TERRITORY OF THE CHUNCHO SAVAGES. 47 



drink it as tea. There is a constant demand for it. Those who work in 

 the mines are inveterate chewers. On long journeys, or while undergoing 

 fatigue of any kind, it supplies the place of the tobacco leaf. It has 

 a soothing effect. Slacked lime or ashes from certain roots are used by 

 some of the old chewers to give it a finer flavor. The plant can only 

 be raised in a moist climate. It is never found in the deep valleys of 

 the Andes. It offers the most important inland trade in the department 

 of Cuzco, and is the inducement for settlers to venture to the base of the 

 Andes. Though the tropical productions can be raised, they are seldom 

 cultivated to great extent. Coffee, sugar-cane, cotton, rice, chocolate, 

 tobacco, limes, and lemons, are to be had. The padre pays attention to 

 experimental farming and cattle raising; he has a little drove, a few cows 

 brought from the tops of the Andes ; also ducks, pigeons, and chickens, 

 which he feeds upon corn cultivated by his own hands. His upland 

 rice is fine, without flooding. The padre is a perfect representative of 

 Robinson Crusoe ; though he has no goats, he has four dogs. An old 

 Santa Cruz soldier acts as his man Friday. In his little hut he has a 

 few books and two old hats. He wears one when he works on his 

 farm, the other an old hen lays an egg in every day. He seems to be 

 happy, but said he wanted very much to go home to Italy, by the way 

 of the Rio Madre-de-Dios and the Amazon, for he thought if he could 

 find a road to the Atlantic by which his countrymen might come up, he 

 would make a fortune. 



I had arrived at the end of the road for mules. The only way to 

 shorten the distance between us and the Atlantic was to dismount and 

 cut a way through the forest on foot. The undergrowth is so thick, 

 that it is difficult to see where the tigers and other wild animals get 

 through. 



Jose was left in charge of the mules. With a barometer and poncho 

 slung to my back, revolver in belt, long knife in hand, I pushed through 

 the woods, accompanied by the padre, Leechler, and four Indians ; the 

 padre whistled up his dogs. After a most difficult struggle, twelve hours 

 brought us to the bank of the Cosnipata river, in the territory of the 

 Chuncho savages. The stream is very swift, with a rocky bed, forty 

 yards wide ; the water of greenish color. This stream takes its rise to 

 the south, in the mountains of Carabaya, where the people are washing 

 for gold. The day's march was through a level country, with the ex- 

 ception of two small hills. Leechler shot two wild turkeys, and a fine 

 fish, which helped out boiled rice and parched corn for supper. We 

 had been very much bitten by ants and stung by bees. The right arms 

 were tired of cutting a way with the machetes. According to our 



