52 



Indians, and cultivated with the greatest care. 

 This delightful plain is bounded by two ravines 

 extremely deep, on the brink of which preci- 

 pices the houses of the village of Purac6 are 

 built. Waters spring out profusely from the 

 porphyritic rock ; every garden is enclosed by a 

 hedge of euphorbiums (lechero) with slender 

 leaves, and of the most delicate green. No- 

 thing is more agreeable than the contrast of 

 this beautiful verdure with the chain of black 

 and arid mountains, which surround the volcano, 

 and which are cleft and torn asunder by earth- 

 quakes. 



The small village of Purac6, which we visited 

 in the month of November, 1801, is celebrated 

 in the country for the beautiful cataracts of the 

 river Pusambio, the waters of which are acid, 

 and called by the Spaniards Rio Vinagre. This 

 small river is warm toward its source, and pro- 

 bably owes its origin to the daily melting of the 

 snows, and the sulphur that burns in the interior 

 of the volcano. It forms, near the plain of Co- 

 razan, three cataracts, the two uppermost of 

 which are very considerable. The second of 

 these falls fchorrerasj, I have sketched in the 

 30th plate, as it is seen from the garden of an 

 Indian, near the house of the missionary of 

 Purace, who is a franciscan monk. The water, 

 which makes its way through a cavern, preci- 

 pitates itself down more than a hundred and 



