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PASCO. 



house, who was very drunk. His wife told us next morning that he 

 came near killing her with his knife, and would infallibly have beaten 

 her, but that she told him " those strangers were soldiers, and would 

 shoot him if he did." Her naive way of telling how she managed the 

 man, and got off from the beating, was quite amusing. The accent of 

 these people is a sort of sliding drawl that makes every voice alike. 

 They use an imperfect Quichna or Inca language, which I am told is 

 only spoken perfectly in the neighborhood of Cuzco. 



Our route now approached the Western Cordillera fast. About three 

 miles from the tambo the plain began to be broken into rolling hills. 

 The direction of the road, which had been W. N. W., changed to 

 N. W. by N., and crossed them. After crossing a range we stopped to 

 breakfast at a collection of a few huts, where I was amused at an 

 instance of the apathy of the people. A very common reply to the 

 inquiry of the traveller if he can have such and such things, is "manam 

 cancha" (there is none ; we haven't it ) We rode up to the door of a 

 hut, the mistress of which was sitting " knitting in the sun" at the back 

 of it. She heard our horses' tread, and too lazy to change her position, 

 without seeing us or ascertaining if we wanted anything, she screamed 

 out "manam cancha." Ijurra abused her terribly; and we had our 

 water boiled (which was all we wanted) at another hut. The Viuda 

 pass of the Cordillera, which is generally crossed by travellers between 

 Lima and Cerro Pasco, was in view from this place, bearing S. 30° W. 

 Immediately after starting, we began passing haciendas for the grinding 

 of ores and getting out silver. They are situated on small streams that 

 come from either the Eastern or Western Cordillera, and that find their 

 way into Lake Chinchaycocha. They all seem dry at this season; 

 and none of the haciendas are at work. Passed the old village of 

 Pasco. This was once the great mining station, but, since the discovery 

 of the mines at the Cerro, it is falling into decay. Three miles from this 

 the country becomes more hilly and rocky, losing the character of 

 Pampa. The passage of a low, but abrupt chain of hills, brings the 

 traveller in view of Cerro Pasco. The view from this point is a most 

 extraordinary one. I can compare it to nothing so fitly as the looking 

 from the broken and rugged edges of a volcano into the crater beneath. 

 The traveller sees small houses, built, without regard to regularity, on 

 small hills, with mounds of earth and deep cavities in their very midst ; 

 and mud chimneys of ancient furnaces, contrasting strikingly with the 

 more graceful funnel of the modern steam engine; the huge cross 

 erected on the hill of Sta. Catalina, near the middle of the city, which 

 his fancy may suppose placed there to guard, with its holy presence, 



