NOTICES OP PERU. 



355 



sured step, in her saya y manto, followed by a little negress 

 bearing the rug upon which her mistress bowed the knee be- 

 fore her saint, and sent her oraisons to heaven. 



The hours of prayer had scarcely passed away, before the 

 ear was saluted with the tones of the guitar and rude harp ; 

 the sounds of moving feet, the laugh, and all the noise of jolly 

 mirth. 



On the fourth day of October we took a ride into the coun- 

 try. We visited a vineyard, which covers more than a hun- 

 dred acres, where black grapes only are grown, but the vines 

 were not very carefully tended. From the black grape, large 

 quantities of pisco or aguardiente (brandy) are distilled in this 

 Department, and exported to different parts of Peru. We left 

 the vineyard and passed over an extensive formation of chalk, 

 through which a channel or canal was cut, many centuries ago, 

 by the aborigines. A bridge of chalk was left for the purpose 

 of crossing. A little further on, we came to the Salinas or salt 

 beds. The surface looked as if it had been boiled and suddenly 

 cooled, leaving little ridges running over it in every direction. 

 We rode at least a league on the salt, when we came to a spot 

 where several men were cutting it into cakes of about two feet 

 long, one broad, and about six inches thick. Where the salt 

 had been taken out, there were ponds of water of a reddish color, 

 and indeed the whole may be compared to a frozen lake with 

 holes cut into it. Although almost any amount of salt is ob- 

 tainable, the expense of conveying it to the coast is so great 

 that the Salinas cannot be worked with profit. This salt, like 

 all that found along the coast, is so contaminated with nitre, 

 lime, and magnesia, that it is unfit for preserving beef or any 

 kind of meat. 



Not far from the Salinas is an extensive sugar estate, known 

 by the name of Caueato. Before the revolution it was worked 

 by twelve hundred slaves, but since that period it has gone 

 almost to ruin, and the slaves are reduced to less than five 

 hundred, and who are not at all subordinate. There are 

 several mills upon it for grinding the cane, which are worked 

 by oxen ; the only water mill is now out of repair. They 

 were making a brown sugar of an inferior quality, termed 



