Mr Cruckshanks's Excursion from Lima to Pasco. 113 



the cultivated valley leads the eye to the ocean, with the Island 

 of San Lorenzo rising abruptly in the distance. 



" The season was considered late, and the cloudy weather had 

 not extended far inland, so that, after proceeding a few leagues, 

 the hills were perfectly naked, and exhibited a marked contrast 

 to the fields of maize and lucerne in the valley below. We ar- 

 rived before sunset at an estate called Punchanea, five leagues 

 from Lima. The proprietor, an old Spaniard, to whom one of 

 my companions had rendered some essential services during the 

 revolution, gave us a hearty welcome, and an excellent supper 

 was prepared for us without garlic. As a compliment to our 

 English tastes, too, the supper was no sooner removed than tea 

 was placed on the table. 



" Providing beds, especially to a party, forms no part of the 

 hospitality shown to travellers in South America. Each person, 

 if he have a luggage mule, carries bedding with him, but at all 

 events, he has some rugs and a blanket over his saddle, which, 

 with his poncho, answer the purpose exceedingly well after sit- 

 ting all day on a mule. We were, therefore, of course, provided 

 with furniture for an immense empty apartment, into which 

 we were conducted, and which was to serve us for a dormitory. 

 In Chili, most people on a journey prefer sleeping in the open 

 air. Those who have never tasted the luxury of passing the 

 night beneath the bright starry sky of a climate like that of 

 Chili, cannot form an idea of the sound and refreshing sleep the 

 traveller enjoys there, nor of the elasticity of spirits, and perfect 

 freedom from fatigue, with which he springs from his grassy 

 couch, when the muleteer warns him that the day is beginning to 

 dawn, and the mules await him to pursue his journey. But in 

 1'cru, especially in the vallics near the coast, where the climate 

 is ' fair and false, -1 it is usual to sleep under cover : the traveller, 

 who, unaccustomed to the climate, should venture to pass the 

 night in the open air, would most likely awake with an ague, and 

 very frequently, his only alternative is to immure himself for the 

 night amidst the smoke and filth of an Indian hut. 



" June 22d. — We could not start till eight o'clock, having to 

 wait for a fat sheep our host had ordered to be killed for us. The 

 carcase being duly packed in its own skin, and placed between 



NEW 8EKIF.5, VOL. V. NO. I. .JULY 1831. II 



