PART VII.
TOPOGRAPHY.
HISTORICAL AND CHOROGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PROVINCE OF CHICHAS Y TARIJA.
Poverty in human affairs has the same effect as the inverted lenses in optical tubes: it diminishes and confuses the objects. To what may be denominated its inherent qualities, opinion, which tyrannizes over the conceptions, has added others still more sensible. The poor man is, necessarily as it were, obscure, uncivil, dejected, and deficient; and, to crown his misfortunes, he becomes ridiculous.[1] It suffices not to him to be virtuous, to merit the esteem of his fellow-creatures: it is necessary that he should be a prodigy;—that he should work miracles. This consideration, which is so mortifying to all those whom fortune has wronged in the unequal distribution of her favours, is to the philosopher a source of flattering and consolatory meditations. Aware that honour, riches, and, occasionally, posthumous fame even, depend on certain accidents, the combination and government of which are not within his reach, he ceases to disquiet himself about obtaining them, or to afflict himself at their privation. tranquil In his retreat, he observes with a serene and penetrating eye, that applause and honour, nay friends even, come with fortune, and with her depart. The same reasonings apply to countries, in the history of which the consequences are equally cogent. In the time of Solomon, how many regions did not the earth contain, felicitous in the wisdom of their legislation, in the flourishing condition of their agriculture, or in the pastures which afforded nourishment to their useful and numerous flocks? Their sites, and even their names, have, notwithstanding, been forgotten, because they were poor; and we bear in our remembrance Ophir alone, on account of the gold with which it abounded. If the land discovered by Columbus had not afforded the prospect of any other utility, beside that of introducing, among its aborigines, the customs and faith of the Europeans, the glory of that adventurous Genoese would have vanished with his life, or even before, with the enterprize itself. Ferrer Maldonado, Quiros, Hudson, Baffins, Cook, &c. exposed their lives a thousand times to discover unknown lands; and in reality they discovered many. The want of riches in these parts scarcely allowed a miserable spot to be assigned to them in the geographical maps, at the same time that all the ignorant, and many of the learned, spoke with enthusiasm of Gran-Paititi, Gran-Quivira, Terra Firma, and the country of the Amazons, in consequence of the gold which was ascribed to them, notwithstanding one of the most celebrated of the national writers[2], had demonstrated that the opulence of all these kingdoms was imaginary. The zeal for the propagation of the gospel, the spirit of conquest, commerce, the study of antiquity, and that of natural history, are seldom directed to poor countries, in which, it may be said, they never make a permanent establishment. In the centre of Spain an idea was entertained of the Batuecas[3], that is, of the inhabitants of a province which, on account of its wretchedness, was thought to have subsisted during many centuries, secluded from all traffic and social intercourse; and in America this same idea is realized in the province of Chichas y Tarija, the description of which is about to be given[4].
These vallies, capable, through their fertility and the abundant produce they might be made to supply, to revive the prodigies of ancient Sicily, and of the fabulous Arcadia, have been condemned, by their poverty, to remain confounded and forgotten. The Methodical Encyclopedia, Buffier, Echard, Busching, Martinlere, La Croix, &c. either forbear, in their geographical tracts, to make mention of such a country, or misrepresent it most lamentably. The learned and laborious Alcedo[5] was unable to be very exact, or to go into any great length of detail, in his description of this province. In the Memoirs of Dr. Cosme Bueno, some valuable information may, indeed, be collected on this head; but the system which that distinguished cosmographer had traced out, did not allow him to follow rigorously either the historical or political style of writing. Several authentic manuscripts which we have collected from various parts, enable us to elucidate this subject, to which we now proceed without further preamble.
In those calamitous circumstances, coeval with the conquest of these kingdoms, in which the most powerful were constantly justified, and the weak, however replete with virtue, deemed culpable, there were not wanting several among the conquerors, who abandoned the leaders of the predominating factions, Pizarro and Almagro, and who, actuated by the same spirit of domineering, enriching themselves, and immortalizing their memory, proceeded, with a few companions, to the more distant parts of Peru, and there established themselves. Among these was a certain Francisco Tarija, whose country has not been precisely ascertained, although there is some reason to presume that he was a native of Seville. This adventurer, after having wandered for a considerable time by the rugged tracks of the Cordillera, escorted by a few Indians, and with a small band of followers under his command, at length stopped at the valley which has still continued to bear his name, and which is the subject of the present details. Its peaceable inhabitants, who were strangers to the yoke of the domination of the Yncas, and unacquainted with the tragedies that were acting in the western part of this continent, received their guests with that awful respect with which the Indian of those times viewed the European, the superiority of whose powers excited his surprize and admiration. Francisco Tarija, charmed by the mildness of the climate, by the fertility of the soil, and still more by the docility of the happy natives, came to a resolution not to proceed further. He settled among them, and laid the foundation of a small colony, agreeably to the plan of those which had been established in other parts of subjugated America.
As those who accompanied him were too few in number to afford him an effectual support, and as he could not expect any succour from the sea-coast, on account both of the distance and of the disturbances which prevailed there, he did not undertake any expedition worthy of being transmitted to posterity. Nothing more is, at least, known respecting him; and even this short sketch of his arrival in the valley, was deposited, in a loose way, in various papers belonging to the archives of the chapter of San Bernardo de Tarija. These documents were taken possession of by different notaries who filled that employment, and distributed throughout the kingdom. Several of them are now in the possession of a virtuoso belonging to the city of Piuro, who has had the goodness to transmit us a copy of them.
It would appear, by a comparison between the epoch of his establishment, and those which will be cited hereafter, that Francisco Tarija did not long enjoy the fruit of his labours. With the death of this prudent and courageous Spaniard, the freedom, and tenour of life, of the Indians of the valley, were restored to their primitive state. They again adopted their peculiar customs and language; and, in forgetting the few principles of the Castillian tongue which they had been taught, preserved the word Tarija alone, without doubt because they entertained an esteem for the name and memory of a man, who had regarded them as his brethren, and had respedled the sacred laws of humanity and justice. Notwithstanding several other Spaniards, as well as Mestizos, penetrated into this territory, with a view to form settlements, we are prevented from giving an account of their enterprizes and successes, by the obscurity we find in the memorials of that time, relative to this particular subject.
With the progress of years, the fame of the riches of Peru found its way into every part of the globe, becoming constantly more exaggerated, in proportion to the distance, and to the caprice of those by whom it was transmitted. A Portuguese of Parahuay, whose name, like that of Erostratus, ought to be eternally buried in oblivion, being stimulated by the insatiable desire of gold, overwhelmed the valley of Tarija with a calamity, equal, in proportion to the circumstances, to that which Narses brought on Italy, when he favoured the invasion of the Lombards; and similar to that which count Julian caused to Spain, when he engaged the Moors to undertake the subjugation of that kingdom. This avaricious man assembled an entire nation of ferocious Indians, named Chirihunaos, and conceived the project of proceeding with them to Peru, to appropriate to himself the produce of its rich mines. In reality he set about this undertaking; and having entered with his troop of barbarians, desolated the country through which he passed, stealing the cattle, burning the crops and habitations, and putting to death all those he encountered, whether Spaniards, Indians, or Mestizos. In testimony of the guilt of his intentions, he loaded himself with spoils; but found his punishment in the crime itself; for the Chirihuanos slew him as soon as they perceived that he retreated with the riches they had aided him to collect. They did not think of returning to the country whence they came; but, on the other hand, being delighted with the fertility and abundance of the new land which presented itself, took up their abode in the pleasant vales of Tarija. From that position they continually infested the roads of Peru, Tucuman, and Buenos-Ayres, which were scarcely rendered passable by the protection of an armed force, insomuch that the travellers laboured under similar apprehensions, and were obliged to take all the precautions that accompany the caravans of Arabia and Tartary.
As, in the progress of this history, the Chirihuanos Indians will occupy a considerable space, it may not be amiss, in this place, to give an idea of their origin and customs. These Indians, according to the commonly received opinion, do not constitute a part of the numerous Quechua nation, which peopled the extensive empire of Peru at the time it was first entered by the Spaniards. Their language, their costume, and their characteristic bravery, leave room for a fixed persuasion that they belong to the nation of the Tobas, the aborigines of the provinces of Parahuay. They are not idolaters; neither are they acquainted with any of those extravagances, which, through a want of true religion, are admitted under the name of worship. This independence of their spirit, or, rather, this indocility with regard to a Superior Being, has so powerful an influence on their temporal government, that it is merely a species of military democracy, in which the elders and captains, who among them are regarded as the sages and fathers of the country, discuss and decide the questions of peace and war, in a house appropriated, in each of the towns, to that particular purpose. They are so vain of their ancient origin, that they despise the Spaniards as a nation of needy upstarts. Valiant, frugal, and without aspiring to any other conveniences, or knowing any other necessities, beside those of pure Nature, they sometimes wage war, with the sole intention of enabling the Indian youths to profit, at the side of the elders, by their experience, and to learn the mode of carrying on the warfare successfully. This is accomplished, according to them, whenever they contrive to steal the cattle, and to intimidate the Spaniards; which latter aim they have recently effected, to the shameful extreme of proceeding to the heights adjacent to the principal settlements, to bid defiance to the inhabitants.
