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CHINCHAO. 



distance of four miles, and so steep that we preferred to walk and lead 

 our beasts,) that the pass is full eight thousand feet above the level of the 

 sea ; Cashi being six thousand five hundred and forty feet. 



There is said to be a superb view of the Montana from the summit 

 of this hill, but the clouds (almost within reach of the hand) boiling up 

 from the great deep below effectually cut it off, and we could see 

 nothing. When we had got some distance down, and obtained a view 

 through an opening in the thick growth of the mountain-side, we looked 

 down upon the most rugged country I have ever seen. There seemed 

 to be no order or regularity in the hills, which were thickly covered with 

 forest ; but the whole had the appearance of the surface of a vast boiling 

 caldron suddenly stricken motionless. Just at the summit, and where 

 the road turns to descend, hundreds of little wooden crosses were placed 

 in the niches of the rock — votive offerings of the pious arrieros, either 

 of gratitude for dangers passed, or for protection against dangers to 

 come, in the ascent or descent of the mountain. 



We walked down the descent, leading the beasts. The road was very 

 rocky and muddy, and the mountain-side was clad with small trees and 

 thick undergrowth. There were many creepers and parasitical plants, 

 some of them very graceful and pretty. We stopped, at six, at a tambo 

 called Cashi, built on a plat, about half-way down the mountain. We 

 found our place of rest very agreeable ; night clear, calm, and cold. 



July 24. — An hour's travel brought us to the bottom of the hill, 

 where we encountered the Chinchao valley coming down from the right. 

 We crossed the stream that flowed through it, and travelled down the 

 valley on its right bank, the road rising and falling on the sides of the 

 hills. The character of the rock is a dark slate-stone, with occasional 

 beds of gypsum. At seven miles from the tambo we passed the village 

 of Chinchao, containing twelve houses and a church, with cotton, coffee, 

 orange, and plantain trees scattered about the village. A pretty shrub, 

 bearing a gay, red flower, in appearance like our crape myrtle, bor- 

 dered the road-side. It is called San Juan, because it blooms about 

 St. John's day, the 24th of June, like the Amancaes at Lima. The 

 cultivation of the coca commences here. 



I brought a letter from the sub-prefect at Huanuco, for the governor 

 of Chinchao, but he was absent at his chacra, and not to be found. 

 We then asked for the lieutenant governor ; but though there seemed, 

 from the general account, to be such a person, we could not find out 

 exactly who he was, or where he lived. The arriero said he lived " a 

 little lower down ;" but at every house at which we called in our descent 

 the reply still was mas abajo, (yet lower.) At last we seemed to have 



