Descent from Pasco to Huanuco.—Succession of
works for grinding and amalgamating silver
ore.—Quinoa.—Cajamarquilla.—Huariaca.—San Rafael.—Ambo.—Vale
of Huanuco; its beauties and advantages.—State of agriculture
in this vale, and traffic with Pasco.—The College named La
Virtud Peruana.—Steam navigation on the river Huallaga, and
civilization of the wild Indians of the Montaña.—Natural
productions of the Montaña.
Some of the valleys in Peru, like that by Obrajillo and Canta, extend
from the coast to the Cordillera: some are only a few leagues of rapid
descent from the puna or lofty table-land, as Tarma, for example, from
the heights of Junin; but others sink deeply into the bosom of the
central Andes, or dip under the brow of the Montaña, as, for example,
Guarrigancha and Huanuco, of the latter of which we purpose to offer a
more particular account.
Huanuco is not to be confounded with the ancient town called Leon de
Guanuco, of which the remarkable remains are still well worth visiting on
the high pasture-land of Huamalies: for the city now called Huanuco, or,
as some write it, Guanuco, is in a delightful valley, twenty-two leagues
in a north-easterly direction from the mines of Cerro Pasco, with a
descent of about seven thousand feet; thus situated, as nearly as may be,
half-way in respect to altitude between Cerro Pasco and the ocean.
In the first three leagues of our descent from the mines to the vale, we
pass by a number of mills for grinding metal, preparatory to its being
mixed with salt and quicksilver for the purpose of amalgamation. These
are situated in a narrow rocky glen; the rugged road through it lying
often along the bed of the stream that wanders down it, putting a great
many mills successively in motion as it is directed into troughs or
canals leading to the clumsy machinery of the haciendas, to which the
ore is conducted at great trouble and expense, on the backs of mules,
donkeys, and llamas.
From the village of Quinoa, only three leagues from Cerro, and once
celebrated for its gold mine, to the village of Cajamarquilla, two
leagues lower down, the road is furrowed, deep, and miry during the wet
season; but the pasture-grounds are good, and upon these the cattle of
the miners are sent to feed at small expense. From two to three leagues
below Cajamarquilla, of which we took notice in our account of Cerro
Pasco, is Huariaca, a small town with a large plaza, or square, and very
good houses. This town is the centre of a curacy and seat of a governor,
with a climate analogous to that of Obrajillo on the road between Lima
and Cerro, or Cerro Pasco, formerly noticed. Its artificial productions
are also the same as we formerly mentioned, viz. maize, wheat, beans,
potatoes, &c.; but here natural vegetation is more luxuriant, and the
air exceedingly benign: the frosts are seldom so keen as to blight or
wither the parks of lucern, and troublesome heat is unknown. Huariaca is
endeared to the memory of many a Cornish miner, who lost his health in
Cerro Pasco, and at this rendezvous for convalescence rejoiced in the
smiling aspect of nature, and enjoyed the delightful feeling of returning
health. The writer, in common with several of his countrymen, has to
lament the premature death of the curate of this place, Dr. Don Pablo de
Marticurena; whose intelligence, hospitality, and amiable disposition
rendered him an object of love and respect, while his house was the home
of the traveller, and the abode of charity, without distinction of creed
or country. A league below Huariaca, we cross a bridge placed over the
small river of Cono or Pallanchacra, a short distance above which is the
famous tepid mineral well of Cono; to which, as it is in a temperate
little glen, the sick have frequent recourse. On the banks of this stream
we have peaches in perfection and plenty; and as we approach towards
the village of Saint Rafael, a few leagues lower down, we are amused by
looking up at heights topped with Indian hamlets, and at little flats and
declivities under crop of wheat and potatoes, &c. and, near the river,
maize. The temperature of Saint Rafael is delicious, and this locality is
free from any endemic disease.
