66 



DESCENT TO TARMA. 



horizon of full thirty degrees. The road was rilled with fragments of 

 white calcareous rock, and the rocky hills on each side were pierced 

 with many a cavern. When nearly at the foot, the plants and flowers 

 familiar to us on the other side began to make their appearance, and in 

 such quick succession, that it seemed that an hour's ride carried us 

 over many a mile of the tedious ascent to the westward of the moun- 

 tains. First appeared the hardy little flowers of the heights above San 

 Mateo ; then, the barley; the alfalfa; the Indian corn; beans; turnips ; 

 shrubs, becoming bushes ; bushes, trees ; flowers growing larger and 

 gayer in their colors, (yellow predominating,) till the pretty little city 

 of Tarma, embosomed among the hills, and enveloped in its covering of 

 willows and fruit trees, with its long lawns of alfalfa (the greenest of 

 grasses) stretching out in front, broke upon our view. The ride of to- 

 day was a long and tiresome one, being mostly a bone-shaking descent ; 

 and we hailed with pleasure the sight of the little town as a resting 

 place, after the tedious passage of the Cordillera, and felt that one of 

 the inconveniences and perils of the expedition was safely and happily 

 passed. 



We arrived at 4 p. m., and rode straight to the house of a gentleman, 

 Don Lorenzo Burgos, to whom I brought a letter of introduction from 

 friend Shepherd, of Morococha ; which letter contained the modest re- 

 quest that Don Lorenzo should place his house at my disposal. This 

 he acceded to without hesitation, removing his sick wife, in spite of re- 

 monstrance, into another room, and giving us his hall for our baggage, 

 and his chamber for our sleeping room. This I would not have acceded 

 to, except that this is not Don Lorenzo's place of residence, but a new 

 house which he is constructing here, and which he is only staying at 

 for a few days till his wife is able to travel to their regular place of 

 residence. There is no public house in the town, and it is customary 

 to take travellers in. When I (next morning) presented a letter of 

 introduction from the Bishop of Eretria to the Cura of Tarma, his first 

 question was, "Where are you lodged?"' And when I told him, he 

 seemed annoyed, and said that I had not treated him properly in not 

 coming to his house. Don Lorenzo gave us some dinner, and we slept 

 well after the fatigues of the day. 



Tarma, a town of some seven thousand inhabitants, belonging to the 

 province of Pasco and department of Junin, is beautifully situated in 

 an amphitheatre of mountains, which are clothed nearly to the top 

 with waving fields of barley. The valley in front, about half a mile 

 wide, and two miles long, appears level, and is covered with the 

 greenest and richest pasturage. Its borders are fringed with fruit trees ; 



