INTRODUCTORY. 



37 



Peru. I believe the English saddle would be much more comfortable T 

 and probably as safe to the rider accustomed to it ; but it would be 

 almost impossible with these to preserve the skin of the mule from 

 chafe. The Peruvian saddles rest entirely upon the ribs of the animal, 

 which are protected by at least six yards of a coarse woollen fabric 

 manufactured in the country, called jerga, and touch the back-bone 

 nowhere. These saddles are a wooden box frame, stuffed thickly on 

 the inside, and covered outwardly with buckskin. They are fitted with 

 heavy, square, wooden stirrups, which are thought to preserve the legs 

 from contact with projecting rocks, and, being lined with fur, to keep 

 the feet warm. There is also a heavy breast-strap and crupper for 

 steep ascents and descents ; and a thick pillon, or mat, made of thrums 

 of cotton, silk, or hair, is thrown over the saddle, to make the seat soft. 

 The reins and head-stall of the bridle should be broad and strong, and 

 the bit the coarse and powerful one of the country. Our guns, in 

 leathern cases, were slung to the crupper, and the pistols carried in 

 holsters, made with large pockets, to carry powder-flasks, percussion 

 caps, specimens that we might pick up on the road, &c. A small 

 box of instruments for skinning; birds and dissecting animals ; a medi- 

 cine chest, containing, among other things, some arsenical soap, for 

 preserving skins ; a few reams of coarse paper, for drying leaves and 

 plants ; chart paper, in a tin case ; passports and other papers, also in 

 a tin case ; note-books, pencils, &c, completed our outfit. A chest was 

 made, with compartments for the sextant, artificial horizon, boiling-point 

 apparatus, camera lucida, and spy-glass. The chronometer was carried 

 in the pocket, and the barometer, slung in a leathern case made for it, 

 at the saddle-bow of Mr. Gibbon's mule. 



On the 15th of May I engaged the services of an arriero, or muleteer. 

 He engaged to furnish beasts to carry the party and its baggage from 

 Lima to Tarma at ten dollars the head, stopping on the road wherever 

 I pleased, and as long as I pleased, for that sum. An ordinary train of 

 baggage mules may be had on the same route for about seven dollars 

 the head. The arrieros of Peru, as a class, have a very indifferent 

 reputation for faithfulness and honesty, and those on the route, (that 

 from Lima to Cerro Pasco,) to which my friend particularly belonged, 

 are said to be the worst of their class. He was a thin, spare, dark 

 Indian, of the Sierra or mountain land, about forty-five years of age, 

 with keen, black eye, thin moustache, and deliberate in his speech and 

 gesture. I thought I had seldom seen a worse face ; but Mr. McCall 

 said that he was rather better looking than the generality of them. He 

 managed to cheat me very soon after our acquaintance. 



