known the trouble it would entail. I bought a fine mule for a hundred
dollars, with the gentle _paso llano_, the easiest pace imaginable, for
myself, and sent to the post-house at Puno for beasts for Mr. Weir, the
gardener who accompanied me, and for the baggage. Four vicious-looking
brutes accordingly made their appearance, and we started; but no sooner
had we reached the plain at the top of the zigzag path leading out of
Puno to the north, than they all ran away in different directions,
kicking violently. After hours of this kind of annoyance I at last got
one of the brutes into a corner of a stone-fenced field, but, just
as I was about to catch him, he gave a kick, jumped over the wall,
and went off again. It ended in our having to drag the mules by their
lassos until our arms were nearly torn out of the sockets; and thus we
ignominiously entered the village of Paucar-colla late in the evening,
a distance of only twelve miles from Puno. As for the scenery, or the
nature of the country, between Puno and Paucar-colla, I can remember
nothing but vicious mules with their hind legs kicking up in the air.
Paucar-colla is built on an eminence, surrounded by broad grassy
plains, which slope down to the shores of the lake of Titicaca. It
consists of a few streets of mud-built, red-tiled huts, ranged round
a large plaza, with a church in a dilapidated state, also of mud. At
this place I saw the last of the Aymara Indians, or at least of their
women, who can always be distinguished by their dress, which differs
from that worn by the Inca or Quichua Indians. The Aymara women wear
an _uncu_, or garment brought together over each shoulder, and secured
in the mode of the classic Greeks, with two _topus_, or large pins,
generally in the shape of spoons. The head-dress is a curiously-shaped,
four-cornered red cap, the sides curving outwards and stiff, with black
flaps suspended from it, sometimes hanging down, and at others thrown
up over the top. The Quichua dress, used by the women from here as far
as Cuzco, is quite different: they have a full woollen skirt, reaching
down half-way between the knee and ankle; a bright-coloured _lliclla_,
or mantle, over the shoulders, secured across the bosom by a single
_topu_; and as a head-dress the broad-brimmed black velvet _montero_,
with red and blue ribbons.
I left Paucar-colla early next morning, and passed by several fields of
_quinoa_ (Chenopodium quinoa), the harvest of which was just beginning.
The stalks are cut and tied up in heaps, and then the grain is beaten
out with sticks. It is used by the Indians in their universal dish,
the _chupe_, and in various other ways; but it is an insipid and not
very nutritious grain. Just beyond the village there is a stream called
the Illpa, which, in the dry season, scarcely wets the mules' hoofs;
but at this time of year it was swollen into a broad river, and it
was necessary to cross it on reed balsas, with the luggage, while the
mules swam. A very large troop of mules, laden with aguardiente, was
passing over at the same time--a long and tedious business. There are
many streams crossing these roads, which are swollen during the rainy
season, and very serious delays are thus caused for want of a few
bridges. From the Illpa to Caracoto there is a broad plain extending
to the shores of the lake, with the town or village of Hatun-colla on
one of the last spurs of the cordillera to the west.[281] This wide
expanse, in the rainy season, is swampy and half submerged. It was
covered with flocks and herds, with huts and out-buildings scattered
over it, and surrounded by mud walls. Here and there we passed pretty
little cow-girls and shepherdesses, now dressed in the Quichua, not
the Aymara, costume. Some of these little maidens, as they stood by
the wayside spinning wool, had such pretty faces, with the rosy colour
showing through their soft, brown skins, and their figures were so
graceful and dignified, that they strongly reminded me of the pictures
of young Inca princesses in the churches of Santa Anna, and of the
Jesuits, at Cuzco:--
"La vi tan fermosa
Que apenas creyera
Que fuese vaquera
De la Finojosa."
Potatoes, quinoa, and barley were cultivated in the skirts of the hills
bordering on the plain.
The village of Caracoto is at the extreme end of a long rocky spur,
running out across the plain; a street of neat mud huts, with a plaza
and dilapidated church. At the post-house a child had died, which was
set out on a table with candles burning before it, and the friends of
the postmaster were holding a wake, singing, fiddling, and drinking.