From Saint Rafael to Ambo is a distance of several leagues of hard road,
sometimes running close to the river’s edge, often running along the
steep, and with its rocky staircases and narrow passes subjected in time
of rains to be blocked up by large stones and small trees, carried down
by the mountain torrents. Where the glen expands towards the hill-tops,
but closes so narrowly below as only to give room for the channel of
the river, we find the road at certain narrows carried along the face
of the rock; and here the craggy projections serve as supporters for
poles or rafters extending along the intervening gaps, and covered with
flags or brushwood laid on and coated with a little earth, thus forming
an extremely awkward and narrow bridgeway suspended over the stream. At
Ambo, nine leagues lower down than Huariaca, the aspect of the country
is changed. Here the loud chirping (for it cannot be called croaking) of
little frogs heard by night—the granadilla in elegant flowering festoons
seen by day on the pacay and lucuma tree, tell the warm and thirsty
traveller that he has come to the land of “guarapo,”[7] where he may
enjoy the cool of the corridor, and cast off the load of his Sierra
ponchos and heavy clothing.
From Ambo to the city of Huanuco we have five leagues of a charming ride;
and from Ambo downwards, the Vale of Huanuco may be said to commence.
In this vale the writer resided for three years. The year is, as usual,
divided into the wet and dry seasons, observing the same periods of
change as we have already noticed to belong to the seasons on the high
Sierra. In this valley, however, snow never falls, except on the summits
of the highest hills; and the thermometer of Fahrenheit is seldom seen to
rise above 72° in the shade of the veranda, or wide-spreading fig-tree.
In the hottest day, when every little stone on the surface of the
newly-turned field glistens in the sunbeams, so as to torment the sight,
the thermometer rises very high on being exposed in the open air to the
direct rays of the sun; but, upon being removed into the shade, it again
falls to a very few degrees above 70°; and scarcely ever throughout
the whole year is it seen to sink under 66° of the night thermometer
placed within doors,—thus manifesting an equability of atmospherical
temperature altogether as extraordinary as it is benignant. So small,
then, is the range of the thermometer in this fine locality, that the
state of the internal circulation of our frame is but little disturbed
by sudden changes induced by vicissitudes of temperature. To the uniform
mildness of its atmosphere it may be principally owing that pulmonary
consumption is as little a disease of this favoured locality as ague;[8]
for we never, during the period of three years that we resided here, had
occasion to know of a single instance in which this disease originated
in the valley; but those who, by residing in other situations, had
their lungs nearly wasted by consumption and spitting of blood, have, in
different parts of this valley, found a temporary asylum which afforded
a prolongation of life when entire restoration to health was physically
impossible. The climate is sometimes complained of as too dry, it being
only during the rainy months that the perspiration commonly becomes
sensible on moderate exertion. During the greater part of the year the
reflected rays of the sun on the sides of the valley would render it
intolerably hot, were it not for the daily breeze that, from about 11
A.M. to 3 P.M. comes with uniform regularity from the Montaña, through
the aperture in the mountains along which the river of Huanuco rolls
towards the Huallaga and great Marañon.
