116 



HUANUCO. 



replanted every ten or fifteen years. It is fit for cutting in twelve 

 months after planting. This is a very extensive establishment ; and Mr. 

 Dyer, besides his cane -fields, which are on the river side, cultivates a 

 farm for raising wheat, maize, peas, beans, and potatoes, on the hills 

 above. 



We left Quicacan at noon, in company with Mr. Dyer and my French 

 friend ; stopped at another hacienda, about a mile and a half from 

 this, belonging to a gentleman named Ingunza, and at another a little 

 lower down, called Andabamba, belonging to Seiior San Miguel, to 

 whom I brought letters from Lima. All these, with another on the 

 same road, belonged to a Colonel Lucar, of Huanuco, who gave them 

 to these gentlemen, his sons-in-law. Quicacan was the family mansion, 

 and had been longest under cultivation. At half-past four we arrived 

 at Huanuco, and, presenting a letter to Colonel Lucar, from his son-in- 

 law Dyer, we were kindly received, and lodgings appointed us in his 

 spacious and commodious house. 



July 17. — Huanuco is one of the most ancient cities in Peru. It is 

 prettily situated on the left bank of the Huanuco or Huallaga river, 

 which is here about forty yards wide, and at this time (the dry season) 

 about two feet deep in the channel. It, however, every two or three 

 hundred yards, runs over rocks or a gravelly bed, which makes it 

 entirely innavigable, even for canoes, though when the river is up I 

 believe articles are transported on it from hacienda to hacienda in small 

 scows. A smaller stream, called the Higueros, empties into it just 

 above the city. 



The houses are built of adobe, with tile roofs, and almost all have 

 large gardens attached to them — so that the city covers a good deal of 

 ground without having many houses. The gardens are filled with 

 vegetables and fruit-trees, and make delightful places of recreation 

 during the warmer parts of the day. 



The population numbers from four to five thousand. They seem to 

 be a simple and primitive people ; and, like all who have little to do, 

 are much attached to religious ceremonies — there being no less than 

 fifteen churches in the city, some of them quite large and handsome. 

 The people are civil and respectful, and, save a curious stare now and 

 then at my spectacles and red beard, -are by no means offensive in their 

 curiosity, as Smyth represents them to have been some seventeen years 

 ago. 



The trade of the place is with Cerro Pasco on the one hand, and the 

 villages of the Huallaga on the other. It sends chancaca, tobacco, fruit, 

 and vegetables to the Cerro, and receives foreign goods (mostly English) 