The mischiefs which these barbarians occasioned to the commerce of Peru, and the progress they made in disturbing the internal tranquillity of the country, claimed the attention of Don Francisco de Toledo, the then viceroy of these realms. To apply an efficacious remedy, such as should guard against every future disaster, he determined to form settlements in the vallies they inhabited, and which are now named Chichas y Tarija. For the execution of this task, he appointed Luis de Fuentes, a native of Andalusia, on whom he conferred the title of captain-general and president of justice, allowing him a retinue of fifty men. This title bears date in the city of la Plata, whither his excellency had proceeded to prosecute the general visitation he had undertaken, the 22d day of January, 1574; and the urgency of the measures that were adopted, may be estimated by the tenour of the clauses, which provided, that on the 28th of the same month, or sooner if possible, the expedition should set out.
Fuentes, who was justly considered as the Hernan Cortes of that part of South America, did not lose any time in devising the means of peopling the above vallies, to the end that they might serve as a barrier, and afford security to the roads of Peru, and to the bordering provinces. This man, who was certainly deserving of greater celebrity than he acquired, and of a better fate than the one which attended him, commenced his project by the adoption of measures that ought to have served, and should still serve as a rule to all conquerors. He occupied the principal valley, erected and peopled the city which is the capital of that district, and thence made war against the Indians. As soon as he had driven them to a convenient distance, he formed other settlements, such as Charaja, Concepcion, &c. until he had, by this method, succeeded in conquering and peopling, at one and the same time, an extent of fifty leagues of that abundant and fertile territory; and until the odious name of Chirihuano was not heard in Peru, except by the reports from Tarija.
For the sake of humanity, it were to be wished that a circumstance which is painful to relate, and which shews the want of gratitude in the human heart, could be passed over in silence. This very man, this Luis de Fuentes, whether through the ordinary lot of conquerors, or because their achievements suffice for their reward, was engaged in so many disputes, relative to the distribution of the lands, by the inhabitants of the country which he himself had conquered, that he ended his days in the audience of Charcas, poor and overwhelmed with law-suits; as happened to the hero of New Spain, Hernan Cortes, in the court of Charles V. But we will draw a veil over this melancholy scene, and, banishing it from our reflections, continue the historical series of the vicissitudes which have attended the population and political system of this province.
Before, however, we resume the thread of our narration, may we be permitted to introduce a short episode? When the settlers who accompanied Fuentes in his glorious expedition, approached the valley, they found a wooden cross, hidden, as if purposely, in the most intricate part of the mountains. As there is not any thing more flattering to the vanity of a credulous man, than to be enabled to bring forward his testimony in the relation of a prodigy, the devotion of these good conquerors was kindled to such a degree, by the discovery of this sacred memorial, that they instantly hailed it as miraculous and divine. They accordingly carried it in procession to the town, and placed it in the church belonging to the convent of San Francisco, where it is still worshipped. It appears next to impossible that there should not, at that time, have been any individual among them sufficiently enlightened to combat such a persuasion; since, in reality, there was nothing miraculous in the finding of this cross, there having been other Christian settlers, before the arrival of Fuentes, in the same valley. The opinion, notwithstanding, that the discovery was altogether miraculous, instead of having been abandoned at the commencement, was confirmed still more and more with the progress of time. The Jesuits Antonio Ruiz and Pedro Lozano, in their respective histories of the missions of Paraguay, &c. undertook to demonstrate that the apostle St. Thomas had been in America. This thesis, which was so novel, and so well calculated to draw the public attention, required, more than any other, the aid of the most powerful reasons, and of the most irrefragable documents, to be able to maintain itself, even in an hypothetical sense; but nothing of all this was brought forward. Certain miserable conjectures, prepossession, and personal interest, supplied the place of truth and criticism. The form of a human foot, which they fancied they saw imprinted on the rock, and the different fables of this description invented by ignorance at every step, were the sole foundations on which all the relations on this subject were made to repose. The one touching the peregrinations of St. Thomas from Brasil to Quito, must be deemed apocryphal,[6] when it is considered that the above reverend fathers describe the apostle with the staff in the hand, the black cassock girt about the waist, and all the other trappings which distinguish the missionaries of the society. The credit which these histories obtained at the commencement, was equal to that bestowed on the cross of Tarija, which remained in the predicament of being the one St. Thomas had planted in person, in the continent of America. Since the Holy Church, our mother, has not determined on the miraculous of this description, nor positively ordained its belief, we have judged it necessary to explain this point, as was indeed prescribed by the criterion of an historical relation. For this case, and for other similar ones, we venture to repeat what has been said by an unprejudiced and intelligent Spaniard:[7] De las cos as mas seguras lamas segura es dudar. But it is time that we should return to the especial purpose of our history, craving pardon for the prolixity of the digression we have been induced to make, in favour of truth and justice.
Among the fifty men who accompanied Fuentes, was a Dominican friar, named Francisco Sedano, who performed the fun6tion of chaplain, administering the sacrament to the Spaniards, and effecting, although with but little success, the conversion of the Chirihuanos. He founded a convent of his order, and obtained from the conqueror a grant of a very considerable portion of land. The fervour of religion, and the advantages of a country naturally rich, induced the orders of St. Augustin, St. Francis, San Juan de Dios, and, lastly, of the Society of Jesus, to establish in the city of San Bernardo, the capital of the district, each of them a convent, for the maintenance of which they acquired many funds and pious bequests. One of the original MSS. we have before us, bearing the signature of Don Nicholas de Echalar, chief magistrate of police, says on this subject: "By the means of these foundations posterity has been burdened with so many pensions and quit-rents, that the possessions may with truth be said to have been purchased five or six times, and still continue to pay the five per cent.; insomuch, that by degrees the inhabitants have been impoverished, until they have not enough left for their advancement and preservation." Another still more political MS. observes on the same head: "With the successive impoverishment of the province, the foundations of the convents, which the first settlers had made at their own expence, have been so much reduced, that in neither of those of St. Domingo, St. Augustin, and San Juan de Dios, any other monk beside the prior is to be found. The convent of the Jesuits having been altogether suppressed, if it were not for the College for the Propagation of the Gospel, the inhabitants would not be able to frequent the service of the mass."
In the above year, 1574, the viceroy appointed the ordinary alcaids, regidors, procurator, and major-domo, for the senate of San Bernardo de Tarija, which was then established; and in the lapse of a century from that date, the province was in so flourishing a condition, that a procurator was appointed, and sent to the court of Madrid, to solicit of his Catholic Majesty various indulgences, and, among others, that of erecting the city of Tarija into a bishopric, annexing to the province the jurisdictions of Pilaya, Lipes, and Chichas, together with the towns of Cochinoca, Casavinda, and Huamahuaca. This grant was refused, notwithstanding it was exposed by the petitioners, that the inhabitants had remained without the sacrament of confirmation, in consequence of the episcopal visit not having been made for upwards of fifty years.
The population of Tarija, at the commencement, besides being on a very reduced scale, was but of an indifferent quality, on account of the privilege granted by the cabinet of Spain, to all those who should enter the province, to combat and settle, that they should not be prosecuted for any debts. It thus became the sanctuary of fraudulent bankrupts and unprincipled debtors. That it gradually improved both in numbers and condition, was equally owing to the resources of the country, and to the misfortunes which befel those in its vicinity. A plague of devouring inse6ts, similar to that which, as a special punishment, was made to inundate the houses and plains of ancient Egypt, put to flight all the inhabitants of the city of Pilaya[8], many of whom took up their abode in Tarija, and within the boundaries of the province. The same thing happened when the celebrated mines of Lipes were inundated, more particularly the one named, byantonomatia, the table of silver. The miners, abandoning the mountainous territory, came down to the valley, where they, sought, in agricultural pursuits, a poorer, but more natural, and less precarious subsistence.
Among the distinguished personages who settled at Tarija, and honoured it with their residence, was Don Joseph Moreno de Peralta, the brother of our celebrated Peralta;—of that indefatigable writer, who, glowing with an ardent patriotism, undertook to emulate the eloquence of Xenophon, and the sweetness of Virgil, in describing the heroical deeds of his fellow-citizens, and in singing the foundation of his glorious country.
