The further we descend the eastern declivity, the more difficult becomes the way. During the rainy season deep fissures are worked out by the flow of waters; the ground is slippery and full of holes. The sides of these hollow passes are often so close together that the rider cannot keep his legs down on each side of his mule, and is obliged to raise up his feet and thrust them forward. When beasts of burthen, coming in opposite directions, meet in these places, the direst confusion ensues, and frequently sanguinary conflicts arise among the Indians. The weaker party are then obliged to unload their mules, and the poor beasts are dragged backward by their hind legs, until they reach a point at which there is sufficient space for the others to pass. When I was proceeding through one of these cavities on Christmas-eve, 1840, I encountered a heavily laden ass coming down a steep declivity. Ere I had time to leap from my saddle, the ass came direct upon me with such force that my horse was driven backwards by the concussion, and I was thrown. Ten months afterwards, another encounter of the same kind threatened me with a similar disaster, and to save myself I had no alternative but to shoot the ass. The Indian who was driving the animal neglected the usual warning cry, given by the arrieros when they enter those dangerous passes, and he was regardless of my repeated calls desiring him to stop.
In some steep places, with the view of improving the roads, the Indians lay down large stones in the form of steps; but to ride over these rude flights of steps is no easy task, for the stones are small, and are placed at the distance of a foot and a half or two feet apart. The mule begins by placing his hind feet on the first stone, then springing forward he reaches the third stone with his fore feet, at the same time placing his hind feet to the second. By this manœuvre the mule's body is kept at full stretch, and the rider is obliged to lean forward over the animal's neck to avoid being thrown head-foremost by the violent jerks when the mule springs from step to step. It is absolute torture to ride down a descent of five or six leagues, along a road such as I have just described: willingly would the harassed rider dismount and pursue his course on foot; but were he to attempt to do so, the mule would stand stock still. I have already remarked the singular obstinacy with which the mules refuse to proceed when their riders dismount, and it sometimes gives rise to very comical scenes. On my way to Vitoc, I was passing through a ravine in which the uprooted trunk of a tree was resting slantwise against a rock. Though there was not room for me to ride under it, yet there was sufficient space to allow my mule to pass, and I accordingly dismounted; but all my efforts to drive the animal forward were fruitless. I had no alternative but to ride close up to the tree, then spurring the mule, I quickly slipped out of the saddle, and seizing the trunk of the tree, I hung to it until the mule had passed on.
No less difficult and dangerous are the steep declivities over loamy soils, which are frequently met with in these districts. On them the mule has no firm footing, and is in danger of slipping down at every step. But the wonderful instinct of these animals enables them to overcome the difficulty. They approximate the hind and fore feet in the manner of the Chamois goat, when he is about to make a spring, and lowering the hinder part of the body in a position, half sitting half standing, they slide down the smooth declivity. At first this sliding movement creates a very unpleasant feeling of apprehension, which is not altogether removed by frequent repetitions. Accidents frequently occur, in which both mule and rider are mortally injured.
There is more variety of animals in these regions than in the mountainous parts; but they have few peculiarities of character. The swift-footed roe of the Cordillera roams here and dwells in the thickets, avoiding the warm forest. The dark brown coati (Nasua montana, Tsch.) howls, and digs at the roots of trees in search of food; the shy opossum crawls fearfully under the foliage; the lazy armadillo creeps into his hole; but the ounce and the lion seldom stray hither to contest with the black bear (Ursus frugilegus, Tsch.) the possession of his territory. The little hairy tapir (Tapirus villosus, Wagn.) ventures only at twilight out of his close ambush to forage in the long grass.
Of the birds there is not much variety of species; but all are remarkable for gay-colored plumage. Among the most characteristic of these districts are the red-bellied tanagra (Tanagra igniventris, Orb.), the fire-colored pyranga (Phœnisoma bivittata, Tsch.), two species of the crow, one of which is of a fine blue color (Cyanocorax viridicyanus, G. R. Gray), the other green on the back and bright yellow on the belly (Cyanoc. peruanus, Cab.). The Indians call the latter Quienquien, as it utters a sort of screaming sound resembling these syllables. Individual birds belonging to the Penelope family (P. rufiventris and adspersa, Tsch.) and the green pepper-eater (Pteroglossus cæruleo-cinctus, Tsch., Pt. atrogularis, Sturm.) are found in the lower forests.
Proceeding still further downward we at length reach the Montaña. The Peruvians apply this name to the vast aboriginal forests which extend across the whole country from north to south along the eastern foot of the Andes. Those which lie higher, and in which the spaces between the lofty trees are overgrown with thick masses of bushes and twining plants, are called by the natives simply Montañas. Those which are free from these intermediate masses of vegetation they call Montañas reales (royal mountains). At first sight they produce the impression of a virgin forest of oaks.
The distance from the Ceja to the district properly called the Montaña is very various at different points. In some parts it takes six or eight days' hard riding; in other directions the traveller may, in the morning, leave the snow-covered Puna huts, and at sunset, on the uninhabited margin of the primeval forest, he may taste pine-apples and bananas of his own gathering. Such a day certainly deserves to form an epoch in his life; for in the course of a few hours he passes through the most opposite climates of the earth, and the gradual progression of the development of the vegetable world is spread out in visible reality before him.
The Montañas of Peru are, in general, but thinly peopled with Christian Indians. They are employed either in cultivating their own fields, or in working as day-laborers in the great plantations. The productions of the haciendas consist chiefly of sugar, coffee, maize, coca, tobacco, oranges, bananas, and pine-apples, which are sent to the Sierra. The cultivation of bark, balsams, gums, honey and wax, also occupies a great number of Indians.
The plantation buildings stand on rising grounds. The walls are constructed of reeds, the interstices being filled up with loam, and the roofs are of straw or palm leaves. Around the buildings are the fields allotted to cultivation, in which the soils favorable to the production of certain plants are selected. The coffee usually grows round the house, and an adjacent building contains the store-rooms. The fruit-trees grow along the margins of the maize fields; marshy ground is selected for the sugar fields; in the vicinity of brooks and streams the useful banana flourishes; the pine-trees are ranged in rows on the hot, dry declivities, and the coca is found to thrive best in warm, hollow dells.
As the humidity of the atmosphere, added to the multitudes of insects, mice and rats, prevents any lengthened preservation of provisions, the cultivators sell or exchange them as speedily as possible; hence arises a very active intercourse in business between the Montañas and the Sierra. The mountain Indians bring llamas, dried meat, potatoes, bark, and salt, to exchange for fruit; it is very seldom that any money circulates in this traffic. Only the owners of plantations sell their productions for ready money, with which they purchase, in the upland towns, European goods, particularly printed and plain cottons, coarse woollen stuffs, knives, hatchets, fishing-tackle, &c.; with these goods they pay their laborers, charging them for every article five or even six times its value. As there is throughout these forest regions a great want of men, the plantation owners endeavor to get the few Indians who settle voluntarily on their property, fixed to it for ever. They sell them indispensable necessaries at an extravagant price, on condition of their paying for them by field labor.