“Ah, señor, you might have seen twice as many before the Spaniards passed by,” said Domingo; “but they slaughtered all they could get, sometimes merely for the sake of their tongues. It is a pity that the people should have rebelled against their lawful sovereign; and this is the consequence.”
Mr Laffan made no reply. It was as well, for our purpose, that Domingo should appear so loyal.
In the woods, and often flying across the valley, we saw various kinds of birds, macaws and parrots; some of the latter had yellow plumage on the breast, wings, and tail, and red feathers on the head. We also met with wild turkeys, grouse, and partridges in large numbers; and we frequently caught sight of deer scampering over the hills. But sometimes, during a whole day, we did not pass a single house of any size, while the cottages of the peasantry were scattered at long distances from each other.
As we proceeded down the valley, however, we saw a number of neat country-houses and cottages; while the soil appeared to be fruitful in the extreme, and nothing could surpass the beauty of the scenery. The numbers of the cattle also increased. They were under the charge of black slaves, who were riding about looking after them. We saw neither Creoles nor Indians: the latter had made their escape to the forests and mountains, and the former had been carried off to serve in either the one army or the other. The appearance of the blacks on horseback was singular. On their heads they wore large straw hats, while their bodies were covered by a cloak made of rushes, which served to keep out both the heat and the rain. Their legs were bare, but their feet were protected by sandals, to which were fastened spurs of huge dimensions. Each man carried by his left side a long manchette, or sword-knife, secured to his girdle. They were all galloping as hard as they could go, wheeling their horses round and then halting in a moment.
“Those fellows would make useful cavalry, if they could be got to face the enemy; and I should like to find myself at the head of a thousand of them,” observed Mr Laffan. “We should give a good
account of any of the Spanish lancers we might fall in with.”
Soon after this, on the shores of a small lake, we came upon a curious tree, which Mr Laffan pronounced to be the wax-palm, or the Ceroxilon andicola. From its appearance I should have supposed that it could only grow in the very warmest regions; but it is of so happy a constitution that it flourishes equally well in temperate and in cold climates. We afterwards found some on the mountains of Quindio. They are the most hardy of the Palm tribe: where others would perish, or assume a dwarfed or stunted form, the wax-palm raises its stem, in the form of an elegantly-wrought column, a hundred and fifty feet high, with a splendid leafy plume. From the leaves and trunk exudes a grey and acrid matter, which on drying assumes the nature of wax as pure as that of bees, but rather more brittle. I have seen tallow-candles surrounded by a thin coating of this wax, which, not melting as rapidly as the tallow, prevents the candle from guttering.
The valley of the Cauca abounds with bamboo-cane, which serves a variety of purposes. With the bamboo the inhabitants build their houses, and erect a pretty kind of fence around their farms. The peasantry make with it sweet-sounding flutes; it furnishes them also with drinking-cups, water-buckets, and bird-cages, chairs and baskets, blow-pipes and arrows. With the canes also large rafts are built for carrying cocoa and other produce down the rivers even as far as the ports of embarkation, where the rafts themselves are disposed of to advantage. As cattle abound, ox-hides are made use of for all sorts of domestic purposes. Tables are covered with them, and also sofas, chairs, bedsteads, doors, and trunks. Cut into strips, they form lassoes, greatly in use among the cattle-keepers of the plains. They are formed into bottles, too, for wine and chica; and with them also, stretched on poles, hand-barrows are constructed for carrying earth and rubbish.
We met in this region a number of horses and mules without ears, and others with their ears lying flat on their necks. On inquiring the reason, we found that this was occasioned by an insect like a wood-louse getting inside them, and which is as prolific as the chigua in the toes of human beings. These insects gradually devour the nerves of the ear, which then falls off. To prevent this, the muleteers rub the inside of the animal’s ears with hog’s lard, to which the insect has a decided aversion.