In the above-mentioned state of abundance and felicity, the province remained during the life of Luis de Fuentes, and beneath his fostering protection. Juan Porcel de Padilla, who inherited his titles, but not his virtues, proposed to the royal audience of la Plata, the conquest of the valley named de las Salinas, the last on the confines of the province, to which the Chirihuanos Indians had retired. He obtained the permission to form a settlement; and in the expedition which ensued, contrived, by the dint of much cruelty and violence, to give a certain degree of extension to the limits in that part. This was not, however, attended by any eventual benefit, either to the nation or to himself, and only served to render the Spanish name odious, and his own detestable. The Chirihuanos transmitted to their posterity the remembrance of the tyrannies exercised by Padilla, and the desire to avenge them. In the year 1727, they broke out into open hostilities, and made an irruption into the province, which they laid waste, on the pretext that an Indian of a distinguished class had been scourged with rods by the Jesuits. The pride of some, and the ignorance of others, prevented the pacific negotiations which might have been entered on with the Indians. Every thing was to be accomplished by the point of the lance; and peace was to be purchased on no other condition than that of the extermination of the enemy. Don Antonio de Texerina, Don Juan de Echalar, Don Martin Ascue, &c. took the field at different times.
These expeditions resembled those of the ancient feudal governments of Europe; each of the soldiers entering on the campaign, at his own cost, for a determinate number of days, and returning whenever he had exhausted the small store of provisions he had drawn from his necessitous abode. To explain this subject still better, they were undertaken without system, order, discipline, or subordination; and having for their sole aim the ancient and deplorable mania of conquest, the soldiery penetrated into the territory occupied by the Indians, where they put to death or captured a few of them, as the fruit of their enterprize, and returned to their homes. It is by no means surprizing, that, in the prosecution of so irregular a plan, all the martial attempts should have been unsuccessful, and should not have produced any other effect beside that of impoverishing the country.
The useless desire to exterminate the Chirihuanos, and to subdue them by the dint of arms, was abandoned in Tarija several years ago. The love of humanity, philosophy, and the enlightened policy of the more recent governors, have dissipated the ideas of coercion and violence, and have succeeded in restraining, by gentle means, a nation which had constantly been the scourge of the province, on this very account, that the inhabitants held the arm raised, not merely for their own defence, but through motives of wrath and vengeance. These Indians now blend with the songs of their past triumphs, encomiastic hymns to manifest their gratitude, and to record the memory of those who have not only given them peace, but have impressed on all sides the conviction, that it is not politic to break it. How flattering to the ears of the enlightened Spaniards, of the monarch, and of all Europe, will be the echo of the pacific strains the Chirihuano repeats, and the harmonious concert with which they are answered, from the kingdom of Chile, by the Araucanos, Pehuenches, and Wiliches, who acknowledge that they are at this time indebted for equal benefits, to their president Don Ambrosio Higgins! Here our imagination is exalted, and our pen can scarcely abstain from enthusiasm! Would that we could transmit to the public the agitation of our spirit, and the vehement impulse of the divinity which possesses us, to the end that it might view with complacency the new episode we introduce, to inculcate the sacred rights of man, the blessings of peace, the love the Indian claims from us, and the small share of merit which attends the blood-stained triumph over men, untameable but naked, who purchase their freedom at the dear price of living in the rude forests, a prey to penury and want! We now proceed to the chorographical description of the province of Chichas y Tarija, that being our principal aim.
Hitherto we have considered these two departments in the same point of view, because they constitute one and the same government; but in this sketch it is necessary to divide them topographically. The department of Chichas lies to the N. N. E. of Potosi, in the intendency of which it is comprehended, and by which it intersects the royal road of Buenos Ayres. Its length, from north to south, is forty-eight leagues, from the small river of Quiaca, a branch of the Tucuman, to Quirve, on the confines of Porco. Its breadth, from east to west, is a hundred leagues, from Esmoraca, in the department of Lipes, on the western side, to Chuquiaca, the station of the mission of las Salinas, belonging to the missionaries of Tarija, on the banks of the river San Juan, which separates it from that province.
Its principal rivers are the Toropalca and the Tarija, which, having received the Pilcomayo and the Bermejo, on the confines that divide the two provinces, take a northern direction, and enter the territory occupied by the Chirihuanos, thence proceeding to incorporate themselves with the river of la Plata. This department contains nine parochial distr16ls, five of which are situated in la Puna, and the remaining four in the vallies of Tarija. The former properly constitute its division; but the latter are most abundant in wood and corn.
The first parochial district of la Puna is Tolina, in a country intersedted by small streams, which bears the same name. It is distant from Potosi seventy leagues; affords a small produce of maize and wheat, and contains several gold mines, which are, however, gone to decays through the ignorance of the mode of separating the metal from the ore, and for want of the funds requisite to work them. Its inhabitants, consisting of Indians and mestizos, derive the greater part of their subsistence from the transport of merchandizes.
Tupiza, in a territory of the same description, is distant from Potosi sixty leagues, and is the capital of the department. Its inhabitants, among whom are many Spaniards, are supported by the gold and silver mines of Choroma, Estarca, and other districts: they likewise act as carriers. Its agriculture, which finds a greater impediment in the local disposition of the territory, than in the temperature of the air, scarcely affords a small portion of maize, wheat, and papas[9].
At the side of Tupiza, and on the same parallel respectively to Potosi, lies the third parochial distridt, denominated Gran-Chocaya, in a temperature very similar to that of Pasco[10]. It contains several good mines, which are, however, but little wrought, on account of the want of Spaniards. It abounds in sheep and huanacos; but in other respedts the soil is unproductive, insomuch, that its derives the greater part of its subsistence from the succours afforded by the fertility of the adjacent spots of territory.
Santiago de Cotagaita is distant thirty-four leagues from Potosi, whither its inhabitants convey the produce of the charcoal they burn. By this branch of traffic, which is highly profitable, and by the carriage of goods, they are enabled to subsist. Its position, which lies between a river and a swampy tract on the route of Buenos Ayres, is incommodious; but it boasts a benign temperature. Its population is very numerous, and consists principally of mestizos, with a few Spaniards and Indians.
The fifth and last parochial district of la Puna is Calcha, distant from Potosi twenty leagues. Its native inhabitants apply themselves to the culture of the lands, the property of which they hold in inheritance. They sow them with maize, wheat, and barley, in a quantity which scarcely suffices, however, for their maintenance. They cultivate in the same manner the small hills, which lie on the skirts of their district, and from which they procure their charcoal. In these two employments they are very industrious, and enjoy in consequence, a greater proportion of affluence than the other inhabitants of the province.
Although Esmoraca is annexed to the parochial district of Santa Isabel, in the department of Lipes, it is the constant residence of the priest who presides over the doctrina, or community of civilized Indians, and is comprehended in the jurisdiction of the department of Chichas. This small place, and the one adjacent to it, named Cerrillos, yield an abundance of silver, and a small proportion of gold of a very fine quality.
In Vitoche, a town belonging to the jurisdiction of the parochial district of Calcha, eighteen leagues distant from Potosi, leather, in imitation of the Spanish, is manufactured with great success, and in a quantity which suffices for the population of all the surrounding districts. This branch of industry affords the inhabitants a regular commerce, and a decent support. There are many flocks of goats, which are reared with infinite care, on account of their skins being best adapted to the above manufa6lure.
From fifty to sixty thousand marks of silver, and about a hundred thousand piastres in gold, are, on an average estimate, annually extracted from the mines, in the above dependencies. This amount the inhabitants exchange for herds, corn, wood, and other productions drawn from the side of Tarija, the territory of which is separated from the rest of the department by several rugged mountains, similar to those of the Pyrenees.
When the traveller has journied about a hundred leagues from Pasco, in a northern direction, he quits these snow-clad mountains, and, having descended several steep hills, which may more properly be named precipices, enters the delightful vallies of Tarija. Here it would require the pen of Fenelon, to describe the serenity of the sky, the fine temperature of the air, the beauty and fertility of the soil, the abundance of the waters, &c.; but as we do not possess his sublime eloquence, we shall confine ourselves to the observation, that, according to all we have seen, heard, and read, of the two Americas, there is not any other province which can be brought in comparison with the country of which we treat. There may be found wheat, maize, and all the other productions essential to the sustenance of man, together with the tree which yields the herb of Paraguay, the cocoa, the vine, and the flax which is sown in the district named la Recoleta, merely for the purpose of gathering the seeds. If the abundance of the produce be not proportionate to the fecundity of these vallies, it is either on account of the want of application of those who reside in them, or through the poverty of the circumjacent departments of Lipes and Chichas, which cannot make any considerable demands for the productions. The stores which reward the labours of the cultivator, may, however, be deemed sterility, when compared with what the lands occupied by the Chirihuanos, and other tribes of free Indians, might be made to yield. Those who have seen them, give a description of them similar to the one made to Moses by those who first explored the Land of Promise, The most noticeable circumstance, in these regions, is the ratio of the propagation of the human species, which is such, that, either through the defect of a sufficient space, or because it is not satisfied with the limits of the conquered territory, it proceeds, by a constant emigration, to people.the province of Tucuman.
