After enjoying my nap for about an hour, I awoke, and found an agreeable repast just ready—a salona, mutton slightly salted and smoked, and equal in flavour to venison, had been roasted, an agreeable sauce of the green pods of capsicum, aji verde, in vinegar had been prepared, and they were served up with some excellent roasted potatoes; after this, a chip box, holding about two pounds of preserved apricots, and another of quince marmalade, for which delicacies the province of Huailas is quite famous, were put on the table. This refreshment was placed before my companion and myself, on a low table, as we sat on the edge of the estrado. While we ate and drank, our host informed us that he was a native of Cadiz, but that he had lived in America upwards of twenty years. On his arrival at Callao, in the capacity of a sailor, he left his ship, and travelled into the interior in search of a wife with a fortune, for, said he, without such an appendage I could have found many maids willing to become wives at home. I chanced, continued he, on my way to Huaras, to call at this house to beg a lodging for the night; the old farmer had a daughter, an only one; I was soon convinced that his coffers were not empty, so I prolonged my visit, made love to his daughter, and married her. She has been dead twelve years, and I find myself happy with my five boys and girls, and they seem to be happy with me; but that will perhaps not last long, they will themselves soon want to marry, and I cannot object to it; their father and mother set them the example, and if I cannot then live with them I can live without them. You, father, addressing himself to the clergyman, would advise me perhaps to retire to a convent, and live a penitential life; but if I have given my flesh to the devil, he shall have my bones too. You tell us, continued he, that only our good works will accompany us to the other world; but I shall also take with me good eating and drinking, and a merry heart; for although you preach to us abstinence and other restrictions, yet you enjoy the good things of this world, and example, you know, is more persuasive than precept. But I am happy to see you, and you are welcome to my rancho, for it reminds me of my own arrival at it. In a short time our merry companions appeared, laughing most heartily as they jumped from the backs of their mules, to see each other bespattered with mud and dripping with rain.
Three healthy looking lasses, with rosy cheeks, and a stately youth, had braved the wind and rain to join our party, which, with this acquisition, was a very merry one. The young women had on hats and ponchos; but their shoes and stockings were kept dry in the pockets of the young man, who was their brother. In a very short time the guitar was tuned, and we began to dance—our kind host, Garcia, being the musician. I took Panchita as my partner, which caused a good deal of mirth, because our visitor, Eugenio, was passionately fond of her: he watched her steps with the anxious rapture of a lover, and no doubt envied me during the dance; at length, unable to suffer any longer the privation of dancing with her, he rose, made me a low bow, and took my place, to the no small satisfaction of the company, who lavished on him many an Andalusian joke. After the first dance one of the sisters rose and relieved Panchita, who came and sat down on my knee as I sat on one of the low stools; she very soon went to a table and brought me a glass of punch, which we drank; this appeared too much for poor Eugenio, but instead of being offended, as might have happened among civilized people, he retired to a seat, after finishing his dance, and placed his partner on his knee; she soon rose and brought him a glass of punch, which they drank together; and all parties appeared completely happy.
We made a most hearty supper of roasted and stewed lamb and fowls, sweetmeats and punch; after which several songs were sung, both cachuas and yarabis, and our host entertained us with some Andalusian chuladas. Day dawned, and found us merry, scarcely able to believe that the night was spent. The morning was very fine, and we expressed a wish to proceed on our way to Huaras: but my companion told me, that in all probability our mules were lost; lost, exclaimed I! Yes, said he, but they will be found again to-morrow morning, if Garcia will then consent to our leaving his house. This was really the case, for the mules were not found—for the best of all possible reasons—they were not sought for; the young men were sent in search of them, and soon returned with the news, that they could not be found. The girls began to console us with many promises of their being discovered during the day, and advised us to take our breakfasts and sleep an hour or two, to which we assented without much reluctance. We spent the day and the following night most agreeably—not without plenty of singing and dancing.
