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 Purac^, which wx 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 (chorreras), I have sketched in the 
tOOth plate, as it is seen froiii the garden of an 
Indian, near the house of the missionary of 
Purace, udio is a franciscan monk. The water, 
which makes its way through a cavern, preci- 
pitates itself down more than a hundred and 
