28 



INTRODUCTORY. 



It will be recollected that I stated, in the preceding chapter, that the 

 defeated followers of Aim agro, hiding themselves in the valleys and dens 

 of the broken country to the eastward of Cuzco, called Carabaya, dis- 

 covered, in the small streams that dashed down from the neighboring 

 Cordillera, washings of gold of great value — that they built villages, 

 and sent immense treasures to Spain. 



In the month of June, 1849, two brothers named Poblete, seeking 

 Peruvian bark in the valleys of Carabaya, discovered grains or pits 

 (pepitas) of gold in the " Gulch " of Challuhuma. They were soon 

 joined by other hunters of bark ; the news spread in the province ; com- 

 panies were formed, and petitions made to the board of miners for titles; 

 quarrels arose about priority of discovery and rights, and the paths were 

 broken up, and bridges and rafts for crossing the rivers destroyed, so 

 that, up to the time of my information, little had been done in gathering 

 the gold. 



It appears from an official letter of Pablo Pimentel, sub-prefect of 

 the province of Carabaya, in answer to certain questions propounded to 

 him by the Treasury Department, that the mining district is situated in 

 the valleys to the N. and E. of Crucero, the capital of the province, and 

 is reached from that place by the following routes and distances. (It 

 will be as well to premise that Crucero is situated in about latitude 14° 

 south, and longitude *7 4° west from Greenwich ; and that to reach it 

 by the nearest route from the Pacific coast, one should land at Islay ; 

 and travelling on horseback through the cities of Arequipa and Puno, 

 he will arrive at Crucero, by easy stages of fifteen miles a day, in about 

 twenty days.) From Crucero the route, running to the eastward, and 

 crossing the Cordillera at probably its highest and most difficult pass, 

 conducts the traveller to the small and abandoned village of Phara, 

 forty-two miles from Crucero. 



Here he puts foot to ground, and travels seventy-two miles (four 

 days' journey) to the banks of the great river Guariguari ; although 

 his provisions and implements may be carried to this point on mules or 

 asses. He crosses this river on a perilous swinging bridge, called Oroya, 

 and makes his way thirty miles further towards the north without any 

 broken track, save an occasional one made by the bark hunters. 



This brings him to Challuhuma. 



The valley, or gulch, is from thirty to thirty-six miles long from the 

 top of the mountains, whence descend the three small torrents which 

 form the auriferous stream called Challuhuma, to its entrance into the 

 Guariguari ; but it is calculated that only about a fifth part of this can 

 be worked, as the other four parts are hemmed in by precipitous rocks 



