392- Voyage of the Xovara. 



miles inland. Not till the Lurin valley is readied does the 

 magnificence of tropical vegetation again enliven the scene.- 



After a cursory examination of the locality, we passed the 

 night at an adjoining Hacienda, a large sugar plantation and 

 refinery, which employs 180 Chinese coolies. Each Chinese 

 labourer receives rations of rice and vegetables, besides four 

 dollars a month, and binds himself to stay eight years with 

 his employer, to repay the latter's outlay for his voyage, &c. 

 The speculator, however, who imports the coolies from the 

 northern provinces of China receives a premium of 300 dol- 

 lars for every coolie imported. The Chinese whom we saw 

 at Lurin, as indeed all those we encountered throughout Peru, 

 were very filthy and depressed looking, but seemed in good 

 health, and, on the whole, better off" than in Brazil or the 

 West Indies. We were told that two Chinese will not g-et 



a 



through so much work as one negro. There are at present 

 about 10,000 Chinese in Peru, who have been imported by 

 speculators during the last ten years, to some of whom their 

 deportation has been a vast benefit, since, after their eight 

 years' service, they are free, and may and do begin to 

 work zealously on their own q,ccount. In Peru, as in the 

 Indies, Java, and indeed wherever they are employed, the 

 Chinese cling close to each other, and mutually assist each 

 other, should any of their number fall into poverty. 



The following morning early we paid a second visit to the 

 ruins of Pachacamdc, and took with us from the Hacienda a 

 number of negroes, with working implements, for the purpose 



