Being limited by instructions, the writer commences his observations at the division of the naval party at Tarma, in Peru, and closes them on reaching the mouth of the Madeira river, in Brazil.
Descriptions of fishes collected from snow-water lakes and streams in Peru or Bolivia, and from rivers in Brazil, botanical specimens, varieties of birds, different ores, earth, and metals procured on the journey, are unavoidably omitted.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
LARDNER GIBBON,
Lieutenant U. S. Navy.
Hon. James C. Dobbin,
Secretary of the Navy, Washington.
CHAPTER I.
Tarma—Inca road—Juaga valley—Quichua Indians—Trade—Juaja river—Snow mountains—Stone bridge and stone coal—Temperature of springs—Llamas—Lieutenant of police—Quicksilver mines of Huancavelica—Wool growing—Molina Posta, or country tavern—Silver mines of Castro-Virreyna—Population of Huancavelica—Its mineral productions—Sand-stone pyramids—Chicha and chupe—A New-Englander among the Andes—Fruits and flowers of Huanta—Blacksmiths.
Tarma, a small town in Peru, by alpha and beta, Centauri, in latitude 11° 25' south, is situated in a rich, well-cultivated, narrow valley, between the Andes range of mountains on the east, and the lofty Cordillera chain on the west.
On the 9th of July 1851, the writer turned southeast, accompanied by Henry C. Richards, a native of Virginia, in the United States, and José Casas, of Spanish descent, native of Peru.