120 



ST A. MARIA DEL VALLE. 



honest individual. I afterwards ascertained that he was not an Ameri- 

 can, but a German. 



July 22. — Much to my annoyance our servant Mauricio deserted this 

 morning. Ijurra accuses me of having spoiled him by indulgence ; and 

 I, on the other hand, think that he had disgusted him by tyranny. I 

 imagine he went back to Lima with Castillo, a young man who had 

 been governor of the district of Tarapoto, on the Huallaga, and who 

 was going to Lima with stuffed birds' skins to sell. This was an intelli- 

 gent young man, who gave me information about the Montana. He 

 said I would be amply protected in my contemplated voyage up the 

 Ucayali with twenty -five Chasutinos, (Indians of Chasuta,) for they 

 were a brave and hardy people ; but that the Cocamas and Cocamillos, 

 from about the mouth of the river, were great cowards, and would 

 desert me on the first appearance of the savages — that they had so 

 treated him. I rather suspect that the reason for Don Mauricio's shabby 

 behavior was, that we were getting into his own country, and that he 

 had private reasons for desiring to avoid a visit home. He had asked 

 me at Tarma to let him go with Gibbon. 



Our arriero made his appearance at noon, instead of early in the 

 morning, as he had promised ; but we are now getting used to this. 

 We did not ride our own mules, as they were sick and not in condition 

 to travel, and the arriero supplied us with others. I got a horse, but 

 did not derive much benefit from the exchange. Our course lay down 

 the valley N. E., crossing the river soon after leaving the town by a rude 

 bridge floored with the leaves of the maguey. We found the road good, 

 but rocky, principally with the debris of quartz. Gold is occasionally 

 found, but in small quantities, in the mountains bordering this valley. 

 At six miles from Huanuco we passed the village of Sta. Maria del 

 Voile, of three hundred inhabitants. We stopped and took some fruit 

 and pisco with the curate, to whom also I had a letter from Lima. 



Every traveller in this country should provide himself with letters of 

 introduction. People, it is true, will receive him without them, but do 

 not use that cordial and welcome manner which is so agreeable. 



The cura had some fifty or sixty new and well-bound books on shelves, 

 and seemed a man superior to the generality of his class. He said that 

 Valle was a poor place, producing only sugar-cane, which the inhabitants 

 put to no other use than to make huarapo to drink ; and that, if it were 

 not for the neighborhood of Huanuco, he thought that he should starve. 

 Huarapo is the fermented juice of the cane, and is a very pleasant drink 

 of a hot day. 



We saw a few sheep and goats after leaving the village. The trees 



