Pimentel supposes that from the time of the discovery, in June, to the date of his letter, in November, about one hundred thousand dollars had been collected; but that the best parts had been worked, and such success was no longer to be looked for. He says, moreover, that the difficulty of obtaining provisions and supplies is very great, from the small number of persons engaged in agriculture, the general laziness of the people, and the difficulty of transportation.
It is quite evident that Pimentel is disposed to throw difficulties in the way, and to distract attention from Challuhuma by dwelling upon the undiscovered riches in other valleys, and the great vegetable wealth of the country a little to the eastward of it. Other accounts from this district give a different version, and represent Pimentel as a party in one of the mining companies, and interested in keeping secret the true state of affairs. The quarrel on this subject ran very high in the department of Puno, and even the motives and conduct of General Deustua, then prefect of the department, and now governor of the "Provincia Littoral" of Callao—a man of the very highest standing and character in his country—were impugned. He vindicated his reputation in a very spirited letter to the Secretary of State for the Treasury Department, demanding to be relieved, and receiving an apologetic reply from the government.
It appears from some notices of this country, written by Manuel Hurtado, a citizen of Puno, "that the province of Carabaya has an extent of one hundred and eighty miles, from north to south, rendered more to the traveller, who wishes to pass over its whole length, on account of his having to cross the spurs of the mountains, which divide the whole country into valleys, having auriferous streams; for, from Cuia to Quica, there are eighteen miles; to Sandia, forty-two; to Cuyo-Cuyo, twelve; to Patambuco, eighteen; to Phara, thirty-six; to Uricayas, forty-five; to Coasa, eighteen; to Thiata, thirty; to Ayapata, eighteen; to Ollachea, forty-two; and to Corani, eighteen; making three hundred and seven miles. All these villages, except the last, are in the line of the edge of the Montaña. The villages of Macusani and Crucero are on this other side of the Cordillera. The population of the province is thirty thousand souls, over and above strangers, who come to collect the gold and cascarilla.
"The exportation of the products of the province for the last year were about three hundred thousand pounds of cascarilla, twenty-five thousand baskets of coca, (of twenty-one pounds each,) and one thousand pounds of coffee. The small crops of maize, &c., are only for the consumption of the country. The only two plantations that have been opened in the last two years, by D. Augustin Aragon and D. Lorenzo Requelme, will begin to render their crops in the coming year.
"According to the notices acquired from different persons, and particularly from Pimentel and the Pobletes, we know that the gold taken from Challuhuma, from the middle of June to September, amounts to seven hundred pounds, of which the Pobletes hold three, and the balance has been sold by various individuals in the fairs and markets of Azangaro, Tangazuca, and Crucero, over and above the many pounds that have been sent for sale to Puno and Arequipa, and that which the Indians indubitably hold, seeing that they only sell enough to purchase themselves necessaries; although one has been known to sell the value of six hundred dollars. About the end of September the associates of the company styled 'Descubridora' destroyed the hanging bridges, (oroyas,) the rafts, and even some parts of the road, saying that in Challuhuma there is nothing, and advising all to return to their houses. This rather encouraged them to proceed. They plunged into the woods where human foot had never trodden, and, crossing the great river on temporary oroyas, many persons settled themselves in Challuhuma; whence they have been taking gold without its being known how much has been collected in the month and a half which has intervened. It is worthy of note that these people and the Pobletes have very imperfect means of extracting the gold: being reduced to what they call 'chichiquear,' which is, to place earth in a trough, wash it a little while in the stream, and collect the gold that has settled; which may be one, two, or more ounces, according to the fortune of the washer. They repeat this operation as many times a day as their strength will permit. On one occasion the sub-prefect Pimentel obtained from one trough-full twenty-odd ounces of gold, as he himself related to us; and no trough-full yields less than one ounce."
There seems exaggeration in this account; but an anonymous publication from Puno on this subject of Carabaya goes beyond this. It says:
"In the year 1713, a mine of silver was discovered in a hill called Uncuntayo, among the heights (Altos) of Ollachea, which gave more than four thousand marks to the caxon. (Six marks to the caxon is a paying yield in Cerro Pasco.) These riches gave rise to such disturbances, violences, and murders, that the Viceroy had to march to suppress the disorders; but after a few years the hill fell in and closed the mines.
"It has been always known that much gold existed in all the ravines of the district of Phara, and the proof is the discovery of it, in the present year, at the points called Beinisamayo, Rio Challuhuma, and Acomayo, from which 'placeres' it is certain that even in this short time many arrobas (twenty-five pounds) of fine gold, in the shape of melon seeds, have been taken and seen in Puno Arequipa, &c. The sight of this gold, and the conviction which is entertained of the existence of abundance of this metal, have awakened the avarice of all, and are attracting to Carabaya a concurrence of the people of the departments of La Paz, Puno, Arequipa, and Cuzco. The work must cease, on account of the rains, towards the end of October; but from May onwards, we shall have growing up there a society, heterogeneous, avaricious, and needing authorities and judges, that the 'placeres' may be appointed among the workers according to law; that property may be secured; and that those disorders which may be expected to grow out of such a state of affairs may be checked: for the sub-prefect, besides being a principal associate in the companies for collecting gold and cascarilla, has not the weight of character necessary in these cases. Moreover, the person who directs in mining matters (Diputado de Mineria) resides in Puno, two hundred miles from the point whence the gold is extracted. The companies endeavor, by every means in their power, to hide the riches which exist in the already discovered mines, and to throw difficulties in the way of getting there; but we know that every trough-full of the earth which is washed gives six ounces and upwards, and that there are only three days on horseback from Phara to the banks of the great river, though the road is somewhat rough; and from the other side of the river, (which may be crossed by an oroya or on rafts) to the mines is only one day on foot. The climate of the greater part of the Montaña of Carabaya is entirely healthy, and of an endurable heat. Its lands are so rich that they give three crops a year, and produce fine coca, coffee that rivals that of Mocha, superior cacao, potatoes, maize, fruits, raisins of every kind, the vanilla, superior and most abundant woods, and the cascarilla, called calisaya, with all the other classes. Added to this there are rivers with immense fisheries, so that people would do well to colonize there even if there were no gold. The savages, in tribes of more than two hundred souls, live scattered about sixty or ninety miles to the eastward of the placeres. It is necessary to adopt some measures of precaution to anticipate attacks which they would be likely to make on small parties."
Pimentel says that the Indians on some of the beaches of the great river "Inambari," which flows through this Montaña, make a sort of scaly pavement (empedrado, en forma de escama) just before the increase of the river, caused by the rains, so that the gold borne down by its current may be deposited. They call these their chacras, or farms of gold, and collect their crop at the falling of the river.
It will be perceived, from the above accounts, that, if the river "Madre de Dios" of Father Bobo should be identical with the Purus, and there should be a navigable communication between this country and the Atlantic, the advantages to commerce would be enormous, and the "Brillante Porvenir," or dazzling future of Cuzco, would be no dream. I judge, from the description of the country through which this "great river" (as it is called in all the accounts of people who have visited these parts) flows, that it is not navigable; and it is certain that neither the cascarilla nor the gold can be collected for six months in the year. Yet I judge that there is a much nearer and easier communication with the Atlantic, by this route, than that by the passage of the Cordillera, and the voyage around Cape Horn; and that the opening to trade of a country which produces, in abundance, gold, and the best quality of cinchona, would soon repay the courage, enterprise, and outlay of money which would be necessary to open, at most, but a short road, and to remove a few obstructions from a river.