96 A VOYAGE TO Boor VII. 



of canes are not the least, and yield an excellent 

 kind of sugar. All these fields and plantations are 

 ciJÍlivaíedbv negro slaves, purchased for this service ; 

 and the same is seen in the other improved parts of 

 Valles. 



The olive plantations appear like tliick forests ; for 

 besides the height, magnitude, and fulness of leaves of 

 these trees, in all which they exceed those of Spain, 

 they are never pruned, by which means their branches 

 become so interwoven, that the light cannot pene- 

 trate through their foliage. The plough is not used 

 here; the only cultivation they require, being to 

 clear the holes made at the foot of each for receiv- 

 ing the water, to keep the trenches open which con- 

 vey it, and every three or four years to cut down 

 all shoots or cions, in order to form passages for 

 gathering the fruit. With this small trouble the 

 inhabitants have an uncommon plenty of the finest 

 olives, which they either commit to the press for 

 oil, or pickle, they being particularly adapted to the 

 latter, both with regard to their beauty, largeness, 

 and flavour. Their oil is much preferable to that of 

 Spain, 



The country contiguous to the city is covered 

 with gardens; producing ail the herbs and fruits 

 known in Spain, and of tiie same goodness and 

 beauty, besides those common to America ; all which 

 flourish here in a very uncommon degree ; so that 

 none of the parts of Peru, at least such as we visited, 

 are to be conipared with those of the neighbourhood 

 of Lima, where every place is covered with fruits 

 and esculent vegetables. 



It also enjoys another singular advantage, the 

 whole year being, as it were, summer with regard to 

 the plenty and ireshness of fruits ; for the sea'sons of 

 the year varying alternately in Valles and the moun- 

 tains, when theitime of fruits is over in Valles, it 

 begins on the skirts of the mount;iius ; and the dis- 

 tance 



