MANUFACTURES.
The manufactures, we may cursorily remark, are in a very backward state; and though the natives, especially of Huanuco, have shown no small share of ingenuity in some of their mechanical contrivances, yet they want proper masters; and, however we may admire the progress they have made with such slender means of instruction, we cannot compare their performances with those of Europeans in the same line. In Tarma they make ponchos, or loose cloaks, of great beauty and fineness; and, on the colder table-lands, warm but coarse blankets and ponchos, &c. are still made by the Indians. In the valleys, goat-skins are made into cordovans; cow-hide is made into saddle-bags, and almofrezes, or travelling-cases for bed and bedding; mats too are manufactured from rushes, and are very generally used as carpeting under the name of esteras. But the work of silversmiths is generally in a rude state even in Pasco; for the fine filigree work, for which inland Peru is celebrated, is made, not in the department of Junin, but at Guamanga, in the department of Ayacucho,—where the natives have also shown a decided talent for sculpture, though their works cannot be said to exhibit, as yet, much elegance or expression.