That of Tarija is bounded, on the south, by the jurisdiction of Juxui; on the north, by that of the cities of Pilaya and Pispaya, which were formerly very flourishing, but are now, according to report, in a ruinous condition; on the west, by the plains inhabited by the unconquered Indians; and on the east, by the very considerable river named San Juan, which separates it from the department of Chichas, and the vale of Cinti. It is divided into four parochial districts, namely, San Bernardo de Tarija, San Lorenzo, which was formerly named Old Tarija, la Cancepcion, and Chahuaya.
San Bernardo, a city peopled by Spaniards, has a secular administration, a mother church, and the four convents which have been already pointed out. It is situated in a delightful plain, well supplied with water; and occupies a perfectly level surface. The adjacent territory is extremely fertile, but is exclusively applied to the culture of maize, and the rearing of herds of swine. This produce is, as well as the woods that are felled, and other commercial objects of a similar nature, expended in la Sierra.
San Lorenzo, at the foot of the mountains, distant ninety-seven leagues from Potosi, and three from Tarija, enjoys a similar temperature and fertility. Its territory, comprehending a part of la Puna, was originally regulated at about twelve square leagues. Much as it has been since augmented, it has a competent population of Spaniards. At the commencement, the parochial districts that have been named, were the only ones the department contained; but at the end of a few years it became necessary to subdivide this last, on account of the increase of territory, and of the settlers it constantly received, either as the result of the new conquests, or of the emigrations from the bordering provinces. Agreeably to its present extent, it comprehends the frontier of las Salinas, distant twenty-five leagues from the principal town.
La Concepcion was erected into a parochial district: by the effect of the above-mentioned disjunction. The progress of time, and the increase of settlers, produced afterwards the same necessity of a subdivision. In this district are situated the extensive vineyards of Angostura, Misericordia, &c. which yield wines of an excellent quality, partly for exportation, but chiefly consumed in the province.
Chahuaya, which formerly constituted a part of the preceding parochial district, lies at the extremity of the department. It has two appendages, one of them named Padcaya, where the rector finds it convenient to reside; and the other, the valley of Bermejo, which extends in a right line to a distance of ten leagues, and, proportionally, in a western direction, to the valley of Tariquea, where a few fugitive Indians, who belonged to the missions destroyed in the insurrection of 1727, already referred to, have sought an asylum. The valley of Bermejo is indifferently peopled; but there is still room for new settlers, who would do well to make it their residence, in following up the pursuits of husbandry. It has a circumference of from twenty-five to thirty leagues; its temperature is warm and moist; and it is adapted to the rearing of cattle, as well as to the culture of olives, canes, and a variety of plants and productions which are not to be found in the other parts of the dependency of Tarija. This valley extends in the same direction with the mission of las Salinas, by which it is protected; and is distant ten leagues only from the above mentioned appendage of Padcaya.
As throughout the whole extent of the department of Tarija, the natural fertility of the soil affords, without the aid of man, abundant pastures, a great number of herds of cattle and flocks of sheep are reared. In proportion as the different breeds are augmented, they are driven to the confine, and sold to the inhabitants of the province of Cinti. The annual transports of black cattle alone are computed at little less than ten thousand heads, which are valued at from eight to ten piastres each; and the cattle are no sooner slaughtered, than an advantage is taken of the hides, which are tanned and prepared on the frontier itself. In this manner, Potosi, Chuquisaca, and the surrounding departments, are supplied with sole-leather to a very considerable amount, each of the tanned hides producing at least four piastres, notwithstanding the imports of that article from Cochabamba are equally great. The demands for Spanish and colonial merchandizes annually exceed sixty thousand piastres; and the returns for these imports are made in territorial productions, and other effects drawn from the province.
Amid these advantages, the inhabitants of the valley of Tarija are extremely poor, on account of their propensity to idleness. Relying on the comparative facility with which their subsistence is procured, they spend their days beneath the shade of their huts, in imitation of the inhabitants of Tucuman. The ridiculous notions relative to the distinguished nobility of their progenitors, which have taken a strong hold of them, contribute greatly to maintain them in this state of indolence and inaction. It is distressing to humanity to see a senate, free from the controul of a particular governor, such as ought to reside in this province distinctly from that of Potosi, forget the paternal cares requisite to the welfare of the community, and employ itself solely in disputes respecting the degree of pre-eminence which each of the members fancies to correspond with his illustrious origin. The women, however, to their praise be it spoken, are not devoid of industry. Endued with much chastity, and possessed of a tolerable share of beauty (if a vigorous form, a lofty stature, and the carmine which glows on their cheeks, can be so denominated), they imitate the females of Catalonia and Gallicia, in an alternate application to the laborious employments of the field, and the domestic labours of the distaff and the shuttle. They fabricate a kind of stuff, either plain or figured, of which they form chuces, carpets, and other articles of domestic utility.
The rivers by which it is intersected, contribute greatly to the fertility of this valley. That of San Juan, which separates the province of Tarija from Chichas and the vale of Cinti, after having descended by the centre of the former of these provinces, takes a circuitous course, at Livi-Livi, from south to north, and flows until it unites with the river which originates in the above-mentioned valley of Cinti. This junction having been effected, it makes a new bend towards the west, and is denominated the river of Pilaya, until it meets with the Pilcomayo, the name of which it assumes in its progress through the centre of the territory inhabited by the unconquered Indians. The Guadalquivir rises in the northern part of the Cordillera to which an allusion has already been made, and passing through the centre of the parochial district of San Lorenzo, descends to the city of that name, where its water, having lost its pureness and transparence, is no longer potable. Continuing its progress, it flows into the valley of la Concepcion, a league below the town. Another small river, which may with more propriety be named a torrent, has its source in the southern part of the same cordillera, whence it is precipitated into the province of Tucuman, and, in its descent, supplies with a portion of its waters the Chahuaya tribe, from which it receives its name, until at length it unites with the Guadalquivir in the most level part of the district of la Concepcion. The last river to be cited, proceeds from the ceqtre of the above-mentioned cordillera, together with other streams which traverse the dependency of Tolomosa; and is named Bermejo. After having, in its progress, incorporated itself with the Guadalquivir, it takes the name of the river of Tarija. At the distance of a few leagues from its confluence it forces its passage through a strait, and having traversed the mountains, discharges itself below the mission of las Salinas, whence it passes in the vicinity of Salta, &c. and proceeds to the celebrated plains of Manco, know n by the name of Gran Chaco, seeking the Parahuay[11], having already resumed its primitive name of Bermejo, and receiving the contents of other smaller streams. These different rivers, the latter even, which is by far the most considerable, have not any influence on the conveniences of life and commerce of the provinces through which they pass, their windings, confluences, and the places where they discharge themselves, not having been well ascertained. Don Fernandez Cornejo, a colonel of militia resident in the city of Salta, one of those true and zealous patriots who do honour to the nation and to the age, projected a fluviatic voyage, to be undertaken at his own expence, With a view to ascertain whether the Bermejo is navigable from the province of Tucuman to the spot where it empties itself into the Parahuay. Ignorance, envy, calumny, and treachery, those malignant geniuses which take a barbarous delight in opposing and throwing obstacles in the way of great enterprizes, made their utmost efforts to defeat the execution of this one. Their aim was, however, frustrated; since its author obtained, for the accomplishment of his purpose, a powerful and extraordinary aid, such as is without any example in the history of the two Americas. Donna Josefa Meono, the lady of Don Nicolas de Arredondo, viceroy of Buenos-Ayres, took under her protection both the project and the consequences which might result from it. Cornejo, sheltered and encouraged by this distinguished patronage, imposed silence on his enemies, overcame every obstacle, and commenced his expedition on the 27th day of June, 1790. The place from which he took his departure is a small haven or bay, formed by the river Bermejo at its confluence with the Centa. He embarked on board a kind of xebeck, with a crew of twenty-six persons, partly soldiers and partly seamen, distributed in his vessel, and in the two canoes which followed and composed the armament. After a navigation of forty-four days, he reached the spot where the Bermejo disembogues itself into the Paraguay, twenty-four leagues to the north of the city of las-Corrlentes, having performed a distance of three hundred and eighty-two leagues without encountering the smallest obstacle.
When a more perfect knowledge of this navigation shall have been practically acquired, a saving may be made of nearly, the one half of the time occupied by the present attempt, which must necessarily have been attended by a variety of short delays, although there was neither impediment nor risk, in any part of the passage.[12] In the interim, this discovery affords great advantages to the commercial intercourse of Paraguay with the provinces of Tucuman and Peru, the productions having been hitherto transported on the back, of mules, with great delays, and at a heavy expence.
