Unlike the English in India, the half-Spanish races of Peru have paid little attention to the history and languages of the aborigines, within the present century; and, if left to them, all traces of the language of the Incas, and of the songs and traditions which remain in it, would, in the course of another century, almost entirely disappear. A few honourable exceptions must, however, be recorded. The late Mariano Rivero paid much attention to the antiquities of his country, and the results of his labours have been published at Vienna.[283] The curas of some of the parishes in the interior, also, especially Dr. Dava of Pucara, Dr. Rosas of Chinchero, and the Cura of Oropesa, near Cuzco, are excellent Quichua scholars, but they are very old men, and their knowledge will die with them.
Dr. Dava had a large collection of the finches, and other birds of the loftier parts of the Andes, hanging in wicker cages along the wall of his house. Amongst them were a little dove called urpi; the bright yellow little songster called silgarito in Spanish, and cchaiña in Quichua; the tuya, another larger warbler; the chocclla-poccochi or nightingale of Peru; and a little finch with glossy black plumage, pink on the back, and whitish-grey under the wings. He also had some small green paroquets, with long tails and bluish wings, which make their nests under the eaves of roofs, at a height of fourteen thousand feet above the sea. At Pucara some of the inhabitants have small manufactories for making glazed earthenware basins, pots, plates, and cups,[284] which find an extensive market in the villages and towns of the department of Puno, and which will probably long hold their own against the same kind of coarse wares from Europe or the United States.
From Puno to Pucara I had travelled along the main-road to Cuzco; but, at the latter place, I branched off to the eastward, to pass through the province of Azangaro to that of Caravaya. The main-road continues in a northerly direction, crosses the snowy range of Vilcañota near Ayaviri, and descends the valley of the Vilcamayu to Cuzco. At Pucara I left post-houses and post-mules behind me, for they only exist on the main-roads between Arequipa, Puno, Cuzco, and Lima; henceforth I had to depend on being able to induce private persons to let out their mules or ponies to me.
About 500 yards from the town of Pucara is the river of the same name, which flows past Ayaviri in the mountains of Vilcañota. It was very full, and eighty yards across. The mules swam, and we had to cross in a rickety balsa made of two bundles of reeds, which had to go backwards and forwards five times before all the gear and baggage was on the eastern side. After riding over a plain which became gradually narrower as the mountains closed in, I began the ascent of a rocky cuesta, with a torrent dashing down over huge boulders into the plain. There was a splendid view of the distant rock of Pucara, with the snowy peaks of the Vilcañota range behind. A league further on there was an alpine lake, with a fine peaked cliff rising up from the water's edge. There were many ducks and widgeons, and large coots were quietly busy, swimming about and building their nests on little reed islands; also jet-black ibises, with dark rusty red heads and long curved bills. After a ride of several leagues over a grassy country covered with flocks of sheep, I reached the summit of a range of hills, and got a distant view of the town of Azangaro, in a plain with several isolated steep grassy mountains rising from it, and the snowy Andes of Caravaya in the background. After a very wearisome descent I reached the plain, and, riding into Azangaro, was most hospitably and kindly received by Don Luis Quiñones, one of the principal inhabitants.
The region which I had traversed between Puno and Azangaro is all of the same character—a series of grassy plains of great elevation, covered with flocks and herds, and watered by numerous rivers flowing into lake Titicaca, which are traversed by several mountain-ranges, spurs from the cordillera, which sometimes run up into peaks almost to the snow-line, and at others sink into rocky plateaux raised like steps above the plain. What strikes one most in travelling through this country is the evidence of the vast population it must have contained in the days of the Incas, indicated by the ruined remains of andeneria, or terraces for cultivation, rising in every direction tier above tier up the sides of the hills. But it is now almost exclusively a grazing country, and the Indians, employed in tending the large flocks of sheep, only raise a sufficient supply of edible roots for the consumption of their families, and the market of the nearest town. Frequently the shepherds are what are called yanaconas, or Indians kept to service by the owners of the flocks, which vary from 400 to 1000 head. The condition of this class of Indians is very hard, as they get only a monthly allowance of an arroba of chuñu (frozen potato) or quinoa, and a pound of coca, or four dollars a month in money.
