TEA. 



135 



After all the preparations which I have detailed were completed 

 (and it required only three days to finish them), the peons sallied 

 forth from the yerba colony by couples. I accompanied two of the 

 stoutest and best of them. They had with them no other weapon 

 than a small axe ; no other clothing than a girdle round their waist 

 and a red cap on their head ; no other provision than a cigar, and 

 a cow's horn filled with water ; and they were animated by no 

 other hope or desire, that I could perceive, than those of soon 

 discovering a part of the wood thickly studded with the yerba tree. 

 They also desired to find it as near as possible to the colonial en- 

 campment, in order that the labor of carrying the rough branches 

 to the scene of operations might be as much as possible dhninished. 



We had scarcely skirted for a quarter of a mile the woods which 

 shut in the valley where we were bivouacked, when we came upon 

 numerous clumps of the yerba tree. It was of all sizes, from that 

 of the shrub to that of the ftdl-grown orange tree ; the leaves of it 

 were very like those of that beautiful production. The smaller the 

 plant, the better is the tea which is taken from it considered 

 to be. 



To work with their hatchets went the peons, and in less than a 

 couple of hours they had gathered a mountain of branches, and 

 piled them up in the form of a haystaclv. Both of them then filled 

 their large ponchos with the coveted article of commerce in its raw 

 state, and they marched off" with their respective loads. Having 

 deposited this first load within the precincts of the colony, the 

 peons returned for a second, and so on till they had cleared away 

 the whole mass of branches and of leaves cut and collected during 

 that day. When I returned to the colony I found the peons 

 coming by two and two, from every part of the valley, all laden in 

 the same way. There were twenty tatacuas, twenty barbacues, 

 and twenty piles of the yerba cut and ready for manufacture. Two 

 days after that the whole colony was in a blaze, tatacuas and bar- 

 bacues were enveloped in smoke ; on the third day all was stowed 

 away in the shed ; and on the fourth the peons again went out to 

 procure more of the boughs and leaves." — (^Letters on JParaguay, 

 vol. ii. p. 142—147). 



Each peon or laborer, going into the Vvoods for six months, 

 can procure eight arrobas, or 200 lbs. of yerba a day. This, at the 

 rate of two rials, or Is. for each arroba, would make his wages per 

 day 8s. ; and this for six months' work, at six days in the Vv^eek, 

 would produce to the laborer a sum of £57 12s. 



Wilcockes, in his " History of Buenos Ayres," published in 1807, 

 states : — " Though the herb is principally bought by the merchants 

 of Buenos Ayres, it is not to that place that it is carried, no more 

 being sent thither than is wanted for the consumption of its in- 

 habitants and those of the vicinity ; but the greatest part is dis- 

 patched to Santa Fe and Cordova, thence to be forwarded to Potosi 

 and Mendoza. The quantity exported to Peru is estimated at 

 100,000 arrobas, and to Chile 40,000. The remainder is consumed 

 ui Paraguay, Tucuman, and the other provinces. It is com^eyed 