If our Mercury should have the good fortune to find access among the cultivated nations of Europe, and should survive the lapse of the present age, it will be proud to have transmitted to the world, and to posterity, the name and elevated conceptions of the illustrious protectress of this undertaking. To an august female[13] America was first indebted for her exploration: to another, not of so elevated a rank, but equally beneficent and heroical, Tucuman, Tarija, &c. will owe the inestimable advantages of this new discovery. Cornejo, in a less extensive field, rivals Columbus in valour and success. We have not to dread that he will encounter the same disappointments: the age is more just, at the same time that men are more accustomed to view heroes near to them, and to hear, without incredulity, and without surprize, the relation of their exploits.
If we could lay before our readers the MSS. which have served as the basis of this chorographical description, we should be enabled to satisfy them that the geographer can rarely avail himself of documents of equal authenticity. The greater part of them have been drawn up by enlightened individuals, who have surveyed, step by step, every part of the ground, and who know, both intuitively and analytically, the situation and resources of the country. With these premises, we flatter ourselves that the estimable author of the Geographical Dictionary of America, will not be displeased at the many amplifications and corre6lions this article of his work has been subjected to. It would have been much more exact, if to his great theoretical notions, he could have added a still greater share of that practical information which the ancients required of their historians.
Having examined the province of Chichas y Tarija in whatever relates to its history, local situation, and commercial relations, we shall now proceed to touch on a few particulars which refer to its natural history. One of the principal of these is the disease, or furious madness, as it is termed by Dr. Cosme Bueno, which attacks both men and beasts[14], in the town of Tatasi, belonging to the department of Chichas. On the first access of this frenzy, there are not sufficient powers to restrain the unfortunate victim, who, forgetful of all shame and human necessity, forsakes his bed, flees from the habitations of men, runs impetuously over the mountains in the environs, and, rushing from precipice to precipice, at length hurls himself from the summit of the steep rock. It usually happens that, in falling from a considerable height, he is bruised to death; but if, by a rare casualty, he survives, in proportion as he recovers his bodily health, the mental powers return to their just equilibrium, and there is no longer any vestige of this terrible malady. We shall not undertake to decide whether the effluvia from the mines of that territory, which are very prone to commotions, are in any manner the cause of this phenomenon; or whether, which is more probable, it is owing to the natural temperament of the inhabitants of the country: it is certain that it occurs with much frequency.
This passage has so great an analogy to the one we find in the Metamorphoses of Ovid, and in all the other mythological authors, relative to the leap from the rock of Leucate, that the one seems to have served as the archetype of the other. Who can say whether the whole of this fable, in its origin, had any other foundation beside that of the concurrence of several facts similar to those which are witnessed in Chichas? We, at least, are inclined to be of this opinion, and do not hesitate to add, that the spirit of system can never lead to the true understanding of the primitive derivation of antique fables. To endeavour to deduce the whole of them from the same class of circumstances, is a nugatory and useless undertaking. The greater part of the extravagances of father Hardouin emanated from this principle; and if the celebrated Bianchini discovers a weak part in his Universal History, it is because he endeavoured to adhere tenaciously to a system, which could not, by itself alone, explain, all the different vicissitudes of antiquity in the historical and traditional part[15]. Each of the fables may repose partially on a fact, or on a preconceived opinion; and it is indifferent whether it originated in Palestine, Egypt, or Greece.
In the sides and small level spaces of the mountains situated at the entrance of the province of Tarija, where the Indians inhumed the dead bodies, petrifications of bones, the most prodigious that Nature can furnish, are to be found. In one of the MSS. which have been transmitted to us, an individual residing in that province communicates the following fact: "In digging." he observes, "at the base of a hill, in the descent to Tascora, I met with a hard substance, which appeared to be of stone, of a colour between grey and yellow. I had it carefully removed from the earth; and after it had been freed from the soil, and washed, it seemed to have lost a part of its dusky hue, and had the shape and appearance of the ulna, the larger bone of the fore-arm of a man. Its length, however, was two yards and five inches, which circumstance excited the admiration of all present, and of myself more especially, whose intention it was to send it to the archbishop of Chuquisaca, as an object of singular curiosity. I was unable to do this; since, in my endeavour to bind it up for carriage, it fell from my hands, and brake in four pieces. In my rage, I threw the fragments from the side of the hill into the valley beneath."—Father Francisco Gonzales Laguna, ex-provincial of the order of Clerigos Agonizantes, correspondent of the royal botanical garden, and superintendent of the objects of natural history sent from Peru, had in his possession, and has consequently remitted to the royal cabinet of natural history of Madrid, a petrified tooth, very perfect in its configuration, which weighed five pounds three ounces, and was found on the heights of Escayache, in the department of Tarija. We have at this time before us a tooth, one of the incisors, of the size of a clenched hand, in the same manner petrified and perfe6l, which was found in a moor in the vicinity of the mission of las Salinas.
However superficially these petrifications may be considered, it must appear evident that they cannot belong to human bones. To the end that they should be deemed of that description, it would be necessary to suppose the possibility of the fabulous generation of the Titans, who scaled the heavens to dethrone Jupiter. We are but little aided by conjedtures, in the belief that they are the fragments of the skeleton of some enormous quadruped. South America has never known, nor does it at this time know, either the elephant, the rhinoceros, or any other animal of equal bulk. All those which have originated in this continent, do not attain the size of a horse. The peregrinations of the elephants, which Buffon introduces[16] into the system of the creation and population of the universe, are contrived with great ingenuity, but are devoid of all probability, and have fallen into universal discredit, more particularly since the learned abbe Baruel has demonstrated their absurdities and incongruities. One of our associates has drawn up a short dissertation, in which he endeavours to give a certain degree of plausibility to the conjecture, that the thickness of similar petrifications may be the effect of a repeated supraposition of lapideous substances, assimilated with the bodies which served them as a basis, and which may have acquired their present exuberant growth, by the means of a vegetation similar to that which many naturalists allow to stones.
Amid the difficulties and incoherences which present themselves, in the investigation of the origin and quality of these enormous petrifications, it will not appear extraordinary that we should leave the question undecided, while we refuse to adhere to the opinion, so generally received in the age of credulity, that they are the bones of some marine monster, deposited in the swampy grounds of Tarija at the time of the universal deluge, and gradually petrified by the means of those lapidific juices which are generally recognized in Nature. To conclude:—the learned will form on this subject the systems which may appear to them to be most susceptible of combination, while we prosecute our inquiries relative to the topography of different parts of the Peruvian territory.
This distinguished patriot, a native of the city of Old Castille, and a respectable merchant of Lima, being on the eve of departing for his own country, with a capital of thirty thousand piastres accquired in commerce, accidentally met with a Spaniard who had for a long time led a savage life among the Indians of the Andes mountains bordering on Guamalies. By this individual he was made acquainted with the extent and fertility of those tracts of territory, hidden from the view and knowledge of civilized man, without being inaccessible; together with the valuable vegetable and mineral productions which might be thence extracted for the common benefit; and, more particularly, with the opportunity which presented itself, to exercise the most commendable charity, by collecting a multitude of fugitive Indians, who, having been driven from the eminences and missions, dwelt in the forests in a semi-pagan state. He exposed the facility of enticing them, if, in addition to the introduction of a few products and implements of agriculture, conjoined with a prudent management, they were to be directed by a priest of known probity, who should aid them with his spiritual instructions, by which they were very anxious to profit. He added, that many of them were already collected near the banks of the river Huallaga, the nature and quality of which territory afforded the possibility of forming vast plantations of cacao and other valuable productions, insomuch that, by the subsequent reduction of the Pampa (plain) del Sacramento, the emporium of the greatest prodigies of Nature, the monarch would possess a new kingdom, and Peru the interests she had sought for the space of two centuries, but had not obtained, in consequence of the injudicious mode pursued in subjugating the savage tribes. He spake with the confidence of one who had been many years an eye witness of the facts, and with an energy which the sincerity, piety, and generous feelings of Bezares could not resist.