Between Caracoto and the next village of Juliaca there is another
swampy plain: most of the road was under water, and we encountered a
heavy hail-storm. The lights and shades on the cordilleras and nearer
hills, the heavy black masses of cloud in one part of the heavens, and
the sun's rays breaking through in the other, were very fine. Juliaca
is a small town built under a spur of the mountains, with a handsome
stone church. It was Easter-Sunday, and I was invited to meet all the
principal families at dinner at the house of the cura. Several Indian
alcaldes were in attendance; consequential old fellows in full dress,
consisting of broad-brimmed black felt hats, sober-coloured ponchos,
and black breeches very open at the knees, no stockings, and _usutas_
or sandals of llama-hide. The distinctive mark of the alcaldes, of
which they are very proud, is their staff of office, with silver or
brass head and ferule, and rings round it according to the number of
years the owner has held office. The Indians here wear the hair in
numbers of very fine plaits reaching half-way down their backs. An
Indian always accompanied the post-mules from one village to another,
in order to take back the return-mules; and at Juliaca, while I was
quietly enjoying the cura's hospitality, the Indians took my own mule
back to Caracoto, as well as the post-mules. Next morning, therefore,
I sent for it, and received an answer that the postmaster knew nothing
about it. I was eventually obliged, after seeing the gardener and
luggage on their way to Lampa, to go back to Caracoto, where the
postmaster was drunk and insolent; and at length I found it, with a
troop of others, on the great plain beyond Caracoto. Several Indians
took much trouble for me in catching my mule; and it was late in the
afternoon before I got back to Juliaca, and was ready to set out on my
journey to Lampa. I mention this incident in order to show the trouble
and inconvenience of acting as one's own muleteer, although such a
mode of travelling is certainly four or five times as cheap as hiring
an arriero; and I may add that the travelling by post-mules caused me
incessant annoyance and trouble. Whenever they saw a chance the vicious
brutes always ran off the road in different directions, bumped their
cargo against rocks, and tried to roll, keeping us constantly employed
in galloping after them, and greatly increasing the fatigues of the
journeys. On several occasions, too, an animal was provided which was
so weak or tired that it sank under its cargo before it had gone a
league, and obliged me to return to the post-house for another. The
adjustment and lashing of the cargos, like everything else, requires
considerable knack and skill, which is only acquired by experience; the
Indians were as ignorant in such matters as we were; and during the
first three or four journeys our troubles were increased by the cargos
constantly slipping on one side, when the mules always seized the
opportunity of rushing off the road and kicking furiously.
A few miles north of Juliaca there is a large river, formed by the
junction of those of Lampa and Cavanilla, the latter being the same
which rises in the lake on the road between Arequipa and Puno, and
flows by the post-house of La Compuerta. We crossed it in a reed
balsa while the mules swam. Beyond the river is the great plain of
Chañucahua, which was covered with large pools of water, at this
season frequented by ducks and sandpipers. Close under the mountains,
which bound it on every side, were a few sheep-farms, one of them
the property of Don Manuel Costas of Puno, and the sheep roamed at
will over many leagues of pasture-land. At the northern extremity of
the plain the road ascends and descends a range of steep hills, and,
turning a rocky spur, I came in sight of the town of Lampa. It was just
sunset; the tall church-tower rising over the town, and a stone bridge
spanning the river, were clearly defined by the crimson glow in the
western sky, while the lofty peaked mountains forming the background
were capped by masses of black threatening clouds. At that moment a
tremendous thunder-storm, with flashes of forked lightning and torrents
of rain, burst over the town.
Lampa is the capital of a province in the department of Puno, and I
was hospitably received by the Sub-prefect, Don Manuel Barrio-nuevo,
who occupied a good house in the plaza. A portion of the army of the
South was quartered in the town; and the General came every evening to
have tea with the Sub-prefect and his lady, a handsome Arequipeña. On
these occasions the party consisted of General Frisancho and several
officers, and ladies who came attended by their little Indian maids,
carrying shawls, and squatting on the floor in comers during the visit.
After tea and conversation the company generally sang some of the
_despedidas_ and love-songs of their national poet Melgar, in parts;
and one young lady sang the plaintive _yaravis_ of the Indians in
Quichua.
The church of Lampa is a large building of stone, dating from 1685,
with a dome of yellow, green, and blue glazed tiles, of which I was
informed there was formerly a manufactory in Lampa. The tower is
isolated, and about twenty yards from the church, apparently of a
different date. Rows of Indian girls, in their gay-coloured dresses,
were sitting in the plaza before their little heaps of chuñus, ocas,
potatoes, and other provisions, amongst which, at the season of
Easter, there are always great quantities of herbs gathered on the
mountains, possessing supposed medicinal virtues. Among these a fern,
called _racci-racci_, is used as an emetic; _churccu-churccu_, a small
wild oxalis, is taken as a cure for colds; _chichira_, the root of
a small crucifer, for rheumatism; _llacua-llacua_, a composita, for
curing wounds; _quissu_, a nettle, used as a purgative; _cata-cata_,
a valerian, as an antispasmodic; _tami-tami_, the root of a gentian,
as a febrifuge; _quachanca_, a euphorbia, the powdered root of which
is taken as a purgative; _hama-hama_, the root of a valerian, said
to be an excellent specific against epilepsy;[282] and many others,
the native names of which, with their uses, were given me, but I was
unacquainted with their botanical names. Generally when the name of a
plant is repeated twice in Quichua it denotes the possession of some
medicinal property.
