The lofty table-land to the westward of the snowy Andes extends for 120 miles, the whole length of Caravaya, but is only from five to ten miles broad. It is 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, and here, about a century ago, after the destruction of San Gavan, the town of Crucero was founded, as a central position for the capital of the province, and as being free from the attacks of wild Indians. It derives its name from the numerous roads which branch from it to the villages on the eastern slopes of the Andes. This narrow plain, on which Crucero[301] is situated, is very swampy, covered with long tufts of ychu grass, and intensely cold. It yields pasture to immense flocks of sheep; and to the curious hybrid, first bred by the cura Cabrera in 1826, between an alpaca and a vicuña, called the paco-vicuña, with a black and white fleece of long fine wool, which is wove into fabrics like the richest silk.[302]
But the largest and only important part of Caravaya consists of the forest-covered valleys to the eastward of the Andes. On the western side that mountain-chain rises abruptly into peaks covered with snow, from an elevated plateau 14,000 feet above the sea; but on its eastern side the descent is rapid into tropical valleys. Long spurs run off the main chain to the northward, gradually decreasing in elevation; and it is sometimes a distance of sixty or eighty miles before they finally subside into the boundless forest-covered plains of the interior of South America. Numerous rivers flow through the valleys between these spurs, to join the Ynambari; and in these valleys, near the foot of the main chain of the eastern Andes, are the few villages and coca and coffee plantations of Caravaya. In these long spurs and deep valleys Caravaya differs in geographical character from the more northern region of Paucartambo, where the Andes subside much more rapidly into the level plain.
In the warm valleys are to be found all the wealth and population of Caravaya. The population consists of 22,000 souls, almost all Indians; and the wealth, besides the flocks of sheep on the western table-land, is created by the produce of coca, coffee, sugar-cane, and aji-pepper plantations, fruit-gardens, and gold-washings. Correct statistical returns are unknown in Peru; but, as near as I could make out, there is an annual yield of 20,000 lbs. of coffee and 360,000 lbs. of coca.[303] I could obtain no reliable statements respecting the yield of gold.
The Caravayan valley which is furthest to the north and west is that of Ollachea, bordering on Marcapata, where there is a small village at the foot of the Andes. Next come those of Ituata and Corani. The little village of Ayapata, near the source of the river of the same name, comes next; and thirty miles further in the interior, an intelligent and enterprising Peruvian, named Don Agustin Aragon, has established a sugar-cane estate called San José de Bella Vista. It is situated at the junction of two rivers, and he is thus protected from the attacks of the savage Chuncho Indians who prowl about in the surrounding forests. He has made a road practicable for mules from the village of Ayapata to his estate; and he finds the manufacture of spirits from the sugar-cane far more profitable than digging for gold or hunting for chinchona-bark. He is a man full of energy and resource. His attempt to establish a manufactory of india-rubber only failed through the refusal of the Peruvian government to give him a contract for supplying the army, and thus assist his first efforts; in 1860 he sent an expedition into the forests to collect wild cacao-plants; any scheme for developing the resources of the country is sure to receive his advocacy; and he looks forward with confidence to the day when a steamer shall ascend the Purus and Ynambari, and return to the Atlantic with a cargo of the produce of Caravaya. It would be well for Peru if she contained many such men as Don Agustin Aragon.
It is supposed that the old Spanish town of San Gavan was situated near a river of the same name, about twenty miles from Aragon's estate. The site is now overgrown with dense forest, and it has never been visited since its destruction; yet it is believed that vast treasure lies concealed amongst the tree-covered ruins, because the attack of the Chunchos was sudden, and at once successful; they care nothing for the precious metals, and San Gavan contained a royal treasury, and was a central deposit for the gold of Caravaya. The Chunchos, in former times, were in friendly communication with, and even took service under, the Spaniards; but the tyranny of the latter at length exasperated them, and led to the destruction of San Gavan. Since that time the Chunchos have wandered in the forests in small tribes,[304] the implacable enemies of all white men and Inca Indians.