In August and September, no perceptible dew falls; but during these
months, when vegetation among the small neighbouring dales becomes
scanty, the deer often steal in herds to the thickets near the river;
and we have stalked them at midnight in the midst of the fields, without
discovering a trace of moisture on the alfalfa leaf. The nights are
always delightful; and the sky, when it does not rain, is pure, bright,
and beautiful. The hills on the eastern side of the valley are clothed
with pastures, have perennial springs and wood in their dingles and
corries, and are capable of grazing cattle all the year: but opposite
to these, on the western side, the hills, like those of the coast, are
dull arid masses for nine months in the year, only furnishing a sparse
growth of flowering shrubs and weeds on their sides; whilst their
elevated tops alone throw forth a denser crop of sweet herbage, on which
folds of cattle regale themselves in the months of January, February,
and March,—at a season, as we have seen, when the uncultivated heights
near the coast are scorched, and stripped of all vegetation except cacti
and some bulbous plants. But the plains that spread round the base of
the hills and mountains that go to form the Vale of Huanuco, are never
allowed to take upon them the withered face of winter. By the aid of
rivulets from the mountains, sometimes diverted from their natural
channels by art, and carried, by circuitous aqueducts of many miles in
extent, the numerous flats among the recesses of the heights and slopes,
frequently elevated much above the lower plains, are kept ever verdant
and productive, in like manner as the fields and enclosures in the bottom
of the vale are fertilized by canals from the river. The best sugar-cane
comes to maturity in about eighteen months or two years, and yields
several cuttings of after-growth. The lucern or alfalfa, without the aid
of top-dressing, gives six crops annually for an indefinite number of
years; and in some favoured spots it yields a cutting in six weeks, and
therefore gives eight crops yearly. The writer had a plot that yielded,
at this rate, alfalfa of about a yard in height, and in good flower. The
plantain, both long and short, and the richest tuna, or Indian fig, grow
in abundance; the finest pineapples are brought from the neighbouring
Montaña, where vegetation is much more rapid and vigorous than in the
Vale of Huanuco. In this vale, however, the palta and cheremoya mellow on
the branches in their native soil. The maguey, coffee, cotton, and vine,
the pomegranate and orange, the citron, lemon, and lime, &c. flourish
here; and the meanest villager, as well as the humblest lodger under a
cane-roofed shed, inhales with every breath the odours of never-failing
blossoms. As the morning sun gilds the high ridges of this happy valley,
its inhabitants are animated to the daily labours of the field by the
cheerful voice of the prettily-plumaged inmates of their well-shaded
bowers. Such, then, are some of the more prominent beauties and natural
advantages of the Vale of Huanuco: and we may here mention, that the
city of Huanuco is the principal seat of recreation for him who wastes
his strength and frets his temper in the too often delusive pursuit of
wealth in Cerro Pasco, and other inclement mining localities in the
neighbourhood. In spite of their vexations and misfortunes, few can have
invested themselves with a mood so sad or so cynic as not to enjoy and
partake of the enthusiastic glee and antiquated gambols of a carnival
feast in Huanuco.
The agriculture of Huanuco,—though alluring to the eye of the ordinary
traveller, who only glances at its rich and waving fields, enclosed
within tapias or fences of mud, and hedges of the Indian fig, and aloe
or maguey plants,—is in every way defective as a branch of industry. The
fields owe their luxuriance to nature rather than to man, except in the
single advantage of water, which he often directs and supplies to them.
Manure is a thing never thought of; and the ground seldom requires it,
though we see the same spot year after year under crop: but much of the
soil which is considered poor might be rendered fertile, in so favourable
a climate, if the people would only take the trouble of cleaning out
their large cattle-pens once a year; but this would be to diverge from
their accustomed routine, which they dislike to forsake. The implements
of husbandry are of the rudest kind. The plough, which is slight and
single-handed, is constructed merely of wood, without mould-board, which
we have seen a one-handed person manage with perfect dexterity. The
ploughshare is a thick iron blade, only tied when required for use by a
piece of thong, or lasso, on the point of the plough, which divides the
earth very superficially. Where the iron is not at hand, as frequently
happens, we understand that the poor peasant uses, instead, a share made
of hard iron-wood that grows in the Montaña. Harrows they have, properly
speaking, none: if we remember well, they sometimes use, instead, large
clumsy rakes; and we have seen them use a green bough of a tree dragged
over the sown ground, with a weight upon it to make it scratch the soil.
In room of the roller, of which they never experienced the advantage,
they break down the earth in the field intended for cane-plants, after it
has got eight or ten ploughings and cross-ploughings, with the heel of
a short-handled hoe which they call “lampa;” a tool which they use with
great dexterity in weeding the cane-fields and clearing aqueducts. For
smoothing down the clods of earth, we have seen some Indians use a more
antiquated instrument. It consisted of a soft, flat, and round stone,
about the size of a small cheese, which had a hole beaten through its
centre by dint of blows with a harder and pointed stone. To the stone
thus perforated they fixed a long handle, and, as they swung it about,
they did great execution in the work of “cuspiando” or field-levelling.
