83 



FARMING IN THE MONTANA. 



the not distant fires of the savages. Seiior Zapatero told me that he 

 had contracted with a workman to build him a large adobe house on 

 his hacienda, well fitted with doors and windows of good wood, and 

 tiled, to make it fire-proof, for eight hundred dollars. The same house 

 in Tarma would cost him between three and four thousand, on account 

 of the exceeding difficulty of getting the wood from the Montana. 

 He is a Catalan, and seems a resolute fellow. He thinks that the gov- 

 ernment may withdraw the troops from the fort at any time ; but says 

 that he has four swivels, which he means to mount around his house ; 

 and, as he has expended much labor and money on his hacienda, he will 

 hold on to the last extremity, and not give up his property without a 

 tussle. 



It is a pity that there are not more like him, for many acres of fine 

 land are lying uncultivated in Chanchamayo on account of this fear ; 

 and several of our Tarma friends offered us title deeds to large tracts of 

 land there, because a feeling of insecurity regarding the stability of the 

 government prevented them from expending time and money in the 

 cultivation of them. Another such administration as that just closed 

 under President Castilla will dissipate this apprehension ; and then, if 

 the Peruvian government would invite settlers, giving them the means 

 of reaching there, and appropriating a very small sum for their main- 

 tenance till they could clear the forest and gather their first fruits, I 

 have no doubt that fifty years would see settlements pushed to the 

 navigable head waters of the Ucayali, and the colonists would find pur- 

 chasers for the rich and varied products of their lands at their very 

 doors. 



June 23. — We started on the return to Tarma, accompanied by the 

 commandant and his servant. We walked up a part of the hill at Rio 

 Seco. This is very hard work. I could not stand it more than half 

 way, and made the mule carry me over the rest. It takes one hour to 

 ascend, and an hour and a quarter to descend. Camped at Utcuyacu. 



June 24. — Missing my saddle bags, which had some money in them, 

 we sent Mariano, (our Tarma servant,) accompanied by the servant of 

 the commandant, back to a place some distance the other side of the 

 big hill, where the saddle bags had been taken off to adjust the saddle. 

 He started at six ; we at eight, following our return track. We made 

 the longest and hardest day's ride we had yet made ; and were much 

 surprised at being joined by the servants with the saddle-bags by nine 

 p. m. They must have travelled at least thirty-six miles over these 

 terrible roads, crossing the big hill twice, and ascending quite two 

 thousand feet. Gibbon did not believe it. He thought — and with 