I learnt from our host, Garcia, that his property consisted of about eighty head of horned cattle, and twelve hundred sheep, besides a small farm, which he shewed us, of which about sixty acres were under the plough, and produced good crops of wheat, maize, barley, and potatoes. Purchasers for the cattle came annually from the coast. The surplus of wool, some of which is extremely fine, was generally bought by the owners of manufactories, obrages, in the province, at about one dollar the arroba, twenty five pounds; the grain, potatoes, &c. were carried to Huaras.
On the following morning our mules were found, and we proceeded through a country more beautiful at every step we took, and arrived in the evening at Huaras, the capital of the district. This town is pleasantly situated, though rather bleak; the houses have a neat and comfortable appearance, and some of the shops are stored with a considerable quantity of European manufactured goods, such as broad cloth, wide coloured flannels, linens, cottons, silks, hosiery, cutlery, and also home manufactured woollen and cotton cloths. In the square, plasa, a small market is held every morning of articles brought from the neighbouring country. The town contains a parish church, which is a neat stone built edifice; a convent of Franciscan grey friars, and a hospital, under the care of the Bethlemites. The Subdelegado resides here; the repartimiento of the corregidor amounted formerly to a hundred and seventy thousand dollars annually, and the alcavala to two thousand three hundred.
The population of Huaras consists of about seven thousand inhabitants, the greater part of whom are composed of mestisos; the people are rather fond of dress, and evening parties are very common. There is not an inn or public house in the town; but a traveller can be accommodated with lodgings, &c. in almost any house.
This district contains many towns and villages; the principal ones are Requay, Carhuas, Yungay, Caras, and Cotopará. The temperature of the centre and lower part of the district is warm, and extremely agreeable. Considerable quantities of sugar are manufactured here; it is of a very superior quality, but the cane, which is of the creole kind, is four years before it is ripe, and the first crop only is destined for the making of sugar; the second serves for the following plantation, and of the excess sweetmeats are made with peaches, pears, quinces, and apricots, many mule loads of which are annually taken to Lima. The fruits of temperate climates prosper extremely well in the valleys; but on account of the frosty night winds at certain seasons of the year tropical fruits do not thrive. Owing to part of the province being subject to a cold atmosphere, particularly on the east side, which is bounded by the Cordillera, and the valleys enjoying a very benign one, crops of wheat and barley, as well as maize, quinua, garbansos, lentils and other pulse, are harvested during every month of the year; it is common on the same day, when travelling, to see wheat put into the ground at one place, and under the sickle at another. In this province a great number of large and small cattle are bred, particularly goats, the skins of which are tanned for cordovans, and the tallow is used in the soap manufactories. The wool of the sheep is made into flannels, serges, and coarse cloths, bayetones, at the different manufactories, obrages, where coarse cotton cloths, tocuyos, are also woven; but the distaff and spindle are generally employed for spinning. The white yard-wide flannel sells at about half a dollar a yard; the blue at three quarters of a dollar, and the tocuyos at different prices, from a quarter to three quarters of a dollar. Very neat woollen table covers are manufactured in this province, of different sizes, and various prices; when wove they are white, and they are afterwards ingeniously dyed by first tying small patches with two, three, or more threads; the cloth is then dipped in a cochineal dye; more knots are tied in different parts, and an indigo dye is used; when dry, the knots are all untied, and as the colours could not penetrate where the strings were tied, circles of white, blue, and red, or of other colours, according to the fancy of the dyer, are formed in the different parts of the cloth, and if these are symmetrically placed the shades which they produce are pretty, and the whole effect is very pleasing.
Formerly several gold and silver mines were wrought in Huailas; there are upwards of thirty mills for grinding the ore in different parts of the province, but at present little attention is paid to mining; however, small quantities of gold and silver are extracted. At Yurumarca there is a mountain which contains large veins and strata of the loadstone; near to which is a copper mine, now abandoned, because the ore did not produce gold, as was expected, when it was first wrought. Large quantities of alum are prepared from a mineral near Yurumarca, by the process of solution and evaporation; but it is generally subjected to a second operation of refining at Lima.