886 THREE YEARS IN THE PACIFIC, 



gave him a seat behind me. In this way we got through the 

 sand, and came out upon hard ground, planted with low cedars 

 and willow. The road then passed through rice fields, which 

 were overflowed from a neighboring acequia. 



About one o'clock, under a burning sun, we entered the 

 pueblo of San Pedro, which consists of an assemblage of adobe 

 houses and ranches, sufficient in number to accommodate about 

 five hundred inhabitants. It rejoices in a small church, a bil- 

 liard table, and a gambling house, where we found several 

 groups engaged at cards and monte-al-dao, for reales and dol- 

 lars. 



We paid a visit to the governor, a short fat man of the In- 

 dian caste, who unites in his person the offices of captain of 

 the port, tailor, and shopkeeper. A little band-box of a room, 

 with a counter in front, formed his ti6nda, which was stored 

 with American cottons, coarse cloth, white wax, candles, hard- 

 ware, besides sundry cheeses suspended in little nets from the 

 ceiling. His sitting room was furnished with three leather 

 backed chairs, a low table, four tumblers, and a black bottle, 

 from which he regaled us with a potation of pisco and water. 

 He was warm in praise of the quiet of San Pedro, and men- 

 tioned, in proof of its prosperous condition, that a piano had 

 been lately imported, which was the delight of " todas las don- 

 cellas del pueblo," — the delight of all the maids in the place. 

 In spite of the apparent want of comfort, he received us with 

 great cordiality, and presented us with cigars, and had fire 

 brought in a silver brazero of fine filigree in the form of a bird. 

 This <^filigrana" of silver, as it is termed, is manufactured at 

 Huamanga, or Ayacucho, by the Indians, into a variety of 

 baskets, birds, &c., which are very beautiful, and many have 

 been carried to Europe and the United States, by travellers, as 

 curiosities. 



Our friend the <*teni6nte," invited us to visit his cousins, 

 one of whom, he told us, was married to a lieutenant-colonel, 

 and we consequently concluded that they were of the ton. We 

 found his cousins, three young ladies, sleeping on the estrada, 

 (part of the room raised about a foot above the level of the 

 floor,) on mats, with their bare armsfqr pillows. On our en- 