On the morning of our departure from Lampa the ground was covered
with snow, which was slowly melting under the sun's rays. Immediately
after leaving the town the path winds up a steep mountain range
called Chacun-chaca, the sides of the precipitous slopes being well
clothed with _queñua_-trees (_Polylepis tomentella_, Wedd.), which are
gnarled and stunted, with dark-green leaves, and the bark of the trunk
peeling like that of a yew. Their sombre foliage contrasted with the
light-green tufts of _stipa_, and the patches of snow. The pass was
long and dangerous, with little torrents pouring down every rut; and on
its summit was the usual _pacheta_, or cairn, which the Indians erect
on every conspicuous point. The path descends on the other side into a
long narrow plain, with the hacienda of Chacun-chaca on the opposite
side. The buildings are surrounded by queñua-trees, and in their rear
two remarkable peaked hills rise up abruptly, clothed with the same
trees, with ridges of rock cropping out at intervals. Their sides were
dotted with cattle, tended by pretty little cow-girls, armed with
slings, and some of them playing the _pincullu_, or Indian flute. The
plain was covered with long grass, in a saturated and spongy state, and
groves of queñua-trees grew thickly in the gullies of the mountains on
either side. After a ride of several leagues over the plain, latterly
along the banks of the river Pucara, I turned a point of the road, and
suddenly came in sight of the almost perpendicular mountain, closely
resembling the northern end of the rock of Gibraltar, which rises
abruptly from the plain, with the little town of Pucara nestling at
its feet. The precipice is composed of a reddish sandstone, upwards of
twelve hundred feet above the plain, the crevices and summit clothed
with long grass and shrubby queñuas. Birds were whirling in circles at
a great height above the rock, which, in the Spanish times, was famous
for a fine breed of falcons, which were carefully guarded and regularly
supplied with meat. They tell a story at Pucara that one of these birds
was sent to the King of Spain, and that it returned of its own accord,
being known by the collar.
Pucara means a fortress in Quichua; and here Francisco Hernandez Giron,
the rebel who led an insurrection to oppose the abolition of personal
service amongst the Indians, was finally defeated in 1554. The town is
a little larger than Juliaca, with a handsome church in the same style,
and a fountain in the plaza. I dined and passed the evening with the
aged cura, Dr. José Faustino Dava, who is famous for his knowledge of
the Quichua language, in its purest and most classical form. The fame
of Dr. Dava's learning, in all questions connected with the antiquities
of the Incas and the Quichua language, had reached me in England, and I
was glad to obtain his valuable assistance in looking over a dictionary
of the rich and expressive language of the Incas, on which I had been
working for some time.
Owing to the diminution of the aboriginal population in Peru, and the
constantly increasing corruption of the ancient language, through
the substitution of Spanish for Quichua words, the introduction of
Spanish modes of expression, and the loss of all purity of style,
that language, once so important, which was used by a polished court
and civilized people, which was spoken through the extent of a vast
empire, and the use of which was spread by careful legislation, is
now disappearing. Before long it will be a thing that is past, or
perhaps fade away entirely from the memory of living generations. With
it will disappear the richest form of all the great American group of
languages, no small loss to the student of ethnology. With it will be
lost all the traditions which yet remain of the old glory of the Incas,
all the elegies, love-songs, and poems which stamp the character of a
once powerful, but always gentle and amiable race.
Unlike the English in India, the half-Spanish races of Peru have paid
little attention to the history and languages of the aborigines, within
the present century; and, if left to them, all traces of the language
of the Incas, and of the songs and traditions which remain in it,
would, in the course of another century, almost entirely disappear. A
few honourable exceptions must, however, be recorded. The late Mariano
Rivero paid much attention to the antiquities of his country, and the
results of his labours have been published at Vienna.[283] The curas
of some of the parishes in the interior, also, especially Dr. Dava of
Pucara, Dr. Rosas of Chinchero, and the Cura of Oropesa, near Cuzco,
are excellent Quichua scholars, but they are very old men, and their
knowledge will die with them.