Lucern or alfalfa is daily cut down, and used green, as scores of cattle
and the working oxen for the plough and sugar-mills are to be fed by
it; yet the scythe is not in use among the great planters, who find it
necessary to keep two or three individuals at the sickle to cut down food
for herds, in the daytime fed on irrigated pastures, but at night fed in
corrals or pens.
Potato-ground they are accustomed to break up on the face of steeps with
deep narrow spades, to which long handles are attached, that afford good
leverage. In the same manner the soil is turned up by those who have
neither plough nor oxen, but who yet sow maize on the temperate flats on
the hill-sides, and in the midst of thickets by mountain streams, where
the soil is usually fertile, and materials for fencing are at hand.
People thus circumstanced make holes in the ground with a sharp-pointed
stick, where they bury the seed secure, that it may not be taken up by
the fowls of the air; and that, when dropped in virgin soil, it may yield
a luxuriant crop and plentiful harvest. The Indian sows the white-grained
maize in preference to the yellow, (morocho,) as he considers that when
toasted it makes the best “cancha,” which the poor Indian everywhere uses
instead of bread; and that when boiled it makes the blandest “mote,”
for so they call the simply boiled maize: it has moreover the credit of
making the most savoury chicha, or beer, which they home-brew whenever
they have a little surplus grain at their command. They also, as we were
given to understand, make a kind of beer from the fermented juice of the
maize-stalks compressed between small rollers of wood moved with the
hand. The usual application of dry maize-leaves and stubble is to feed
cattle, and for this purpose it is considered more fattening than either
alfalfa or sugar-cane tops.
Agi, or pimento, is cultivated around the little Indian houses and
gardens in the Vale of Huanuco; and without this condiment the natives
hardly relish any kind of food.
The sugar-mills in this valley are, the greater number of them, made of
wood, and moved by oxen. On the larger estates small brass rollers are
used; but with a single exception, on the estate of Andaguaylla, where
we were concerned in erecting a water-mill for the purpose of grinding
sugar-cane, the proprietors adhere to the old practice of working with
oxen by day and by night throughout the year, barring accidents, and
feasts or holy-days.
The beautiful hacienda or estate of Quicacan, Colonel Lucar’s, is a
model of industry and method after the fashion of the country; and the
most distinguished family of Echegoyen have, in Colpa-grande, the finest
cane-estate, as far as we know, in the interior of Peru. It extends for
nine or ten miles along the fertile banks of the river, from the city of
Huanuco towards the ascents that lead into the Montaña.
Respecting Huanuco, although the principal city or capital of the
department to which it belongs, we have to observe, that the consumption
of its agricultural produce, as well as its own internal prosperity,
depends on the mineral seat of Cerro Pasco. When the population of
the Cerro rises to ten or twelve thousand, every article of Huanuco
produce is in high demand; but when, from any cause, the mines are not
wrought, or when these are inundated from defective drainage, and the
hands employed in working them are fewer in number, the Huanuqueños and
other neighbouring agriculturists are greatly discouraged or actually
ruined; because, deprived of this outlet for their produce, they cannot
undertake the expense of sending sugar and spirits on mules to the
coast. The consequence is, that they are frequently poor in the midst
of plenty; like the owners of extensive herds of sheep on the high
pasture-lands, whose wool is of little value to them, as it cannot pay
for mule or llama carriage to the coast; and the scanty produce of the
looms of the interior have little estimation, as the ruined “obrages,” or
manufactories, now amply testify. The shuttle is, moreover, nearly put at
rest by the cheaper articles of warm woollen as well as cotton clothing
continually introduced from the stores of our English manufacturers.
A staple article of Huanuco commerce with Cerro Pasco is the coca-leaf,
from their Montaña, only distant about fifteen leagues from the city; an
article of which they have several crops yearly. The indigo growers in
the contiguous Montaña have, we believe, forsaken their enterprise, for
want of funds to proceed with the manufacture of what, from the samples
produced, was considered a good article.
Much of the fruit of the Huanuco orchards is eaten at the tables of
the Pasqueños, or inhabitants of Cerro; and in the convents are made
excellent sweet preserves, which are highly valued, and circulated in
the surrounding country as nice and most welcome presents rather than as
formal articles of commerce.
