Alpaca, Guanaco, and Vicuna. 293 



If he is not allowed to rest, or relieved from his load soon 

 after giving the notice of his weariness, he sinks to the earth 

 in his usual peculiar manner, all his limbs being bent under 

 his body, and there he dies. No kind treatment can induce him 

 to attempt a renewal of the journey ; and the Indians, knowing 

 this singular characteristic of these animals, are disposed at 

 all times to attend to their complaints, and to halt when ne- 

 cessary. It may be supposed that it would not be expedient 

 to trust to such a mode of conveyance any thing of much 

 intrinsic value. 



The great motive which the Indian has to employ the llama 

 as a beast of burden, is the total exemption from expense on 

 the journey. They do not cost any thing for food or lodg- 

 ing ; there are no tolls, and the Indian has his own necessaries 

 carried by one of his pets, so that when one of them comes 

 down to the coast with a quantity of tin btu's or other goods, 

 he both obtains a sum of money for freight, and also ma- 

 nages to sell some of his aged fleecy friends to the butcher 

 to feed Indians resident on the coast. 



No locality in Peru was more benefited by the llama than 

 the city of Potosi during its greatest prosperity. When I 

 was there in 1827, the population of that place was only 

 9000 souls, of whom only 1000 were employed in the mines ; 

 though so recently as in the year 1800, the population was 

 80,000, and at that time 20,000 men and boys were engaged in 

 the mines and the works connected therewith. But it appears 

 that about the year 1680 the population of the city of Potosi 

 amounted to 160,000 souls, in consequence of the flourishing 

 state of the mines at that time — for without these mines there 

 never would have been a town or any inhabitants in a loca- 

 lity so very difficult of access as it is, and with such a horrid 

 climate as is there experienced. However, it is wonderful 

 what mercenary men will do to obtain the precious metals, 

 and Potosi, to some extent, still stands a monument of the 

 enterprise and perseverance of the Spaniards. A mint-house, 



distance by the llama when irritated, touches the human cutis, it produces 

 asrna or itch, or, in the Indian language, earache. But though I have seen 

 the experiment tried, I never knew a case of psoia so induced. 



VOL. XXXIV. NO. LXVIII. APRIL 1843. U 



