42 VOLUNTEERS. 



much the fashion, made of wool and cotton, with ear-flaps, and strings 

 to tie under the chin. The ladies, at church, wear black silk dresses, 

 fancy silk shawls and stockings ; bonnets are not yet worn. On Saturday, 

 the shoemakers enter the plaza, where their wives and daughters sell the 

 week's work. It is an amusing sight to see the inhabitants trying on 

 shoes ; gentlemen take this opportunity to compliment the ladies upon 

 their small feet, which never offends. 



The city of Cuzco has a scanty population. The department contains 

 346,031 souls. There are very few African slaves in the southern de- 

 partments. 



I found a very friendly disposition towards the expedition, with a 

 desire to aid me. The prefect offered twenty soldiers as an escort in 

 the low country, to the east of the Andes. A number of young men 

 volunteered to accompany me. A meeting of the citizens was held for 

 the purpose of forming a company to join me. At their suggestion, the 

 President of Peru was applied to for the payment of twenty thousand 

 dollars, appropriated by Congress, for the exploration of the Rio Madre- 

 de-Dios, supposed to be the same with the river Purus, rising among the 

 mountains to the eastward of Cuzco. I was very much pleased also to 

 hear a spirited young officer had applied to command the soldiers. 

 From investigation made, I learned that the head of the Rio Madre-de- 

 Dios, was some distance beyond the line between civilization and the 

 savages, the Chuncho Indians. 



September 16. — The day for my departure had arrived, but neither 

 volunteers nor regulars were ready. Richards was sick, and left behind 

 with the baggage. The party was reduced to Jose and an Indian boy, 

 who drove an old horse, with a box of instruments, a little camp furni- 

 ture, and biscuit as his load. The mules were in good order. We 

 mounted the hills to the left of the valley, taking the short or twelve 

 leagues road to Porcatambo. The wind and course were easterly, with 

 a cold rain falling in small drops; temperature of a spring, 60°; the air, 

 54°. A bridge over the river Urabamba is constructed of brush-wood 

 cables. Our mules gave much trouble to get them across. Jose was 

 sent some distance below to wade the mule — "Bill" — as a phthisically 

 fat woman declared his heels were too dangerous to her charge — the 

 bridge. The river flows north, between mountains, ranging north and 

 south, with perpendicular strata of rock and red clay, and is a tributary 

 of the Santa Ana. We met droves of mules, loaded with bales of the 

 coca leaf, on their way to Cuzco. At daylight, in the morning, as we 

 entered a deep gorge, the warm east breezes, mixed with the cold moun- 

 tain air, remind me of spring time at home. A well-dressed old In- 



