90 THE ANDES OF SOUTHERN PERU 



scattered along its rugged walls and narrow floor. The owner of 

 the hacienda at Pasaje is required to keep a record of all passen- 

 gers rafted across the Apurimac, but he explains significantly that 

 some who pass are too hurried to write their names in his book. 

 Once he reaches the eastern wall of the canyon a fugitive may 

 command a view of the entire western wall and note the approach 

 of pursuers. Thence eastward he has the whole Cordillera Vilca- 

 pampa in which to hide. Pursuit is out of the question. 



When we arrived, the venerable Prefect, a model of old-fash- 

 ioned courtesy, greeted us with the utmost cordiality. He told us 

 of our movements since leaving Pasaje, and laughingly explained 

 that since we had sent him no friendly message and had come 

 from a rebel retreat, he had taken it for granted that we intended 

 to storm the town. I assured him that we were ready to join his 

 troops, if necessary, whereupon, with a delightful frankness, he 

 explained his method of .keeping the situation in hand. Several 

 troops of cavalry and two battalions of infantry were quartered 

 at the government barracks. Every evening the old gentleman, 

 a Colonel in the Peruvian army, mounted a powerful gray horse 

 and rode, quite unattended, through the principal streets of the 

 town. Several times I walked on foot behind him, again I pre- 

 ceded him, stopping in shops on the way to make trivial purchases, 

 to find out what the people had to say about him and the govern- 

 ment as he rode by. One old gentleman interested me particularly. 

 He had only the day before called at the Prefectura to pay his 

 respects. Although his manner was correct there was lacking to 

 a noticeable degree the profusion of sentiment that is apt to be 

 exhibited on such an occasion. He now sat on a bench in a shop. 

 Both his own son and the shopkeeper's son had been slain in the 

 revolution. It was natural that they should be bitter. But the 

 precise nature of their complaint was what interested me most. 

 One said that he did not object to having his son lose his life for 

 his country. But that his country's officials should hire Indians 

 to shoot his son seemed to him sheer murder. Later, at Lam- 

 brama, I talked with a rebel fugitive, and that was also his com- 

 plaint. The young men drafted into the army are Indians, or 



