242 



CHURCH SERVICE. 



Huacho to Equador, there northerly winds bring rain, and there is 

 another market. 



The Indian loads his llama with one hundred pounds of salt, and 

 drives him up the western slope of the Peruvian mountains, through a 

 gorge filled with snow, over sixteen thousand feet high, to the plains of 

 Juaja. 



While the Potosi Indian loads his argentine mule with three hundred 

 pounds of salt, not from the ocean, but from the salt lakes on the plains 

 of Potosi, made by the natural evaporation of the sun from afresh water 

 stream on the top of the Andes, running over rock salt ; he, too, takes 

 it under the rain-belt to the market of Mojos. If salt may be made so 

 readily from the water of the sea at Turk's Island in the West Indies, why 

 may it not be made somewhere on the west coast of Mexico? The 

 scorching rays of the sun peel the skin off people's noses there just as 

 they do on the table lands of Potosi, and along the shores of Peru. 



The town of Trinidad is the largest in Mojos, with a population of 

 over three thousand, few of which are Creoles. The national Creole guard 

 musters about twenty soldiers and five officers, headed by the prefect 

 with the rank of General de Brigada, armed with old flint lock 

 muskets. One common gun-flint will purchase, in the market, a basket 

 containing one dozen delicious oranges. The flint part of Don Antonio's 

 cargo was disposed of at once, and the silver willingly paid. He brought 

 a supply for a long time to come, even at the risk of a revolution. Ex- 

 ternal wars have never interfered with Mojos, except the war of exclu- 

 siveness. 



On the 6th of June, mass was held in the cathedral, the day being 

 called Santissima Trinidada. After mass we witnessed a grand proces- 

 sion, headed by the prefect and clergy, followed by the whole population 

 dressed in white gowns, " camecitas," as they are called here. When- 

 ever the Indians are performing church service, the women unplat their 

 hair, and allow it to hang gracefully loose behind over their white 

 dresses. The hair of the men is cut short. 



At each corner of the plaza was an arbor, constructed of green foliage 

 and flowers, with plantain trees and palm leaves. As they marched 

 round to music and singing, the scene was beautiful and interesting. 

 The red race dressed in white cotton cloth, following the catholic clergy 

 in rich costume, bearing wooden images on their shoulders; three 

 thousand savages, half civilized, were singing church music, and living 

 under the laws of quasi white men. The few Creoles who walked by the 

 side of the prefect and clergy were but a drop in the plate. 



After the procession returned to the cathedral, the Indians pulled 