Although the latter was not possessed of sufficient testimonies respecting the accuracy of this information, he devoted two thousand piastres of his capital to an attempt which should enable him to come at the truth, and fix his determination. He was not backward in following the traces of his informer, carrying with him the implements and commodities best adapted to promote the views of the little colony named Chicoplaya. He was also provided with the necessary sacred ornaments and vessels, images, and two portable bells, with which to commence divine worship without any delay. He made his entry by Guamalies in the year 1785, and with much difficulty penetrated, by the banks of the river Monzon, to Chicoplaya, where he was not a little gratified to find the establishment his companion had announced, although in a very deplorable condition. Observing the distress under which the colony laboured for want of a priest, he appointed a friar of the Order of Mercy, by whom he was accompanied, to fill that function, to which he annexed a salary of six hundred piastres. This act of benevolence was followed by a general offer, on the part of the Indians, to assist in the construction of a chapel, an undertaking which, by the means of the wood of an excellent quality the country afforded, was executed on a large scale. The chapel having been beautified and adorned in a manner which, in a similar situation, surpassed every reasonable conjecture, and opened for divine worship, Bezares was utterly negligent of his own immediate interests. He ceded to the Indians, without binding them by any agreement, the implements of husbandry he had brought with him, and supplied them with seeds for the esculent crops that might enable them to secure to themselves a comfortable subsistence, on which the ulterior arrangements were to depend. These good offices, and the affability of their benefactor, drew down the acclamations of all: they made him a voluntary tender of their services; and their loud expressions of gratitude penetrated to the mountains, whence many of those who inhabited them like wild beasts having been allured, partook of the labours, and recognized the God who had already been banished from their remembrance.
Enamoured with the extent and fecundity of this unexplored country, and highly flattered by so propitious a commencement, Bezares resolved to make a further sacrifice of his property, and was solely deterred by the difficulty of the access, which was such, that if the mule on which he was mounted succeeded in penetrating, it was not without infinite trouble and perplexity, at the same time that the novelty of the sight occasioned the Indians of Chicoplaya to flee, as if they had encountered a ferocious beast. Leaving them at length to prosecute their labours, he retrograded on foot in search of a track by which the herds and flocks might be conducted; and after having climbed mountains, descended into abysses, penetrated forests, and gained heights at the manifest risk of falling from the precipices they presented, he finally met, not only with a convenient site for the opening of a road, but also with many rivulets and streams, spacious plains, vestiges of ancient towns, immense pastures, abandoned plantations, dormant mines, and, above all, with mountains thickly covered with the cinchona, or quina tree[17], the existence of which had never been ascertained in that territory[18]. In a word, he saw before him an unexplored country, capable of becoming a new province, richer than many of those that are peopled. He afterwards ascertained, that upwards of twenty towns, now in ruins, had been built by the missionaries belonging to the Order of Jesus, by whom that conquest had been made; their capitals having been Chavin de Pariaca, Monzon, and Chapacra. The first of these places, being situated on this side of the Cordillera, still subsists, as is proved by its fine church; the second contains twelve families only; and the third is, as well as Ascension and the other towns, in a ruinous and abandoned state. It also appeared that, it having been the intention of these missionaries to prosecute their spiritual conquest towards the north, they had, in the year 1580, taken the customary possession of these towns[19], which had been afterward laid waste by repeated irruptions of the barbarians, with the exception of Chavin, which had been protected by its situation. It thus happened that this country fell into oblivion, Monzon excepted, whither an image of our lady, left by the Jesuits, attracted a few settlers[20], and where many of the inhabitants of the mountains still meet in pilgrimage, on the day of the festival of the blessed Virgin.
The cinchona trees having been examined, and having been found to be of the species named negrilla[21], reputed to be of the best quality, Bezares perceived that he could carry his project into effect. He accordingly gave notice of his discovery, and offered to treat with those who would undertake to cut the bark. For this purpose he engaged various individuals residing on the frontiers and mountains, and several even belonging to the capital, who have been constantly engaged until this time, in the process of decorticating the trees, from which they have extracted thousands of arrobas of bark. With this resource, and with the assistance of a sufficient number of labourers, he came to a resolution to open the road at his own expence, so as to give a new vigour to the province, and to reap all the advantages he had figured to himself at the commencement, but which were not obtainable without this mean. Having drawn up a map of the territory, he presented his project to the viceroy, whom he beseeched to further its execution by the most seasonable aid. In enforcing his pretensions, he represented:
"That the mountains and towns situated to the south of the river Maranon, in the part contained between Pataz, Guamalies, Huanuco, and the Pampa del Sacramento, having been abandoned for two centuries; and he having witnessed with his own eyes a great part of the grandeur of that territory, its fertility, good temperature, and the riches it is susceptible of producing, not inferior to what he had always imagined, and which had never been obtained from the other mountains of those Andes, notwithstanding the multiplied expeditions undertaken, the immense sums drawn from the royal treasury, and the many missionaries and troops who had there perished; entirely on account of not having cleared the roads of access; of having proceeded with more zeal than prudence; of having had recourse to gratuitous erogations, which constantly produce, in the breast of the Indian, dread and anxiety when the tribute is collected by one part of the community, and avarice, jealousy, and bloodshed, when the other part is deficient; and more particularly in consequence of not having adopted the maxim of other nations, by the introduction of the cange, or commerce, as has been seen in Canada, Batavia, Kamschatka, Paru on the side of the Maranon, and other foreign colonies; by the means of which the barbarians having been first civilized, might be afterwards made to conform to the good example of the missionaries and other devout persons, and thus become Christians;—that having already found that those who are dispersed in these forests, where they lead an erratic life, are all of them well disposed to any industrious pursuit which may yield them a little profit, and enable them to follow up their religious duties; and that, in the progress of time, and with their aid, it would be easy to entice the inhabitants of the mountains, to the great advantage of religion, and of the state: on these considerations he proposed to open, at his own expence, a wide and commodious road, from the town of Tantamayo to the bridge of Chinchima, the most rugged part of the frontier, forming grazing grounds and plantations, introducing herds and flocks, re-constructing some of the towns which have been destroyed, and continuing the route in this way, by the banks of the river Monzon, to the haven of Chicoplaya, thus securing the navigation of the river Huallaga to the Maranon[22], and, consequently, the trade which may be carried on with Lamas, Mainas, and Quixos. And that, the better to carry his project into effect, in case it should be adopted, the political jurisdiction of the whole of the district of the doctrina of Chavin should be conceded to him, with permission to employ, without the risk of incurring any penalty, all those who should be essential to the operations, he binding himself to pay, for them, the royal tribute which might be due from each of them respectively, &c."
The project having been approved in its full extent, the viceroy, Don Teodoro de Croix, by a commission bearing date the 11th of October, 1788, bestowed on Bezares the appointment of chief magistrate of Chavin de Pariaca and its district, without any salary, for the term of two years, during which a judgment would be formed of the nature and success of his operations. He was enjoined to give an account of them monthly to the supreme authority, to the end that his juridical authority might be protra6ted and extended according to the circumstances.
By virtue of this decree, Bezares took possession of his new government, to the great satisfaction of the settlers and aggregated Indians, who were well acquainted with his estimable qualities. They all of them made an offer to co-operate in the execution of so desirable a project, which would constitute the whole of their felicity. In addition to a large stock of implements, a complete forge had been provided, together with the necessary artisans; and on the 25th of April, 1789, the road was begun at the old town named Urpis, which was considered as the most convenient site for that purpose. Huge trees having been felled, hills of limestone broken up, rugged mountains cut through, palisadocs planted, and the earth raised and banked in the hollow places named sartenejas, the works were carried to the bridge of Chiachima over the river Monzon. At this spot terminated eleven leagues of a wide road, capable of admitting, without the smallest risk, mules and droves of cattle, and completed in ten months only, by so small a number as a hundred men, constantly employed, and stimulated to fulfil their engagement by ample encouragement. In this district three bridges were built, one over the river named Santa Rosa, another over the Yanamayo, and the third over the stream Xincartambo. A lake denominated Negrococha, which was a great obstacle to the passage, was drained: the Indians, impressed with an old and superstitious belief, that of three who should attempt to cross, one would be drowned, would not venture on the trial, each dreading least he should be the unfortunate third, the one doomed to destruction. The grounds having been cleared for that purpose, a variety of esculent grains were planted; and this was followed by the introduction of a herd of cattle, which, as there is an abundance of good pasturages, at the same time that there are not, in the whole of that territory, any of the larger tribes of venomous creatures, afford, to the new settlers, the prospe6l of a prodigious increase.
We must not omit the discoveries made, in this undertaking, to the advantage of the public, and of natural history. Bezares met with a description of very lofty trees, the wood of which is unknown, but valuable, not only because, with all its solidity, it yields with equal suppleness to the plane and the chisel; but likewise on account of its semi-violet colour, by which it appears to be, in preference to any other wood, adapted to the purpose of dyeing. He found another tree which produces, in the shoots of its branches, a resinous substance in grains, of a greenish hue, which, as he proved it to be an effectual substitute for sealing-wax, is apparently calculated for many uses. A kind of ozier or willow, which grows in this territory, is deemed by the Indians a specific in complaints of the bowels, and is named by them calenture, because, in employing its decoction in cases of the most violent rheumatic affections, the patient is subjected for three or four hours to a violent fever, which, terminating in a copious perspiration, leaves him free from every ailment. The few trials of this remedy which have been made, have been extremely successful against siphylis; and if the practical inquiries that have been recently instituted should correspond with them, cures may be effected by the means of one of the most surprizing simples for which medicine is indebted to the American continent. The production of a worm, which the Indians name sustillo, and by which a paper, very similar to that made in China, is fabricated, has been hitherto unknown to all the naturalists.[23] Lastly, Bezares discovered that which has been so forcibly pointed out by the cabinet of Madrid, namely, the yellow bark, there named calisaya, which was thought to be peculiar to the province of la Paz, and which, having been already brought to Lima by Bezares, has been found to be of the same species, and to possess the same active qualities. Who could have imagined that the cinchona grew in Guamalies, and of the two most esteemed kinds, the dusky red and the yellow, before the adventurous spirit of Bezares led him to penetrate its intricate forests?
