Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests

by Johann Jakob von Tschudi

A great sugar plantation, called El Ingenio, is situated at about a quarter of a league from Huaura. It formerly belonged to the Jesuits, but is now the property of a rich Lima family. The trapiche, or sugar-mill, is worked by a water-wheel, the first ever established in Peru, a circumstance of which the owner proudly boasts.

The valley which opens here is magnificent, and to ride through it easterly eleven leagues towards Sayan is one of the finest excursions which can be made in Peru. Over this beautiful district are scattered many rich plantations. The one next in importance to El Ingenio is Acaray, which, though not very large, is most carefully cultivated: another, called Huillcahuaura, has a splendid building erected on it. In the middle of the valley is the extensive sugar plantation of Luhmayo. Near this place I saw, in a negro's hut, an ounce of immense size, which had been killed a few weeks previously. More than fifty Negroes and Indians had been engaged in subduing this ferocious animal, which was not killed until after a conflict of two days, in the course of which several negroes were dangerously wounded. This gigantic specimen measured, from the snout to the tip of the tail, eight feet three inches; the tail itself measuring two feet eight inches.

At the sugar works of Luhmayo, notwithstanding the number of pipes, and other methods of supplying water, the cylinders are always worked by oxen, and are kept in motion day and night. I took a view of the works during the night, and the extraordinary picture I beheld will never be effaced from my memory. In the middle of the spacious building appropriated to the operations blazed a large fire, fed by the refuse of sugar canes. Around lay negroes, some asleep, and others muttering to each other in an under-tone. Here and there sat one perfectly silent, wrapped in his own reflections, and apparently brooding over some gloomy plan. The oxen paced slowly round the pole, which directed the movement of the cylinders; the animals alternately disappearing in the obscure background, and returning to the point where the glare of the fire, falling full upon them, lighted them up as if by the sudden effect of magic. Behind them stalked a tall black figure, driving them on with a rod made of brambles. Groups of children were busily employed in thrusting the full sugar canes between the cylinders; and after they were pressed, collecting together the sapless reeds, and piling them up in regular heaps.

Next morning the person who officiated as medical superintendant of the plantation, showed me all the arrangements of the establishment. He gave me an account of his cures and operations, and told me that he often found it necessary to amputate, because the slaves purposely injure their fingers and arms in the Phalangeles (machines) in order to disable themselves. The worthy Æsculapius had never in his life read a regular medical work. He had originally been an overseer of slaves, and had afterwards turned doctor. He informed me that some time before I saw him, ninety negroes, his patients, had died of small-pox in the space of nine months, whereby the owner of the plantation had lost 45,000 dollars. The hospital was clean and well fitted up, but over-crowded with sick. Most of them died from intermitting fever, and from dropsy and rheumatism which followed it. Not a few of the male negroes suffer from a peculiar kind of cutaneous disease, which shows itself by large pustules on the arms and breast. After suppuration they dry and fall off, but leave indelible spots, which, on a black skin, are of a whitish color; on a brown skin, olive-green, and on a white skin, black. I never saw the disease in any other part of the country except in this valley. Negroes and persons of mixed blood are more subject to it than the whites.

The two plantations on the east side of the valley are Chambara and Quipico. The latter is celebrated for the fine sugar it produces, and is also well known on account of the original character of its late proprietor, Castilla. When I rode into the court, I was in a moment surrounded by about fifty fine greyhounds, and from every side others came springing forward. This was but a remnant of Castilla's collection. He was passionately devoted to hunting, and generally kept from 200 to 300 greyhounds, with which he rode out daily. A bell was rung at certain hours to collect the light-footed tribe to their meals. A gallows was erected in the court, where the intractable underwent capital punishment as a warning to the rest. One day when Castilla went out to hunt, he was joined in the chase by an Indian, who brought with him a common mongrel. This animal outstripped some of the greyhounds in speed, and quickly overtook the deer. Castilla immediately bought the dog, for which he gave the immense price of 350 dollars. A few days after he rode out to hunt with his best greyhounds, together with the newly-purchased dog. The pack being let loose, all the dogs set off in full chase, but the mongrel remained quietly beside the horses. On returning to the plantation, he was hung up on the gallows as a warning example.

To the north of Huacho, the Pampa del medio mundo, a sand plain, seven leagues long, stretches out to the village of Supe. At short successive distances farther to the north are the villages of Baranca, Pativilca (or rather Pati Huillca), and la Fortaleza. Then there intervenes a vast waste, which extends nearly to Huarmay. Between that village and the Port of Casma there is a similar long plain of sand. Thus do wastes, and fruitful valleys, alternate along the whole coast until near Tumbez, on the frontiers of the Republic of the Ecuador.

