The value of the eastern valleys was known in Inca times, for their stone-faced terraces and coca-drying patios may still be seen at Echarati and on the border of the Chaupimayu Valley at Sahuayaco. Tradition has it that here were the imperial coca lands, that such of the forest Indians as were enslaved were obliged to work upon them, and that the leaves were sent to Cuzco over a paved road now covered with “montaña” or forest. The Indians still relate that at times a mysterious, wavering, white light appears on the terraces and hills where old treasure lies buried. Some of the Indians have gold and silver objects which they say were dug from the floors of hill caves. There appears to have been an early occupation of the best lands by the Spaniards, for the long extensions down them of Quechua population upon which the conquerors could depend no doubt combined with the special products of the valley to draw white colonists thither.[12] General Miller,[13] writing in 1836, mentions the villages of Incharate (Echarati) and Sant’ Ana (Santa Ana) but discourages the idea of colonization “... since the river ... has lofty mountains on either side of it, and is not navigable even for boats.”
In the “Itinerario de los viajes de Raimondi en el Peru”[14] there is an interesting account of the settlement by the Rueda family of the great estate still held by a Rueda, the wife of Señor Duque. José Rueda, in 1829, was a government deputy representative and took his pay in land, acquiring valuable territory on which there was nothing more than a mission. In 1830 Rueda ceded certain lands in “arriendo” (rent) and on these were founded the haciendas Pucamoco, Sahuayaco, etc.
Señor Gonzales, the present owner of Hacienda Sahuayaco, recently obtained his land—a princely estate, ten miles by forty—for 12,000 soles ($6,000). In a few years he has cleared the best tract, built several miles of canals, hewed out houses and furniture, planted coca, cacao, cane, coffee, rice, pepper, and cotton, and would not sell for $50,000. Moreover, instead of being a superintendent on a neighboring estate and keeping a shop in Cuzco, where his large family was a source of great expense, he has become a wealthy landowner. He has educated a son in the United States. He is importing machinery, such as a rice thresher and a distilling plant. His son is looking forward to the purchase of still more playa land down river. He pays a sol a day to each laborer, securing men from Cotabambas and Abancay, where there are many Indians, a low standard of wages, little unoccupied land, and a hot climate, so that the immigrants do not need to become acclimatized.
The deepest valleys in the Eastern Andes of Peru have a semi-arid climate which brings in its train a variety of unusual geographic relations. At first as one descends the valley the shady and sunny slopes show sharply contrasted vegetation.
Fig. 51—Robledo’s mountain-side trail in the Urubamba Valley below Rosalina.