66 



doubly uncertain, since he knows not whethor 

 he places his foot on the ridge, or in the furrow. 

 As few persons in easy circumstances travel on 

 foot, in these climates, through roads so difficult, 

 during fifteen or twenty days together, they are 

 carried by men in a chair, tied on their back ; for 

 in the present state of the passage of Quindiu, it 

 would be impossible to go on mules. They talk 

 in this country of going on a man's back (andar 

 en carguero), as we mention going on horse- 

 back, no humiliating idea is annexed to the 

 trade of cargueroes ; and the men who follow 

 this occupation are not Indians, but mulattoes, 

 and sometimes even whites. It is often curious 

 to hear these men, with scarcely any covering, 

 and following a profession which we should con- 

 sider so disgraceful, quarrelling in the midst of a 

 forest, because one has refused the other, who 

 pretends to have a whiter .skin, the pompous title 

 of don, or of su merced. The usual load of 

 a carguero is six or seven arrobas (from seventy- 

 five to eighty-eight kilogrammes *) : those who 

 are very strong, carry as much us nine arrobas. 

 When we reflect on the enormous fatigue, to 

 which these miserable men are exposed, jour- 

 neying eight or nine hours a day over a moun- 

 tainous country; when we know, that their 



* For the correspondent English and French weights, see 

 he table at the end of the volume. 