Several lands formerly belonging to convents are now appropriated as
endowments of the college of Huanuco, named _La Virtud Peruana_, which is
the only school of its kind at present open in the department of Junin.
This temple of Peruvian virtue, for so the Lyceum, which was formerly a
convent, has been emphatically called, was installed in May 1829, under
the rectorship of Doctor Don Gregorio de Cartagena; and the writer would
now desire from his native country to offer to this acute and enlightened
gentleman his grateful acknowledgments for the generous hospitality of
which he was himself the object, when, pilgrim and stranger as he was,
he knocked at the gates of the “Temple of Peruvian Virtue.” Doctor Don
Gregorio de Cartagena, jointly with his distinguished relative Doctor
Don Manuel Antonio de Valdizan, has the honour of being considered the
founder of this college in his native city, as we learn from the speech
of Doctor Don Buena Ventura Lopez, delivered in the college chapel on
the day of installation, and published, with other harangues made on
the same occasion, in the periodical then commenced as the first-fruits
of the Huanuco press, under the very happy title of “The Echo of the
Montaña.”
In the speech of Dr. Lopez, he encourages the rising generation to take
the best advantage of the new path to knowledge, virtue, and honourable
distinction now freely opened to them by the meritorious exertions of
two of the most eminent natives of Huanuco. He exhorts his young hearers
never to forget how much they owe to these patriots and benefactors:
“And you,” says he, “fortunate young men, in possession of advantages
which were denied to your forefathers, let the names of your indulgent
friends Valdizan and Cartagena, coupled with the obligations of this
day, sink deep into your hearts: warmed as they are with feelings of the
purest delight, they will readily receive the generous impression, ay,
and retain it for ever.”
The kind and affable inhabitants of this city in the bosom of the Andes
have their imaginations excited with the hopes of their rising glories,
and their own happy valley is too narrow for their expanding desires.
So full are their literati of the flattering idea that an English
colony on the river Huallaga may extend its industry and enterprise to
the cultivation of the great pampa del Sacramento, that they already
fancy proper depôts and harbours selected, docks prepared, and ships
building from the timber of their own Montaña, to carry them a voyage
of pleasure and profit round the world. They imagine little steamers
up to _Playa-grande_, or even to the falls at Casapi, or the port of
Cuchero on the river Chinchao, within a couple of days’ journey of their
city; and, when their wishes are realized, they calculate that their
now useless and neglected copper mines shall be more precious, and
draw in upon them more wealth than ever did brilliants or diamonds on
their distant neighbours of Brazil. And no wonder that the natives of
this Elysian valley should be overjoyed at such prospects; since their
long-continued communication with the canoe-men of the Huallaga on the
one side, and in former times with those of the missionaries at the port
or settlement of Mayro on the other, familiarise them with the notion
of navigating the Huallaga and Ucayali; while the intervening plains of
Sacramento they consider to be naturally the richest and most capable of
improvement of any in the world. Even the miner of Cerro Pasco finds his
fancy warmed when he reflects on the prospect of a steam navigation on
the Marañon. Don Jose Lago y Lemus, one of the most distinguished of the
veteran miners of Pasco, published in 1831 a pamphlet in illustration of
the advantages that might accrue to the republic from this navigation.
In this pamphlet he endeavours to show that the portions of Peruvian
territory hitherto occupied, and consisting of arid coasts and rugged
mountainous districts, are not to be compared, in point of natural
interest or national importance, with the immense plains and fertile
Montaña or wooded deserts on the eastern frontier; and he manifests a
laudable and patriotic zeal in endeavouring to arouse the attention of
his countrymen to this most momentous subject.