Following the eastern slopes of the Andes to the south-east, the next village to Ayapata, at the head of another deep ravine, is Ccoasa, and next follow Usicayus, Phara, and Limbani. Phara is in a ravine on the eastern slope of the Andes, about thirty-five miles from Crucero. Here many gold-mines were worked by the Señores Mulattos, and at no great distance is the famous gold-mine of Aporuma, in the ravine of Pacchani. Phara is on the road to the gold-diggings, which were discovered by the brothers Poblete, and which attracted so many luckless adventurers between 1849 and 1854. They are at a distance of fifteen leagues to the northward. The path lies along a long ridge, gradually descending for six leagues to a little hamlet called La Mina. Thence to the banks of the river Ynambari, here called Huari-huari, is a distance of three leagues, down a very dangerous road, covered with huge blocks of schist, and skirting along fearful precipices. For this distance the road is passable for mules. The river is seventy yards broad, and is crossed by an oroya, or bridge of ropes, traversed by a sort of net or cage, into which the passenger gets, and is hauled over to the other side, at a giddy height above the boiling flood. On the other side, at the junction of the Huari-huari and the golden river of Challuma,[305] there is a place which has been named Versailles by some French adventurers, of whom the most daring and energetic is a M. La Harpe. The road, so far, was opened by a party of soldiers of the batallion Yungay. From Versailles to the lavaderos or gold-washings is a distance of six leagues up a narrow forest-covered ravine; and, in this distance, it is necessary to wade across the river Challuma no less than fifty-three times—the water coming up to the waist, the feet constantly slipping over loose rounded stones, the only support a long staff, and where one false step would be inevitable destruction. At the end of this perilous journey there is a place called Alta-garcia, where the administradores of the company of first discoverers were established in 1850. Thence to Quimza-mayu (three rivers) is half a league, and here the lavaderos commence. In this part of its course the river is called Taccuma. Many of the gold-seekers, such as the Señores Carpio, La Harpe, Valdez, Tovar, Cardenas, and Costas, have been men who were formerly engaged in the chinchona-bark trade, and who know the country thoroughly. The tributaries of the Challuma, called Quimza-mayu, rise in hills completely isolated from the Andes, and their sands are full of gold, both in dust and nuggets. Immediately above the lavaderos rises a hill called Capacurco, and by the French adventurers Montebello, formed of quartz and other primitive rocks, with rich veins of gold. Here Don Manuel Costas of Puno erected a house, and brought out machinery for crushing the quartz, but the undertaking failed through the badness of the machinery, and the immense cost and difficulty of transporting materials through such a country. A few adventurers, however, still continue to wash for gold in the Challuma or Taccuma. In the part of its course above the lavaderos this river descends rapidly from an isolated range of forest-covered precipitous hills, and in one place its waters plunge down in a cascade, with a sheer fall of forty feet.[306] The gold-seekers of the Challuma have penetrated further into the forests, and nearer to the main stream of the Purus, than any other explorers; and their discovery of the Challuma, and of the auriferous hills near its banks, has added something to our geographical knowledge of this region.
The remaining villages on the eastern slopes of the Caravayan Andes are Patambuco, Sandia, Cuyo-cuyo, Quiaca, Sina, and the farm of Saqui, on the frontier of Bolivia. The river of Sandia has one of its sources near the pass twenty miles north-east of Crucero, whence it flows past Sandia, and for many leagues down a narrow gorge, with magnificent mountains rising up abruptly on either side. At a distance of twenty miles below Sandia, in a part of the ravine called Ypara, the coca and coffee plantations commence, at a height of 5000 feet above the sea. Beyond Ypara cultivation ceases, and the river, now increased to double its former size by its junction with the Huari-huari, flows for many leagues between mountains covered from their summits with a dense tropical forest. This region is known as San Juan del Oro, once famous for its gold-washings; and here the royal town of the same name stood, founded by the fugitive Almagristas, and afterwards tenanted by the Señores Mulattos, but long since destroyed and abandoned. The forests contain chinchona-trees of valuable species, and, until the last fourteen years, they were frequented by bark-collectors.
While flowing through the forests of San Juan del Oro the river takes a turn to the westward, and, at a distance of sixty miles from Sandia, enters the Hatun-yunca, or Valle Grande, where the people of Sandia have very extensive coca and coffee plantations. The curve here made by the river is so considerable that the people from Sandia reach their farms in the Valle Grande by leaving the ravine above Ypara, and making their way across the grass-covered mountains. The coffee-plants in these farms receive no attention whatever from the time they are planted, so that, instead of the dense well-pruned bushes of India or Ceylon, they grow into tall straggling trees about twelve feet high, with a very small harvest of berries on each, but each berry well exposed to the sun. The coffee is certainly excellent.
Passing through the Valle Grande the river flows on past Versailles, where it receives the golden Challuma, and, uniting with all the other rivers of Caravaya, becomes that great Ynambari which finally effects a junction with the Madre de Dios, and forms the main stream of the mighty Purus.