CiiAi'. XII. VALLEYS OF MARCAPATA. 201 



before or since. A very brief account of his journey was 

 published in the * RoyaKxeographical Society's Journal' for 

 1836 ; but there is a much fuller and most interesting 

 journal kept by this gallant veteran, which has never been 

 printed. In 1852 Lieut. Gibbon, U.S.N., entered the valleys 

 of Paucartambo ; and in 1853 I explored a part of the course 

 of its principal stream, the Tono.^ Another expedition to 

 explore this region, under the sanction and with the aid of 

 the Peruvian Government, was undertaken by some native 

 adventurers, accompanied by a few Americans, and an English 

 artist named Prendergast, in 1856, but it completely failed. 

 (Since that time the wild Chuncho Indians have continued to 

 attack and encroach upon tlie few farms which existed in 

 these valleys at the time of my visit in 1853, and at the 

 present moment there is not one remaining. The rich 

 valleys of Paucartambo, once covered with flourishing cacao 

 and coca farms, have again become one vast uncultivated 

 tropical forest. 



Following the eastern slopes of the Andes to the south and 

 east, we next come to the streams which drain the valleys of 

 Marcapata and OUachea, but of these very little is known. 

 These valleys are in the province of Quispicanchi, in the 

 department of Cuzco ; and it is said that in times past they 

 were cultivated with advantage, and contained many coca- 

 farms. In the beginning of the last century a Jesuit found 

 gold in a hill called Camante, in the Marcapata valley, 

 situated between two ravines, in one of which, called Garrote, 

 a Spanish company established gold-washings. The leading 

 man of this company, named Goyguro, employed hundreds of 

 Indians, and extracted gold from the Camante hill in lumps ; 

 but one day an immense landslip fell into the Yilca-mayu,^ 



■■' See Cuzco and Lima, chap. viii. ; Ucayali. The Indians call all rivers 



also Boy. Geo. Sor. Journal fur 1855. which serve as the tiiuik or centre i>f 



3 This is not the great river which a system of streams Iluilca or Vilca- 



flows near Cuzco, and falls into tlie vuiyu. 