Don Jose expresses himself thus:
“The undersigned, being convinced of the truths he lays before the
public, and at the same time anxiously desiring, in virtue of his
appointment, both the welfare of the department and the province which
he represents, he proposes to the most honourable Junta,” (viz. the
departmental Junta of Junin, assembled in the city of Huanuco,) “a
project of the grandest magnitude, capable of making the entire republic
prosper, and of placing her in the rank and circumstances to compete
with, and be the envy of, the most powerful states in the world. It will
be said truly, that we were not heretofore ignorant of the treasures
and riches of the actual productions in the Montañas of the Peruvian
territory; it is equally certain that the want of hands, capital, and
men of enterprise, have been powerful causes why we were unable to
enjoy these natural advantages. If this be our state of weakness—if its
commencement be traceable to our colonial condition, and that Providence
has reserved the remedy till the epoch of our freedom and an age of
intellectual light, let us make every effort to reap such incalculable
benefits. Commercial relations are those that enlighten the people; by
this powerful magic friendships are acquired, and with the most remote
inhabitants of the globe bonds of brotherhood are established. Let,
then, the grand canal of the Marañon be rendered navigable for steam
vessels; so that, by the diverse and lesser streams that form this great
river, we may procure them entrance to the immediate environs of our
cities, towns, and villages, situated on the banks of the Huallaga.
“Ah, gentlemen! What a sudden and extraordinary emotion this idea excites
in my mind! My imagination already combines the ideas that suggest
themselves respecting this privileged city of Huanuco. Now its spacious
fields are held worthy of higher cultivation and care; its abandoned
streets I see crowded with useful citizens; the banks of its ample river
Huallaga present a varied and charming perspective of shipping, newly
elevated towns, open tracts of woodland, and cultivated lawns. Allured
by the novelty of this scene, innumerable tribes of the wild Indians
will unite themselves with us; they are our brethren, and, when thus
intimately brought into contact with us, they may frankly discover to our
knowledge those hidden treasures of our forests which their ignorance and
barbarism hitherto concealed; and, as integral parts of Peru, they will
conduce to its grandeur and respectability. Gentlemen, the most vivid
imagination is lost in this contemplation, and finds itself overwhelmed
by the number and vastness of the objects which crowd into its thoughts.”
The above patriotic effusion, very worthy of a departmental deputy
of Junin, may appear to the reader to paint in too glowing terms the
capabilities and importance of the Montaña on the confines of Huanuco.
But, considering the extent and fertility of the territory, the navigable
nature of its principal rivers, and the generally salubrious character
of its climate, we believe that he who attempts to depict its various
superiorities and advantages is more likely to come short of his object,
than to overrate the reality which in imagination he may desire to trace.
Those regions in the Montaña which are watered by the Huallaga, Ucayali,
and Marañon, with various subsidiary rivers interspersed among the
intervening grounds, have as yet been but inadequately explored, and
therefore only a very imperfect account can be offered of their aspect
and natural productions.
From May to November the sun shines very powerfully in the Montaña, and
consequently the soil, where it is cleared of wood,—for example, in the
valley of Chinchao—becomes so parched that its surface opens in chinks;
but underneath it always preserves humidity, and therefore needs no
irrigation. From November to May it rains much, sometimes for six or
seven days without intermission.
In the rivers, alligators, tortoises, and a variety of fish are found;
and these also swarm in the ponds or lakes formed during the inundations
of the rainy season. The most remarkable inhabitant of these waters is
the manati, sometimes called pexebuey,[9] from its supposed resemblance
to the cow or ox. Like the cetaceous family to which it belongs, it
suckles its young, and also feeds among the grass on the banks of the
rivers.
The trees of the forest are inhabited by parrots, tanagers, and
a surprising variety of birds, whose exquisite plumage vies with
butterflies and flowers in the beauty, delicacy, and combination of their
tints. Monkeys are so numerous as to form a chief article of animal
food for the Indian hunter, dexterous in the use of the bow and arrow,
or of the cerbatána, a long and hollow piece of wood through which he
blows a small arrow, and hits his mark, at short distances, with fatal
precision. There are very many venomous serpents. Wild-boars, deer,
pumas, bears, tigers, and tapirs, frequent these forests, and are objects
of the chase.
