30 



INTRODUCTORY. 



pounds of coffee. The small crops of maize, &c., are only for the 

 consumption of the country. The only two plantations that have been 

 opened in the last two years, by D. Augustin Aragon and D. Lorenzo 

 Kequelme, will begin to render their crops in the coming year. 



" According to the notices acquired from different persons, and 

 particularly from Pirnentel and the Pobletes, we know that the gold 

 taken from Challuhuma, from the middle of June to September, 

 amounts to seven hundred pounds, of which the Pobletes hold three, 

 and the balance has been sold by various individuals in the fairs and 

 markets of Azangaro, Tangazuca, and Crucero, over and above the 

 many pounds that have been sent for sale to Puno and Arequipa, and 

 that which the Indians indubitably hold, seeing that they only sell 

 enough to purchase themselves necessaries; although one has been 

 known to sell the value of six hundred dollars. About the end of 

 September the associates of the company styled * Descubridora' 

 destroyed the hanging bridges, (oroyas,) the rafts, and even some parts 

 of the road, saying that in Challuhuma there is nothing, and advising 

 all to return to their houses. This rather encouraged them to proceed. 

 They plunged into the woods where human foot had never trodden, 

 and, crossing the great river on temporary oroyas, many persons settled 

 themselves in Challuhuma ; whence they have been taking gold with- 

 out its being known how much has been collected in the month and a 

 half which has intervened. It is worthy of note that these people and 

 the Pobletes have very imperfect means of extracting the gold : being 

 reduced to what they call ' chichi quearf which is, to place earth in 

 a trough, wash it a little while in the stream, and collect the gold 

 that has settled ; which may be one, two, or more ounces, according to 

 the fortune of the washer. They repeat this operation as many times 

 a day as their strength will permit. On one occasion the sub-prefect 

 Pirnentel obtained from one trough-full twenty-odd ounces of gold, as 

 he himself related to us; and no trough-full yields less than one ounce." 



There seems exaggeration in this account ; but an anonymous pub- 

 lication from Puno on this subject of Carabaya goes beyond this. It 

 says : 



"In the year 1713, a mine of silver was discovered in a hill called 

 Uncuntayo, among the heights (Altos) of Ollachea, which gave more 

 than four thousand marks to the caxon. (Six marks to the caxon is a 

 paying yield in Cerro Pasco.) These riches gave rise to such disturb- 

 ances, violences, and murders, that the Viceroy had to march to sup- 

 press the disorders ; but after a few years the hill fell in and closed 

 the mines. 



