TOPOGRAPHY. 



345 



this spot terminated eleven leagues of a wide road, capable of 

 admitting, without the smallest risk, mules and droves of 

 cattle, and completed in ten months only, by so small a num- 

 ber as a hundred men, constantly employed, and stimulated 

 to fulfil their engagement by ample encouragement. In this 

 distri6t three bridges were built, one over the river named 

 Santa Rosa, another over the Yanamayo, and the third over the 

 stream Xincartambo. A lake denominated Negrococha, which 

 was a great obstacle to the passage, was drained : the Indians, 

 impressed with an old and superstitious belief, that of three 

 who should attempt to cross, one would be drowned, would 

 not venture on the trial, each dreading least he should be the 

 unfortunate third, the one doomed to destru6lion. The 

 grounds having been cleared for that purpose, a variety of 

 esculent grains were planted ; and this was followed by the 

 introduftion of a herd of cattle, which, as there is an abun- 

 dance of good pasturages, at the same time that there are not, 

 in the whole of that territory, any of the larger tribes of ve- 

 nomous creatures, afford, to the new settlers, the prospe<Sl; of 

 a prodigious increase. 



We must not omit the discoveries made, in this under- 

 taking, to the advantage of the public, and of natural his- 

 tory. Bezares met with a description of very lofty trees, the 

 wood of which is unknown, but valuable, not only because, 

 with all its solidity, it yields with equal suppleness to the plane 

 and the chisel ; but likewise on account of its semi-violet co- 

 lour, by which it appears to be, in preference to any other 

 wood, adapted to the purpose of dyeing. He found another 

 tree which produces, in the shoots of its branches, a resinous 

 substance in grains, of a greenish hue, which, as he proved it 



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