The vegetable productions of the Montaña, here considered as articles
of commerce, or adopted for economical uses, are numerous. Among the
valuable woods are cedar, and chonta or ebony, mahogany, walnut, and
almond-tree. Edible herbs and roots, except the potato and yuca, are
little cultivated; but coffee, plantains, and sugar-cane, of which a
variety called the blue or azul is very luxuriant, are reared with some
care, where nature indeed requires but little aid from the hand of man.
The sugar-cane comes to maturity earlier than in other parts of Peru, and
yields an annual crop at very little cost of production.
In the fertile vale of Chinchao, famous for its coca plantations, a few
proprietors of Huanuco cultivate frijoles, or beans, for the use of
the coca-gatherers: rice is also grown by the humid banks of the great
rivers, and maize is everywhere sown as a necessary of life.
In the Montaña, chicha is made from maize, as in other parts of Peru;
but the natives here make a drink called _masata_, not known in more
civilized parts of the country, produced by chewing the yuca or maize,
&c. and then leaving it to ferment, when, according to the quantity of
water added to it, the fermented juice will be found of greater or less
intoxicating power.
Indigo, as we have before noticed, is of Montaña growth, as is also
tobacco.
Cotton, spun and wove into cloths of various texture by the Indians,
requires no artificial assistance for its luxuriant growth. Lemons,
limes, oranges, citrons, and other cooling fruit, are also productions of
those parts.
The pine-apple is very abundant, as well as of delicious flavour, though
it grows wild: and among the articles of spontaneous growth in the
Montaña contiguous to Huanuco we may enumerate cacao or cocoa, cinnamon,
guaiacum, vanilla, black wax, storax, dragon’s blood, oil of Maria, gum
caraña, balsam of copaiba, copal, and many other gums, balsams, and
resins. Cinchona and sarsaparilla abound in great quantity.
For the following account of medicinal plants, collected during a journey
down the river Huallaga, and through part of Maynas, we are indebted to
the kindness of Mr. Mathews, an English botanist, formerly mentioned.
1. _Machagui huasca_ is a _bejuco_ or climber, the trunk and
branches of which are intensely bitter. It grows at Tarapoto,
and is used as a febrifuge.
2. _Diabolo huasca_[10] grows at Tarapoto, and is used
medicinally as a purgative.
3. _Uchu sanango._—This is a species of taberna-montana, which
grows at Tarapoto and Moyobamba. It is very piquant; produces a
sensible degree of heat, and is used as a remedy in colds and
rheumatic affections of the joints.
It is also said to be used in the preparation of the _pucuna_
poison.—(See Humboldt.)
4. _Chiri sanango._—Said to be contrary in its effects to the
above; the natives hold it in some dread.
5. _Calentura huasca_, or _shiyintu_.—This is violent in its
effects: it swells the gullet; produces quick, full pulse, and
high fever; and in twenty-four hours after the fever the skin
begins to peel off.
This remedy is taken for various complaints. The patient
generally retires to his _chacra_, or country-house, to take
medicine, where he is not liable to be molested; generally
keeps his bed for eight days, and on the fifteenth day bathes.
For four months it is necessary for those who take this remedy
to diet themselves. On some men it produces no sensible effects.
The part of this plant used medicinally is the stem, which is
roasted, pounded, and then taken in warm water or guarapo.
6. _Zuquilla._—This is a thick-rooted variety of sarsaparilla.
7. _Guaco_ grows about Tarapoto.
8. _Piñon_, or _croton tiglium_.—Three seeds of it eaten act as
a drastic medicine.
9. _Carpuña._—A few leaves (two or three) of this plant, put
into warm spirit and water, act as a sudorific, which is
employed in colds and rheumatic pains.
10. _Huyusa._—The leaves of the huyusa are also used in small
quantity, in form of infusion; and this remedy has the same
virtues with the carpuña.
11. _Tapia bark._—This is pounded into powder, and taken in
cold water. It acts as a powerful emetic.
12. _Yerba de San Martin._—The infusion from this plant is used
for the same purpose as cubebs, or balsam of copaiba.