The terrible obstacle on the side of the frontier having been surmounted, contrary to the expectations of those who were practically skilled in these undertakings, Bezares made the necessary advances to overcome another equally great. On the route between Chavin and Xican, which already held out the prospect of a considerable traffic by carriages and mules, two small islands, and several steep and rugged descents, intervened in a space of eight leagues, which were the terror of the passengers. The necessity of opening a new road by the bank of the Maranon, which there feebly direfts its course towards Chachapoyas, was thus pointed out; and this having been successfully accomplished, the passage across the islands and precipices was avoided, and the eight leagues above mentioned reduced to four commodious ones. To oppose an effectual barrier to the inundations of the river, a solid causeway was constructed with a kind of quadrilateral stones, several of them more than two yards in length, which Nature seemed to have formed with infinite care, and which were dug up in levelling the mountain. Bezares was now recalled to give an account of his useful and interesting operations to the viceroy, under whose auspices they will without doubt be prosperously continued.
A civilized Indian, but one accustomed, to an erratic life, of the description of those adverted to above, is represented in Plate XVII. clad in the poncho, the dress of the Indians of Peru before their subjugation by the Spaniards. This garment is made of wool, cotton, or flattened straw interwoven in a web of thread. On horseback, it is a defence for all ranks of
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Civilized Indian wearing the poncho.
Printed for Richard Phillips. 6. New Bridge Street. 14. Feby. 1805
Peruvians, against cold and rain. The poncho of matted straw is impenetrable to the weather. Mantles of this kind have been found so useful a shelter against the inclemency of the weather, that they have been recently adopted for the Spanish cavalry.—The hammock, the name of which is derived from the Quechua tongue, likewise originated with the ancient Indians of Peru.
REPOPULATION OF THE VALLEY OF VITOC.
The pleasant valley of Vitoc is one of those formed by the Andes mountains, and belongs to the intendency of Tarma, from which capital it is distant sixteen leagues. It is situated in 11 degrees 32 minutes south latitude, and in 302 degrees 15 minutes of longitude. It is bounded, on the west, by the department of Tarma; on the east, by the river named Marancocha, which, arising from the junction of the rivers Uchubambaand Monobamba, empties itself into the Chanchamayo; on the south, by the fort of Uchubamba, and its dependencies; and on the north, by the river Chanchamayo, which separates it from the possessions of the uncivilized Indians. From south to north, reckoning from the elevation of the mountain of Sibis to that of Soriano, it has an extent of eight leagues; and, from east to west, of six leagues, from the river Marancocha to the mountain of the river Maraynioc. It is composed of several plains and deep excavations of the earth (quebradas), of a surprizing fertility, and which, at the commencement of the eighteenth century, were cultivated with great pains and diligence. It is traditionally known that they afforded three crops in the year, in such abundance, that Vitoc was, relatively to the bordering provinces, what Sicily was to the Roman empire. To the fecundity of the soil it unites a mild temperature of climate, and is free from the mosquitoes and other insects by which the mountains are infested. To enjoy these advantages, three towns, named Sibis, Pucara, and Colla, were built, and annexed to the doctrina of Monobamba, belonging to the Dominican friars.
The commencement of the year 1742 forms an epoch in the annals of Peru. Juan Santos Atahualpa, whom some conjecture to have been born in Cuzco, and others in Huamanga, having been guilty of murder, sought refuge in the recesses of the Andes mountains, to shun the punishment due to his guilt. Pretending to be descended from the ancient Yncas, he stiled himself Apu-Inga Huaynacapac, and declared himself the restorer of the empire. Novelty, and the love of domination, enabled him to collect, in a little time, a multitude of barbarous Indians, who, assailing our establishments, demolished twenty-five towns, inhabited by Indian converts, the fruit of the zealous labours of the provincial order of Franciscans of Lima. Juan Santos having succeeded, in his first attempts, in the dispersion of our weak and undisciplined troops, did not stop until he had buried beneath the ruins of Quimiri, the valiant governor, Don Fabricio Bartoli. The conquest of that important post afforded him a ready entrance into Vitoc, which shared the same fate. Its inhabitants, after having been lords of vast and flourishing plantations, were reduced to a state of indigence in Tapo, and other towns of Tarma. The arrows of the chichirenes and simirinches, two of the savage tribes, were dire6led against them with so much effect, that the governor, the marquis of Mena-Hermosa, was obliged to draw a line of circumvallation, by the construction of several small forts at the edge of the mountain, and to assign them limits between the Spaniard and the barbarian.
Vitoc remaining in the possession of the latter, Tarma was consequently deprived of its granary, of the want of which it soon became sensible. The Indian and the mestizo were condemned to endure the poverty to which they were reduced by the loss of Vitoc. The frosts, which in repeated instances destroyed the seeds planted in the more elevated grounds, revived both their grief, and the recollection of the mountainous territory free from such calamities; but the order not to pass the line of the fortifications was strictly enforced; the subject was exposed to the risk of being considered as a traitor; and the glad moment was not yet arrived, when the administrator was to break these chains, so perplexing to the Spaniard, and so galling to his valour.
Don Juan Maria de Galves, intendant of the province of Tarma, who, in imitation of the pretors of ancient Rome, was desirous to signalize his government by some monument by which its remembrance should be transmitted to future ages, chose, instead of pyramids and inscriptions, the offspring of vanity, to restore to Tarma the fruitful Vitoc. His ardent spirit, and profound discernment, disdained the accumulated difficulties, either real or imaginary, which presented themselves to the view of the ordinary observer. To a beneficent hand resources are never wanting, to give a successful issue to an enterprize, without burdening the commonweal, or oppressing the subject. It may be true, that these points are not easily reconcileable with each other; but our intendant, in the distribution of the new lands, was able, not only to recompense the assiduous labours of the settlers, but likewise to ensure their future prosperity. That being his sole object, to the end that he might proceed with every security, he addressed himself to the viceroy, Don Teodoro de Croix, accompanying his solicitations by an energetic representation on the same subje6t, drawn up by the senate of the city of Tarma. His application having been favourably received, he augmented his efforts for the re-establishment of Vitoc, supplying the necessary implements and provisions, and surveying in person the mountains which, through time and neglect, had become impenetrable.
The first object that engaged his attention, was the construction of an advanced fort, which, by covering the valley, should secure it from the attacks of the barbarians in the vicinity. Vitoc being naturally defended by the steep hills, of a considerable height, which surround it to the east, west, and south, is only assailable by the deep and rugged ground that fronts the north, and terminates in the river Chanchamayo, distant nine leagues from the small town of Chibatizo, built by the civilized Indians on the ruins of Quimiri. The forest having been cleared in that part, the fort was in a little time erected on a commodious eminence, and provided with four bastions. The extent, disposition, and solidity of the walls, fully manifest the talent, zeal, and activity of Don Juan de Galves, to whose praise it ought to be recorded, that the whole was finished without the smallest expence to the state, notwithstanding eleven thousand piastres had, independently of the quotas levied on the inhabitants of the province, been drawn from the public treasury, for the construction of the fort of Chanchamayo, in every respect inferior to that of St. Charles of Vitoc. As the troops stationed at the posts of Comas and Ulucmayo were absolutely useless, even before this new establishment had been made, and as these posts had consequently become, instead of quarters for soldiery, fortresses for pirates, they were evacuated, and the military marched to Vitoc. By this expedient a garrison was supplied, without any burden to the nation at large, or to the province in particular, the prosperity of which the intendant had so much at heart.
Beneath the protection of the fort, and of the privileges granted by the laws of the kingdom to the new settlers, the valley was cultivated with great industry and success, each individual entering on the enjoyment of the portion of territory to which he became entitled by the greater or smaller degree of his application and constancy. In the interim, Galves made the necessary preparations for the re-peopling of the ancient towns of Colla and Pucara, the ruins of which were speedily repaired. The former of these places, which, to perpetuate the remembrance of the exalted personage under whose government the re-establishment of Vitoc had been undertaken, was named San Teodoro de Colla, was embellished by a church, and by a monastery fitted for the reception of the missionaries of Ocopa, who took on them the spiritual direction of the settlement.
