TINGO MARIA. 



137 



Any number of mules may be bad in Lima at a bire of about seventy- 

 five cents a day. I paid more; but tbis was to be expected, for I 

 bargained witb tbe muleteers that tbey were to stop where I pleased, 

 and as long as I pleased. The feed of a mule will average twelve and 

 a half cents per day. The load is two hundred and sixty pounds. 



It would be difficult to persuade a muleteer to take a traveller all the 

 distance. They do not like to leave their own beat, and the traveller 

 has to change his mules, on an average, every hundred miles. 



The passage of the Cordillera at the season of the year when we 

 crossed is neither very tedious nor laborious. In fact, we enjoyed much 

 the magnificent scenery ; we were pleased with the manners and habits 

 of a primitive people ; and we met hospitality and kindness everywhere. 

 In the season of the rains, however, the passage must be both difficult 

 and dangerous. 



August 2. — Tingo Maria is a prettily -situated village, of forty-eight 

 able-bodied men, and an entire population of one hundred and eighty- 

 eight. This includes those who are settled at Juana del Rio and the 

 houses within a mile or two. 



The pueblo is situated in a plain on the left bank of the river, 

 which is about six miles in length, and three miles in its broadest part, 

 where the mountains back of it recede in a semi-circle from the river. 

 The height above the level of the sea is two thousand two hundred and 

 sixty feet. The productions of the plain are sugar-cane, rice, cotton, 

 tobacco, indigo, maize, sweet potatoes, yuccas, sachapapa, or potato of 

 the woods, (the large, mealy, purple-streaked tuberous root of a vine, in 

 taste like a yam, and very good food.) The woods are stocked with 

 game — such as pumas, or American tigers; deer; peccary, or wild 

 hog; ronsoco, or river hog; monkeys, &c. For birds — are several 

 varieties of " curassow" a large bird, something like a turkey, but with, 

 generally, a red bill, a crest, and shining blue-black plumage ; a delicate 

 "pava del monte" or wild turkey ; a great variety of parrots ; with 

 large, black, wild ducks, and cormorants. There are also rattlesnakes 

 and vipers. But even with all these, I would advise no traveller to 

 trust to his gun for support. The woods are so thick and tangled with 

 undergrowth that no one but an Indian can penetrate them, and no 

 eyes but those of an Indian could see the game. Even he only hunts 

 from necessity, and will rarely venture into the thick forest alone, for 

 fear of the tiger or the viper. There are also good and delicate fish in 

 the river, but in no great abundance. 



The inhabitants are of a tribe called Cholones, which was once large 

 and powerful. I like their character better than that of any Indians 



