62 



a Yankee's house. 



The mining business of the hacienda is conducted by a director, an 

 intelligent and gentlemanly young German, named Richard Von 

 Durfeldt ; and its fiscal affairs and general business, by an adminis- 

 trator, a fine-looking young Spaniard, Don Jose Fco. de Lizarralde, 

 whose kindly courtesy we shall long remember. The engineer, or 

 machinist, is my friend and schoolmate Shepherd, who seemed to be a 

 " Jack of all trades" — blacksmith, carpenter, watch-maker, and doctor. 

 His room was quite a curiosity, and bespoke plainly enough the Ameri- 

 can. I never saw so many different things gathered together in so 

 small a place : shelves of fine standard books ; a dispensary for physic ; 

 all manner of tools, from the sledge-hammer and the whip-saw to the 

 delicate instruments of the watch-maker; parts of watches lying under 

 bell-glasses ; engravings hanging around the walls, with a great chart, 

 setting; forth directions for the treatment of all manner of diseases and 

 accidents ; horse furniture, saddle-bags, boots, shoes, and every variety 

 of garment, from the heavy woollen poncho of the man to the more 

 delicate cotton petticoat of the woman ; for my friend has a pretty 

 young Sierra wife, who took great pleasure in talking to me about the 

 home and relations of my "paisano" Shepherd's warm room and bed, 

 with plenty of covering, was a princely luxury in that cold climate. 

 These things are comparative, and I had not slept under a roof but twice 

 since I left Lima. An old Englishman from the Isle of Guernsey, 

 named Grant, who seemed to be a sort of factotum, and knew and did 

 everything, and who was unwearied in his kindness and attention to us, 

 made up the sum of our pleasant acquaintances at Morococha. We 

 had beef and mutton for dinner, with good butter and cheese ; vegeta- 

 bles scarce ; Gibbon not well ; Richards very sick, and under treatment 

 from Shepherd. 



June 3. — We all went to see the Mountain of Puy-puy, said to be 

 higher than Chimborazo. The place of view is about three miles from 

 Morococha. We passed the openings of a copper and silver mine, and 

 rode along a boggy country, where turf is cut for fuel. We saw many 

 snipes, ducks, and other aquatic birds. This upset all my preconceived 

 notions ; I had no idea that I should see, at fifteen thousand feet above 

 the level of the sea, anything that would remind me of duck-shooting 

 in the marshes of the Rappahannock. To see the mountain, it was 

 necessary to cross a range of hills, about seven or eight hundred feet in 

 height. The road went up diagonally, but the ascent was the most 

 toilsome operation I had ever undertaken. We were obliged to dis- 

 mount, when about three-fourths of the way up, and lead the mules ; 

 the path was muddy and slippery, and we had to stop to blow at every 



