Historical and Descriptive Narrative of Twenty Years' Residence in South America (Vol 1 of 3) / Containing travels in Arauco, Chile, Peru, and Colombia; with an account of the revolution, its rise, progress, and results

by active 1803-1825 William Bennet Stevenson

Seven leagues from Huaura is the village of Supe, with a parish church and eight hundred inhabitants, the greater part of whom are indians. Between these towns there is a large plain, called pampa de medio mundo, which before the conquest was under irrigation; the vestiges of the old canals, asequias, are still visible, and bear witness of the enormous labour of the ancient Peruvians, as well as of their uncommon skill in conveying water for the purpose of watering their fields to immense distances, without the aid of engines; the principal asequia here took its water from the Huaura river, and winding round the foot of the mountains conveyed it to the distance of ten leagues, irrigating in its course some very beautiful plains, which are now only deserts of sand.

Near to Supe are the remains of a large indian town, built on the side of a rock, galleries being dug out of it, one above another, for the purpose of making room for their small houses; many remains of these are still visible, and also of small parapets of stone raised before them, so that the hill has the appearance of a fortified place. At a short distance are the ruins of another town, on an elevated plain, where water doubtless could not be procured for irrigation; for, as I have already observed, the indians never built on land that could be cultivated.

I was fully convinced here that the indians buried their dead in the houses where they had resided, as I dug up many of them. They appear to have been buried with whatever belonged to them at the time of their death; I have found women with their pots, pans, and jars of earthenware, some of which are very curious. One kind is composed of two hollow spheres, each about three inches in diameter; they are connected by a small tube placed in the centre, and a hollow arched handle to hold it by, having a hole on the upper side; if water be poured into this hole till the jar is about half full, and the jar be then inclined first to one side and then to the other, a whistling noise is produced. Sometimes a figure of a man stands on each jar, and the water is poured down an opening in his head, and by the same means the noise is occasioned. I saw one of these at the Carmelite nunnery at Quito, having two indians upon it carrying a corpse on their shoulders, laid on a hollow bier resembling a butcher's tray; when the jar was inclined backwards and forwards a plaintive cry was heard, resembling that made by the indians at a funeral. The jars and other utensils were of good clay, and well baked, which, with the ingenious construction just alluded to, prove that the indians were acquainted with the art of pottery. I have also found in these huacas long pieces of cotton cloth, similar to that which is made by the indians at the present time, called tocuyo; many calabashes, quantities of indian corn or maize, quinua, beans, and the leaves of plantains; feathers of the ostrich from the plains of Buenos Ayres, and different dresses; some spades of palm wood, similar to the chonta of Guayaquil, and of which none grow near to Supe; lances and clubs of the same wood; jars filled with chicha, which was quite sweet when discovered, but became sour after being exposed to the air for a short time. I have also found small dolls made of cotton, their dress similar to that worn at present by the females of Cajatambo and Huarochiri: it consists of a white petticoat, anaco, a piece of coloured flannel, two corners of which are fastened on the left shoulder by a cactus thorn, the middle being passed under the right arm, girt round the waist with a coloured fillet, and open on the left side down to the bottom; this part of the dress was called the chaupe anaco; a piece of flannel, of another colour, of about two feet square, was brought over the shoulders and fastened on the breast with two large pins of silver or gold, called topas: this part of the dress is called the yiglla. The hair is divided into two side tresses, and these are fastened behind, at the extremity, with a coloured fillet. The principal motive for digging the huacas is to search for treasure; I have found rings and small cups of gold; they are beat out very thin, and their size is that of half a hen's egg-shell; it is supposed that they were worn in the ears, for a small shank is attached to them, like the buttons worn by the indian females at present. Slips of silver, about two inches broad and ten long, as thin as paper, are also frequently dug up. Any small piece of gold which was buried with them is generally found in their mouths.

Owing to the nitrous quality of the sand, and to its almost perfect dryness, the bodies are quite entire, and not the least defaced, although many of them have been buried at least three centuries: the clothes are also in the same state of preservation, but both soon decay after being exposed to the sun and air. I dug up one man whose hair grew from his eyebrows, covering his forehead, or rather he had no visible forehead; a great quantity of dried herbs had been buried with him, some small pots, and several dolls: the indians who saw him assured me, that he had been a brujo, a wizard or diviner; but I was inclined to believe him to have been a physician: however, the two sciences might be considered by them as somewhat similar.

Many persons are persuaded that these huacas were only burying grounds, and not places of residence for the living: if so, it shews the respect which the people had for their dead; but as some of the tribes of wild indians bury their dead in the house where they lived, and then abandon it, building for themselves another, this appears to be a sufficient reason for suspecting that such was the practice with the ancient Peruvians.

I resided several months at the small village of la Barranca, and I here witnessed the great earthquake that happened on the 1st of December, 1806, supposed to be one of the periodical shocks felt in Lima and its vicinity; they have occurred in the following years:—1586, 1609, 1655, 1690, 1716, 1746, and 1806. This earthquake, however, did not extend its desolating effects to the capital; these appear to have been limited by the rivers of Barranca and Huaura, an extent of about ten leagues; but the shock was felt at Ica, a hundred leagues to the southward, although it was not perceived at Huaras, thirty leagues to the eastward.

No hollow sound was observed to precede this shock, a circumstance particularly remarked by several of the old people, who said, that it came on so suddenly, that the dogs did not hear it, nor the pigs smell it, before every one felt the shock. I inquired their reason for thus expressing themselves, and was informed, that it had always been found when the shocks were severe, that they were announced by the howling of the dogs and the squealing of the pigs. This effect, I think, can only be accounted for by the dogs lying on the ground, and either hearing the noise or feeling the motion before either become perceptible to the people; and probably if any gaseous vapour be ejected the olfactory nerves of the pigs may be affected by it. Immediately after the earthquake many people saw red flames rising out of the sea, and others burning over a low piece of ground on the shore called the Totoral. The cattle which were feeding here at the time, died shortly afterwards from the effect produced on the grass by this burning vapour.

The motion of the earth during the shock was oscillatory, resembling the waves of the sea; and the sensation which I experienced was similar to that which is felt in a boat when approaching the land. The motion was so great, that some bottles of wine and brandy, placed on a shelf about two yards high and three from the door, were thrown from a shop into the street to a distance of more than two feet from the door; if, therefore, they fell from the shelf without any projecting impulse to impel them forward, the wall must have inclined so as to form with its natural base an angle of 25 degrees.

The ground was rent in several places, and quantities of sand and a species of mud were thrown into the air. Trees were torn up by the roots; the church and several of the houses, both here and at Supe, were destroyed; while Pativilca, a town at only two leagues distance, on the opposite side of the river, suffered very trivially. The undulations of the earth lasted twenty-one minutes; but there was no repetition of shocks, nor was any subterraneous noise heard. The perpendicular height of the land on the sea side is fifty-three yards, notwithstanding which several canoes and boats were thrown by the waves nearly to the top, and left among the trees, and for more than two months afterwards enormous quantities of fish drifted daily on the beach.