The whole district is rich in memorable monuments of the time of the Incas. The most important are the remains of the palace of King Chimu Cancha, not far from the harbor of Huanchaco, and the ruins of Paramanca, near la Fortaleza. Doctor Unanue[45] is of opinion that the latter edifice was built to commemorate the peace between King Chimu Cancha and his conqueror, Capac Yupanqui; and that of two other buildings, one (the larger), situated towards the east, marks the dominions of the powerful Inca Pachacutec, and the other (the smaller), towards the west, indicates the territory of the conquered Chimu. This supposition is, in my opinion, quite erroneous. Independently of the plainly-recognizable character of those ruins, the construction of which shows them to have been fortifications, their situation bears evidence against the inference of Unanue. Supposing the larger building to have indicated the position of the Inca Empire, it ought to have been situated to the south, and the smaller building would have been to the north. The only passable road along the coast led between these two fortified hills; and by them the road on that side to the Kingdom of Chimu could be cut off. The Incas well knew, from experience, that the subdued populations, usually after a longer or a shorter time, again revolted, and endeavored to shake off their yoke, and therefore they were on their guard against such an occurrence. Capac Yupanqui must have greatly mistrusted an enemy so formidable as Chimu Cancha, who had only yielded after the most obstinate resistance, and it is no slight proof of this that Paramanca[46] was built as a fortress to hold the subjugated nations in check. It was not, however, built as a monument of victory, for such monuments were always erected in Cozco, the capital, and never on the field of battle. Etymology affords no solution of this question. Some write Paramonga, others Paramanca. I regard the latter as the most correct. Garcilaso de la Vega calls the valley Parmunca. In the Quichua dialect Paramanca[47] signifies a pot for rain. It is therefore possible that the name may indicate an allusion to heavy torrents of rain, which, though now unusual on this particular part of the coast, may have occurred in this basin-like valley after a great earthquake.

Five leagues to the south of Huacho are the extensive Salinas, or salt pits, which supply Peru and Chile with excellent salt. They spread from the sea coast to the distance of half a league eastward, and present a most extraordinary aspect. On approaching them the traveller might fancy he beholds a field of glaciers, on which the sun's rays produce wonderful effects of variegated color.

This salt is the produce of a natural evaporation of the sea water, which trickles through the porous stones of the coast, and fills every intervening hollow. The whole space is parcelled into divisions, called fields, from which, according to a definite regulation, square masses, weighing each one hundred pounds, are cut. In a few days the holes are again filled up with sea water, which, in the space of twelve to sixteen, or sometimes twenty to twenty-four months, being evaporated by the sun, leaves a precipitate completely filling up the square holes. The government has farmed the salinas to a private individual in Huacho, who keeps on the spot an overseer with the necessary number of laborers. This establishment is an inexhaustible source of wealth, and it can only be destroyed by a violent earthquake. In the bay on which the salinas border there is very convenient and secure anchoring ground, where coasters are constantly lying, ready to receive the salt, and convey it to any Peruvian or Chilean port. Most of the laborers employed in the salinas suffer from diseases of the skin and rheumatism. Water and provisions have to be brought from Huacho. The Indians, when they come from the mountains to convey salt, never take their llamas to the salinas. They go straight to Huacho, where the animals are loaded at the great depôts. Each llama carries the weight of one hundred pounds, which, however, is not, like ordinary burthens, laid on the bare back of the animal—beneath it is placed a layer of thick woollen cloth, called a jerga.

The road southward from the Salinas runs, for the distance of nine leagues, through deep sand, chiefly along the sea-coast, and is bounded on the east by the Lomas de Lachay. Here flocks of strand snipes and flamingoes fly constantly before the traveller, as if to direct his course. In the pescadores (fishermen's huts), five leagues from the Salinas, brackish water and broiled fish may be obtained, and sometimes even clover, which is brought hither, from the distance of several miles, to feed the hungry horses. From the pescadores the road crosses steep sand-hills, which rise from three to four hundred feet high, and fall with a declivity of more than sixty degrees towards the sea. The road leads along the side of these hills, and, where the ground is not firm, it is exceedingly dangerous. On a false step of the horse the ground yields beneath his hoof, and rolls down the declivity; but by due care the rider can easily recover a solid footing. There is on one of these hills a very large stone, which at a certain distance presents in color and form a deceptious similarity to an enormous-sized seal. Almost perpendicularly under it is a small bay, inhabited by a multitude of seals. The dull crashing sound made by the breakers on the shore, mingling with the howling of these animals, makes a gloomy impression on the traveller who is passing along the height above them, and creates a sort of shuddering sensation. The natives call this place and its sounds the Grita Lobos (the Sea-dog's Howl). From this hilly ground the road descends into the fruitful valley of the Pasamayo, which contains two villages and eighteen plantations.