of an O Renin Hunter. 121 



which the revolution of the Independence commenced. 

 On the 16th of March, 1781, when the taxes and ill- 

 treatment of the Spanish Government had become 

 almost intolerable, a peasant woman of the name of 

 Maria Vargas tore down the list of taxes and the 

 Spanish coat-of-arms, which was hung in the plaza, 

 and broke them in pieces. This excited the people 

 so much that, although independence was not pro- 

 claimed for twenty-nine years after, this was really the 

 beginning of the war. 



Two days of rough riding in the burning sun 

 brought me to a small Indian village called San 

 Benito. The climate of this place is exceedingly 

 good all the year round, being built on a high ridge 

 on the tops of the Andes. I found the people most 

 inhospitable, and the houses mostly thatched with 

 straw and very bad. Keeping along the track, we 

 passed on the way a small town called Puente 

 Nacional, most picturesquely built on the banks of 

 a river, about one half of the houses being on each 

 side. The buildings, as usual, are very good, and a 

 pretty church is an ornament to the place. For live 

 days' journey the track had run through the most 

 miserable class of vegetation. Apart from the curious 

 undulating tops of the mountains, which sometimes 

 extend away into most glorious scenery, nothing is to 

 be seen but a miserable scrub, and the eye becomes 