Dr. Dava had a large collection of the finches, and other birds of the
loftier parts of the Andes, hanging in wicker cages along the wall of
his house. Amongst them were a little dove called _urpi_; the bright
yellow little songster called _silgarito_ in Spanish, and _cchaiña_ in
Quichua; the _tuya_, another larger warbler; the _chocclla-poccochi_
or nightingale of Peru; and a little finch with glossy black plumage,
pink on the back, and whitish-grey under the wings. He also had some
small green paroquets, with long tails and bluish wings, which make
their nests under the eaves of roofs, at a height of fourteen thousand
feet above the sea. At Pucara some of the inhabitants have small
manufactories for making glazed earthenware basins, pots, plates, and
cups,[284] which find an extensive market in the villages and towns of
the department of Puno, and which will probably long hold their own
against the same kind of coarse wares from Europe or the United States.
From Puno to Pucara I had travelled along the main-road to Cuzco; but,
at the latter place, I branched off to the eastward, to pass through
the province of Azangaro to that of Caravaya. The main-road continues
in a northerly direction, crosses the snowy range of Vilcañota near
Ayaviri, and descends the valley of the Vilcamayu to Cuzco. At Pucara I
left post-houses and post-mules behind me, for they only exist on the
main-roads between Arequipa, Puno, Cuzco, and Lima; henceforth I had to
depend on being able to induce private persons to let out their mules
or ponies to me.
About 500 yards from the town of Pucara is the river of the same name,
which flows past Ayaviri in the mountains of Vilcañota. It was very
full, and eighty yards across. The mules swam, and we had to cross in a
rickety balsa made of two bundles of reeds, which had to go backwards
and forwards five times before all the gear and baggage was on the
eastern side. After riding over a plain which became gradually narrower
as the mountains closed in, I began the ascent of a rocky _cuesta_,
with a torrent dashing down over huge boulders into the plain. There
was a splendid view of the distant rock of Pucara, with the snowy
peaks of the Vilcañota range behind. A league further on there was an
alpine lake, with a fine peaked cliff rising up from the water's edge.
There were many ducks and widgeons, and large coots were quietly busy,
swimming about and building their nests on little reed islands; also
jet-black ibises, with dark rusty red heads and long curved bills.
After a ride of several leagues over a grassy country covered with
flocks of sheep, I reached the summit of a range of hills, and got a
distant view of the town of Azangaro, in a plain with several isolated
steep grassy mountains rising from it, and the snowy Andes of Caravaya
in the background. After a very wearisome descent I reached the plain,
and, riding into Azangaro, was most hospitably and kindly received by
Don Luis Quiñones, one of the principal inhabitants.
The region which I had traversed between Puno and Azangaro is all of
the same character--a series of grassy plains of great elevation,
covered with flocks and herds, and watered by numerous rivers flowing
into lake Titicaca, which are traversed by several mountain-ranges,
spurs from the cordillera, which sometimes run up into peaks almost
to the snow-line, and at others sink into rocky plateaux raised like
steps above the plain. What strikes one most in travelling through
this country is the evidence of the vast population it must have
contained in the days of the Incas, indicated by the ruined remains of
_andeneria_, or terraces for cultivation, rising in every direction
tier above tier up the sides of the hills. But it is now almost
exclusively a grazing country, and the Indians, employed in tending the
large flocks of sheep, only raise a sufficient supply of edible roots
for the consumption of their families, and the market of the nearest
town. Frequently the shepherds are what are called _yanaconas_, or
Indians kept to service by the owners of the flocks, which vary from
400 to 1000 head. The condition of this class of Indians is very hard,
as they get only a monthly allowance of an _arroba_ of chuñu (frozen
potato) or quinoa, and a pound of coca, or four dollars a month in
money.
Puno, Juliaca, Lampa, Pucara, and Azangaro, are all between 12,800
and 13,000 feet above the sea. Between March 28th and April 15th, the
indications of the thermometer at these places were as follows:--
Mean temperature 52-1/2°
Mean minimum at night 37-1/4
Highest observed 58
Lowest 37
Range 21
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. _Asuan_ is "more," _carun_
"distant;" hence _Azangaro_. 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
the _sala_, 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 some mark, 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 is _par excellence_ the 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 on her 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.
[Illustration: 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 the _Sondor-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 of _stipa 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, netted together 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 their _patios_,
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 fine _oliva silvestre_ and _queñua_
trees, 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
leagues we 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,
between high 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 plants _Pimentelia_,
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 Don Pablo
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.
Puno to Paucar-colla 9 miles.
" Caracoto 18 "
" Juliaca 6 "
" Lampa 21 "
" Pucara 27 "
" Azangaro 16 "
" San José 18 "
" Crucero 36 "
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