CULTIVATION OF COCA. 



185 



both long. Those designed to shoot fish were beautifully made and 

 fitted ; the points or heads of hard black wood ; the arrow a reed, with 

 colored feathers. 



Jose is again at a loss to understand the Indian language, so we make 

 use of Cornelio, who is an old friend among these people, and seems to 

 be popular. They see him often on the road which passes through their 

 hunting grounds. The cap the Indian wears upon his head, Cornelio 

 says, was purchased in Cochabamba, Indian like, instead of buying 

 corn for the road. 



Maize and yuca serve the men here as bread. Coffee, chocolate, and 

 sugar are their groceries ; beans and pepper their vegetables ; oranges, 

 papayas, plantains, and bananas, their fruits. The Creole is constantly 

 pulling at the tobacco- leaf to roll up in a corn- husk as a cigar. He im- 

 ports rice, and flour when he can get it ; gunpowder, shot, fish-hooks 

 and lines. 



This coca business is superintended by a person who employs men 

 from the valley of Cochabamba, willing to seek their fortunes in the 

 wilderness at the rate of twenty-five cents a day. One of the workmen 

 was kind enough to swing my hamac under a shed ; he and a compan- 

 ion slept in a bed close by. The contents of a pot were puffing up ; the 

 man ran through the dark to its relief; taking the pot from off two stones, 

 he politely invited me to join them at supper. Our light was from the 

 burning chunks of wood, and a huligry dog kept watch around us, and 

 barked when he heard a noise in the woods. The employer of this 

 hospitable man paid him fifteen dollars per annum; clothed him in 

 coarse cotton, lodged him under a shed, and we found his supper of rice 

 very good. Our host was a mestizo, from the town of Sacaba, in the 

 valley of Cochabamba. He expressed great desire to return home. 

 "The climate is more agreeable," he said ; "there is less sickness, and 

 there we have nothing to do. The life is a gay one ; we play upon the 

 guitar, dance, and sing with the girls, and live an easy life. The girls 

 won't come down here for fear of los animales (wild beasts). We get 

 no mutton for our chupe. Ah, Senor ! above all, we never see a cup of 

 chicha ; but with hoe in hand, we go to the coca patch at sunrise in 

 the morning, and there remain during the day, only leaving it in case of 

 a heavy rain." 



We tried to convince this honest laborer he was doing a better work 

 for his children and his country by cultivating coffee, chocolate, and 

 sugar, than by dancing, music, and drinking chicha. He laughingly 

 shook his head, and said, " the children must take care of themselves as 

 I have done ; and as to the country, we are yet without law in Espiritu 