Puno, Juliaca, Lampa, Pucara, and Azangaro, are all between 12,800 and 13,000 feet above the sea. Between March 28th and April 15th, the indications of the thermometer at these places were as follows:—
| Mean temperature | 52½° |
| Mean minimum at night | 37¼ |
| Highest observed | 58 |
| Lowest | 37 |
| Range | 21 |
Azangaro is the capital of the province of the same name. There is a tradition that, when the Indians were bringing gold and silver for the ransom of the Inca Atahualpa, they received news of his murder by Pizarro, at Sicuani, and at the same time orders came from Inca Manco, who was at Cuzco, to remove the treasure to a greater distance; and that they buried it near this town. Asuan is "more," carun "distant;" hence Azangaro. It is generally believed that this treasure, worth 7,000,000 dollars, as well as the fifteen mule-loads of church-plate brought into the town by Diego Tupac Amaru in 1781, are concealed somewhere, and that some of the Indians know the place well, but will not divulge it. Hence there have been numerous attempts to discover it, and one sub-prefect made several excavations under the pavement in the church, but without any success. On one occasion, not long ago, an old Indian, who had been a servant in the house where Diego Tupac Amaru lodged, told the sub-prefect that in the centre of the sala, after digging down for about two feet, a layer of gravel from the river would be reached; a little further down a layer of lime and plaster; a little further a layer of large stones; and that beneath the stones would be the treasure. The excavation was commenced, and great was the excitement when all the different layers were found exactly as the Indian had described them; but there was no treasure. It is not unlikely that the Indian only knew or only told half the clue; and that these layers were some mark, whence a line was to be measured in some particular direction, and to a certain distance, to denote the spot under which the treasure was deposited. Yet the searches have not been wholly unsuccessful. There are several subterranean passages and chambers under Azangaro, and one was discovered a few years ago which had been made by the Indians in ancient times. It led towards the plaza, and ended in a recess, where there were several mummies, adorned with golden suns and armlets, and golden semispheres covering their ears—now the property of my host, Don Luis Quiñones.
Azangaro is par excellence the city of hidden treasure. The houses are built of mud and straw, and thatched with coarse grass (stipa ychu), the better sort being whitewashed. To the north of the town there is a long ridge of rocky heights; to the south an isolated peaked hill nearly overhangs the town; to the east is the river; and to the west is a plain bounded by the mountains towards Pucara. The church, in the plaza, is like a large barn outside, with walls of mud and straw, and a tower with broad-brimmed red-tiled roof; but on entering it I was astonished at its extraordinary magnificence, so entirely out of proportion to the wealth or importance of this little town. The nave is lined with large pictures on religious subjects, by native artists, in frames of carved wood richly gilt. The elaborate gilded carving was very striking; the leaves, bunches of grapes, and twisted columns, being the workmanship of the famous carvers of Cuzco. Over the arch leading to the chancel there is a picture representing the Triumph of the Faith, in bright colours. The high altar is plated with massive silver, with gilded columns, pictures, and images, in gorgeous profusion up to the roof. On either side are two very remarkable pictures, filling the walls between the altar and the chancel-arch. On the right an allegorical picture, and the Shepherds worshipping. One figure, in the latter picture, a girl holding a basket on her head, is of great merit, and exactly resembles the 'Santa Justa' of Murillo in the Duke of Sutherland's collection. On the left is a picture of the 'Woman taken in Adultery,' and an excellent copy of the well-known 'Worshipping of the Magi,' by Rubens, in the Madrid gallery. In a side chapel there is a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's 'Last Supper,' with portraits of two caciques—the heads of the two great families of Azangero—with their wives, one of them very pretty, looking on in a corner. These copies, which are excellent, must have been procured from Europe at very great expense.
