Chap. XVII. VILQUE TO ISLAY. 285 



keepers, English merchants coming to arrange for their 

 supplies of wool, and a noisy company of arrieros on their 

 way to buy mnles, and armed to the teeth with horse-pistols, 

 old guns, and huge daggers, to defend their money-bags. 

 Blany of them were good-looking fellows, the older ones 

 bearing signs of hard drinking. 



The sheep-ferm of Taya-taya,'' four leagues from Yilque, is 

 a large range of mud-plastered buildings with thatched roofs, 

 built round a large patio, on a bleak plain surrounded by 

 mountains. In the morning a flock of forty llamas were 

 being laden Avith packs of wool in the patio, at which they 

 were making bitter lamentations. We started early on May 

 24th, and encountered a cold gale of wind, blowing in icy 

 squalls over the cordillera. I reached the posthouse of Cue- 

 villas in the night, a distance of 45 miles ; got as far as the 

 posthouse of Pati the next day ; encountered a tremendous 

 gale of wind on the skirts of the volcano of Arequipa, but 

 descended to the valley of Cangallo on the 26th ; and rode 

 into the city of Arequipa, with my plants, on the morning of 

 the 27th of IMay. Mr. Weir arrived from Crucero on the 

 29th, having, as I expected, found Martel in that town, whose 

 designs were thus baffled. From Sandia to Ai-equipa is a dis- 

 tance of nearly 300 miles. No opposition was made to my 

 departure from Arequipa, although the local newspaper had 

 something to say afterwards,^ and on June 1st the plants were 

 safely deposited by the Wardian cases at the port of Islay. 



" John of the Fountain " had provided plenty of soil, and 



■• Taya is an Aymara word, meaning | que los estranjeros han dado en esportar 

 "cold." I per esta plantas de eascarilla, quu es 



' La Balsa de Arequipa, Junio 15. sabido esta proliibido hacerlo : acaba 



"Las cuestiones municipales han de embarcar un Ingles una multitud 

 hecho gran dauo al puerto de Islay, I de ellas para la India, i)or comision 

 pues todo va mal con el desacuerdo '■ official de su Gobicrno. Yo no se 

 (]ue reina entre el cuerpo y las demas ' como cs que esto se tolera, defraudando 

 autoridades que lo combaten escan- asi uno de los mejor-es y mas esclu- 

 dalosamente. sivos mmos de nueatra riqueza." 



" Quiero que se sepa en esa ciudad 



