The kind and affable inhabitants of this city in the bosom of the Andes have their imaginations excited with the hopes of their rising glories, and their own happy valley is too narrow for their expanding desires. So full are their literati of the flattering idea that an English colony on the river Huallaga may extend its industry and enterprise to the cultivation of the great pampa del Sacramento, that they already fancy proper depôts and harbours selected, docks prepared, and ships building from the timber of their own Montaña, to carry them a voyage of pleasure and profit round the world. They imagine little steamers up to Playa-grande, or even to the falls at Casapi, or the port of Cuchero on the river Chinchao, within a couple of days’ journey of their city; and, when their wishes are realized, they calculate that their now useless and neglected copper mines shall be more precious, and draw in upon them more wealth than ever did brilliants or diamonds on their distant neighbours of Brazil. And no wonder that the natives of this Elysian valley should be overjoyed at such prospects; since their long-continued communication with the canoe-men of the Huallaga on the one side, and in former times with those of the missionaries at the port or settlement of Mayro on the other, familiarise them with the notion of navigating the Huallaga and Ucayali; while the intervening plains of Sacramento they consider to be naturally the richest and most capable of improvement of any in the world. Even the miner of Cerro Pasco finds his fancy warmed when he reflects on the prospect of a steam navigation on the Marañon. Don Jose Lago y Lemus, one of the most distinguished of the veteran miners of Pasco, published in 1831 a pamphlet in illustration of the advantages that might accrue to the republic from this navigation. In this pamphlet he endeavours to show that the portions of Peruvian territory hitherto occupied, and consisting of arid coasts and rugged mountainous districts, are not to be compared, in point of natural interest or national importance, with the immense plains and fertile Montaña or wooded deserts on the eastern frontier; and he manifests a laudable and patriotic zeal in endeavouring to arouse the attention of his countrymen to this most momentous subject.
Don Jose expresses himself thus:
“The undersigned, being convinced of the truths he lays before the public, and at the same time anxiously desiring, in virtue of his appointment, both the welfare of the department and the province which he represents, he proposes to the most honourable Junta,” (viz. the departmental Junta of Junin, assembled in the city of Huanuco,) “a project of the grandest magnitude, capable of making the entire republic prosper, and of placing her in the rank and circumstances to compete with, and be the envy of, the most powerful states in the world. It will be said truly, that we were not heretofore ignorant of the treasures and riches of the actual productions in the Montañas of the Peruvian territory; it is equally certain that the want of hands, capital, and men of enterprise, have been powerful causes why we were unable to enjoy these natural advantages. If this be our state of weakness—if its commencement be traceable to our colonial condition, and that Providence has reserved the remedy till the epoch of our freedom and an age of intellectual light, let us make every effort to reap such incalculable benefits. Commercial relations are those that enlighten the people; by this powerful magic friendships are acquired, and with the most remote inhabitants of the globe bonds of brotherhood are established. Let, then, the grand canal of the Marañon be rendered navigable for steam vessels; so that, by the diverse and lesser streams that form this great river, we may procure them entrance to the immediate environs of our cities, towns, and villages, situated on the banks of the Huallaga.
“Ah, gentlemen! What a sudden and extraordinary emotion this idea excites in my mind! My imagination already combines the ideas that suggest themselves respecting this privileged city of Huanuco. Now its spacious fields are held worthy of higher cultivation and care; its abandoned streets I see crowded with useful citizens; the banks of its ample river Huallaga present a varied and charming perspective of shipping, newly elevated towns, open tracts of woodland, and cultivated lawns. Allured by the novelty of this scene, innumerable tribes of the wild Indians will unite themselves with us; they are our brethren, and, when thus intimately brought into contact with us, they may frankly discover to our knowledge those hidden treasures of our forests which their ignorance and barbarism hitherto concealed; and, as integral parts of Peru, they will conduce to its grandeur and respectability. Gentlemen, the most vivid imagination is lost in this contemplation, and finds itself overwhelmed by the number and vastness of the objects which crowd into its thoughts.”
The above patriotic effusion, very worthy of a departmental deputy of Junin, may appear to the reader to paint in too glowing terms the capabilities and importance of the Montaña on the confines of Huanuco. But, considering the extent and fertility of the territory, the navigable nature of its principal rivers, and the generally salubrious character of its climate, we believe that he who attempts to depict its various superiorities and advantages is more likely to come short of his object, than to overrate the reality which in imagination he may desire to trace.
Those regions in the Montaña which are watered by the Huallaga, Ucayali, and Marañon, with various subsidiary rivers interspersed among the intervening grounds, have as yet been but inadequately explored, and therefore only a very imperfect account can be offered of their aspect and natural productions.
From May to November the sun shines very powerfully in the Montaña, and consequently the soil, where it is cleared of wood,—for example, in the valley of Chinchao—becomes so parched that its surface opens in chinks; but underneath it always preserves humidity, and therefore needs no irrigation. From November to May it rains much, sometimes for six or seven days without intermission.
In the rivers, alligators, tortoises, and a variety of fish are found; and these also swarm in the ponds or lakes formed during the inundations of the rainy season. The most remarkable inhabitant of these waters is the manati, sometimes called pexebuey,[9] from its supposed resemblance to the cow or ox. Like the cetaceous family to which it belongs, it suckles its young, and also feeds among the grass on the banks of the rivers.
The trees of the forest are inhabited by parrots, tanagers, and a surprising variety of birds, whose exquisite plumage vies with butterflies and flowers in the beauty, delicacy, and combination of their tints. Monkeys are so numerous as to form a chief article of animal food for the Indian hunter, dexterous in the use of the bow and arrow, or of the cerbatána, a long and hollow piece of wood through which he blows a small arrow, and hits his mark, at short distances, with fatal precision. There are very many venomous serpents. Wild-boars, deer, pumas, bears, tigers, and tapirs, frequent these forests, and are objects of the chase.
The vegetable productions of the Montaña, here considered as articles of commerce, or adopted for economical uses, are numerous. Among the valuable woods are cedar, and chonta or ebony, mahogany, walnut, and almond-tree. Edible herbs and roots, except the potato and yuca, are little cultivated; but coffee, plantains, and sugar-cane, of which a variety called the blue or azul is very luxuriant, are reared with some care, where nature indeed requires but little aid from the hand of man. The sugar-cane comes to maturity earlier than in other parts of Peru, and yields an annual crop at very little cost of production.