SUCRE. 



153 



We mounted our mules, which were saddled and fastened under a lemon 

 tree, early in the morning. After passing through the rich gardens of 

 Calacala, we wound our way through small bushes and cactus to the 

 hacienda " Miraflores," where the people go in the month of January 

 every year to eat strawberries and cream. As we rode up to the house an 

 old Indian's head appeared on the one side of a pea-patch in full flower, 

 as the sun peeped through a gorge in the mountains on the other. We 

 were admiring the rich growth of vegetation at the base of the great 

 mountain range, where green fields of barley appear at the mouth of a 

 deep ravine, when we suddenly heard a crash, and looking round, saw 

 Richards with mule, saddle, and gear falling over the rocky ground, 

 for there was no road, and we had to take it rough and tumble ; for- 

 tunately there was nothing broken except the saddle girth and the stock 

 of a gun, which the old Indian kindly enough assisted us in repairing, 

 and sent his little boy to show us a path leading up the mountain side, 

 dry and unproductive for some distance. Our mules were in fine con- 

 dition, but suffered in the steep ascent, being rather fat for such work. 

 We met jackasses descending with loads of potatoes, beans, peas, barley, 

 and oca, a species of potato, of a purple color, which is boiled and eaten 

 as a vegetable, or put in chupe. The Indians pay great attention to the 

 cultivation of the oca ; its vine resembles the bean plant. Proceeding still 

 further, we met with good pasture for cattle. The oxen were in fine 

 condition, equal to those in the valley below. Here the Indians and 

 their families live the year round, cultivating their little gardens for the 

 markets of Cochabamba. Our mules are wet with perspiration, and we 

 gain an uncultivated and uninhabited region, clothed in a thick sod of 

 mountain grasses. The whistle of the vicuna is heard, and we dis- 

 mounted to get a shot at three large partridges, the size of hens, the 

 "Perdiz Grande," which are found on the pampas of Buenos Ayres. 

 Our mules suddenly turn gray by frost formed on the ends of their hair. 

 The clouds are forming, and we seat ourselves under their cool shade to 

 breakfast, with a snow-capped mountain above, and far below the valley 

 and city in full view. The farther side of the valley appears tilted up 

 out of its level ; beyond are the everlasting mountains. 



The road through those hills leads south to the capital Sucre, with a 

 population of 19,235. Sucre was founded by the title of "La Plata," 

 silver, in a district known in the early days of the Spaniards as "Char- 

 cas." It was afterwards changed to " Chuqui Chaca," the Indian name 

 for "gold place." It seems to have been a doubtful question among the 

 Spaniards which was most appropriate, a golden or a silver title, both 

 metals being found there. The republicans called the country after 

 u their Washington," as Bolivar is often spoken of. 



