194 
summer, the subsoil in the low grounds is always saturated 
with moisture, and numerous springs issue from the surface. 
On the plains and slopes of the hills, there is, all the 
year, an abundance of grass, which serves to pasture large 
flocks of sheep for the supply of the vallies and the towns 
on the coast. 
Owing to the badness of the road, our progress had been 
so slow that it was long after dark when we arrived at a 
ravine, down which we continued to Huayllay, a small 
Indian town, and the centre of a mining district, eight leagues 
from Casa-cancha. "The monotonous appearance of the hills 
among which we had travelled, at a very slow pace, the 
intolerable headache we suffered, and the benumbing cold 
of the evening wind, made this altogether a fatiguing and 
unpleasant day's journey. : 
One of our party, a Spaniard, conducted us to the house of 
the Governor, who was his countryman. He had been a soldier 
in the Spanish army, but having married an Indian woman 
of Huayllay, he settled in the town, where his intelligence 
and activity procured him the office of Governor; to which 
he added the profession of a miner, and the trade of a shop- 
keeper. Our apartment was in keeping with the mixed 
pursuits of the master of the house; the table was covered 
with papers «elative fo the number of recruits, and the 
tribute to be furnished by the Indians under his jurisdiction; 
a heap of silver ore occupied a corner of the mud floor, 
candles, sugar, jars of spirits, and similar merchandise were 
spread around, with very little regard to arrangement. Our 
i host and his dark lady vied with each other in ministering to 
our wants; and, stretched on the floor of their domicile, we 
— e the puna and our tedious ride from Casa-cancha. 
In the morning, we were agai ted by the glittering 
hoar-frost, which added to ation and wound id of 
the town and surrounding hills, where not a tree nor a trace 
of cultivation was to be seen. All the corn and vegetables 
consumed by the inhabitants are brought up from the vallíes, 
and have to be carried fifteen or twenty leagues. 
Having arrived at Huayllay at night, we had not perceived 
