Navigation hy the Balsas — Sjxmish policy in America. 419 



On the 15 til June we anchored in the roads of San Josd 

 de Lambajique in the department of Chola. The position 

 of this village is so unsuitable, that it is only possible to effect 

 a landing- by means of what are called Balsas (rafts with sails), 

 consisting of huge thick trunks of trees bound together. One 

 of these curious contrivances conveyed on shore in safety 76 

 passengers at once, together with all their miscellaneous 

 effects ! 



Fifteen miles north of Lambajique lies the Indian village 

 of Iting (Repose), with 5000 inhabitants, whose language is 

 totally different from the Quichua dialect, usually spoken in 

 the province. One Peruvian on his return from his travels 

 even went so far as to say that the idiom of the Iting Indians 

 strongly resembled that of the Chinese ! In Monsefii, not quite 

 two miles from Iting, lives an Indian population which speaks 

 nothing but Spanish, and consequently can neither understand 

 nor be understood by its neighbours ! This singular state of 

 things almost entitles us to conjecture that the Spanish con- 

 querors have adopted here the same tactics as those they put 

 in practice in Central America, where they repeatedly were at 

 the pains to introduce among the subjugated tribes, colonies 

 of another race frequently hostile to the aborigines, in order 

 by difference of customs and language to render any united 

 action against the common enemy almost impossible. I have 

 myself frequently observed in the Central American State of 

 San Salvadore, that, for instance, the Tlascaltecas, who speak 

 the language of Montezuma, had been settled in the midst 



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