When the magistrate entertains a persuasion, that the supreme and sole aim of his high dignity is to confer happiness on those he governs, he is not deterred by any consideration, but makes every sacrifice, and encounters every risk, for the welfare of the subject. Thus it was with our intendant, who, in bestowing on his work its highest degree of perfection, by the opening of a convenient road which might facilitate the traffic and exportation of the productions of Vitoc, was crushed by the fall of a huge tree, and narrowly escaped with his life. As a recompense for his assiduous labours, this zealous minister has, by the repopulation of Vitoc, united to the crown a territory which, abstractedly considered, is of a considerable extent; has conferred happiness on eighty families who already inhabit that valley; and has freed the inhabitants of Tarma from the straits to which they were reduced by the want of arable land, and by the nipping frosts. The mineral regions of Yauli and Pasco are no longer at a loss for their supplies of coca and corn. And, in conclusion, upwards of forty plantations, regularly formed, which the fertile Vitoc can already boast, together with the triple crops of coca, cotton, cacao, and various grains, the produce of its exuberant soil, become a great acquisition both to the sovereign, and to Peru.
These are not, however, the sole consequences of the talents and persevering industry of Don Juan de Galves. Emulation, the parent of great a6tions, has inspired those who dwell within the limits of the intendency, with an energy to which they were before strangers. The inhabitants of Xauja, desirous to be placed on a footing, in point of prosperity, with those of Tarma, solicited him, towards the close of his government, to further their endeavours for the reestablishment of Monobamba. Under his auspices, the first and greatest difficulties were soon overcome; and if his worthy successor should tread in the same path, he will he entitled to the benedictions of the community, the most solid recompense to which a noble mind can aspire.
By the means of the system of forming new settlements on the side of the Andes mountains, the brilliant light of the gospel may be diffused among the nations who dwell there surrounded by the dark gloom of error and paganism, in a more secure and efficacious manner than by fire and the sword. In speaking of the advantages of Vitoc, the assembly of Tarma makes the following energetic refle6tions on this head: "In this project, the religion which our august monarch so ardently desires to see established among the infidels, is interested, on this account, that the population of Vitoc, having been augmented with the progress of time, may of itself become the basis of a communication with the chunchos; and these Indians, on perceiving that they are neither persecuted, nor molested in the lands they possess, may resort to a traffic with us, for the agricultural implements of which they are greatly in need, similar to that in which the Indians of the back settlements of North America have engaged with the British and French. By the means of this amicable and frequent intercourse, the Catholic religion may not only be introduced among them, but may become grateful to them, for the very reason that they have not been urged to it by compulsory measures. It has been seen, that the most politic nations have established their colonies, and advanced their conquests, by regulations, the early introduction of which has led to a traffic, such as is now solicited. It is not easy to pass with celerity from barbarism to the summit of perfection; but time, the frequency of intercourse, and the temptation of being able to obtain, in the way of barter, what is indispensable to their necessities, by the surrender of that which is superfluous, gradually civilize men, make them friends, and lead them, without violence, to a common language, an identity of customs, and the same religion."
Such are the inestimable fruits which Don Juan de Galves, by his endeavours to promote the welfare of those placed under his protection, has reaped. While they have entitled him to the gratitude and praises, which, in the name of Peru, we here tender to him, they have likewise procured him the approbation of the supreme authorities, and of a pious sovereign, the just re warder of merit[24].
- ↑ Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se, quam quod ridicules homines facit.—Juven. Sat. vii.
- ↑ Feyjoo: Teatro Critico, tom. iv. disc. 10.
- ↑ These people lived in the forests between Soria and Burgos, and resembled savages. They were discovered about three hundred and fifty years since. They were all of them fellers and carriers of wood.
- ↑ Our readers will pardon us, if we should be in some degree prolix, in treating this subject, on consideration of its novelty, and of the obscurity in which it has been hitherto enveloped. The reports of the government throw but little light on the perfect knowledge of the events and situation of this province. Some of them do not even mention it collaterally; and. the one made by his excellency count Superunua, which is among the most remarkable, and best written, confines itself to the following brief notice: "The city of Tarija, in the same archbishopric (that of Chuquisaca), has but few Spanish inhabitants capable of forming a collective body; and notwithstanding to corregidor usually resides in the province of Chichas, united to the above city, a lieutenant-general is stationed there in quality of president of the senate. The ordinary alcaids are chosen annually. The territory is fertile, at the same time that there is but little commerce, on account of its retired situation."
- ↑ In his Diccionario Historico Geographico, &c. (Historical and Geographical Dictionary of die West Indies, or America), tom. i. page 479, in which part, as well as in many others, he almost literally copies what was said by Dr. Cosme Bueno in his Memoirs.
- ↑ In addition to what is said by the illustrious Feyjoo, in his discourse on supposed miracles, the Peruvian writer Macanaz combats very successfully the histories of Ruiz and Lozano, under the head of miraculous discoveries. But experience, still more than all these testimonies, teaches us to mistrust the relations of the Jesuits, on the subjects of missions and antiquities. The interest and credit of the society occasionally required the sacrifice of the truth, which they did not hesitate to make. The famous Chronicles of Flavius Dextrus, Marcus the Hermit, Luis Prando, &c. led the whole world into an error: it was represented that they had been found in the archives of the abbey of Fulda, at the same time that they were extracts, surreptitiously made, from father Geronimo, a romance of la Higuera. The men of letters who are acquainted with the motive which dictated the above histories, and the influence they had, in those times, on civil as well as political affairs, will justify the inductions we have been led to make on this head.
- ↑ Of the most certain things, the surest is to doubt.—Don Pedro Montengon, in his work entitled "El Euselio."
- ↑ The MS. which speaks of this plague, likewise ascribes it to the wrath of God, kindled against the Pilayans on account of their having treacherously murdered their priest. The misfortune which attended the mines of Lipes is accounted for in the same way; although it may, perhaps, as well as the other event, have been the cfFeft of a very natural cause.
- ↑ Potatoes.
- ↑ See p. 61, et sequent.
- ↑ Father Maccioni, in his history, asserts, that before it loses itself in that river, it receives the waters of the Juxui.
- ↑ To be more fully persuaded, that, in practising this navigation, not any embarrassment is to be found, the map of the missions, published by father Joseph Quiroga, in 1749, may be consulted. It should be observed, that the river of las Conchas, the port at which the merchandizes sent from Paraguay to Buenos-Ayres arrive, is distant from that city five or six leagues; and that, from the spot where the river Bermejo empties itself into the Paraguay, there is but an inconsiderable distance to the city of Assumption, the capital of the province.
- ↑ Queen Isabel.
- ↑ Experience has demonstrated, that the animals originally brought from Europe, such as horses, oxen, sheep, &c. are the only ones affected by this malady, to which those that are natural to the country, such as the vicunas, huanacos, &c. are not liable.
- ↑ This Jesuit refused all belief to the profane history of antiquity, which he derived entirely from the sacred writings. Bianchini, a celebrated historian, astronomer, and mathematician, proposed to fill up the void spaces which are to be found in the profane history of the ages anterior to the war of Troy, by an absolute exclusion of the helps afforded by the sacred text. Is it possible, that, in matters of fact, the truth should be found by two paths diametrically opposite to each other?
- ↑ In his Treatise on the Epochs of Nature.
- ↑ Cinchona officinalis, Lin.—Peruvian bark.
- ↑ This will not appear extraordinary, when it is considered that a century and a half had elapsed, after the arrival of Columbus in America, when the first discovery of the quina was made. This happened in the year 1638, under the viceroyalty of Count de Cinchon, whose lady then laboured under an obstinate tertian fever. The corregidor of Loxa, to whom an Indian had just revealed the virtues of this remedy, having been informed of the countess's illness, sent to Lima a packet of the powdered quina, which was successfully administered by the physician in chief, Juan de Vega, who was likewise captain of the armory. On the expiration of his government, in 1639, the count carried with him a quantity of the pulverized bark to Spain, where it was named the countess's powder. The Jesuits conveyed another parcel to Rome, bestowing a portion on Cardinal de Lugo, and distributing the rest gratuitously; on which account it was named by some, the powder of the reverend fathers, and by others, the cardinal's powder.
- ↑ This information is derived from various tablets found in the churches which still exist, as well as from several grants of land made at the time, and in the name of the above missionaries.
- ↑ This tradition of the ancient inhabitants of the country, has not been controverted.
- ↑ Yielding the red bark.
- ↑ Although the inhabitants of Lamas had frequently made this voyage in their canoes, not a Spaniard could be found to venture on it until the year 1776, when it was undertaken by the governor of that place, Don Nicholas Renxifo, who proceeded to Huanuco, whence he returned to Lamas by the same river. Among those who have since performed this voyage, may be cited friar Manuel de Sobreviela, guardian of the college of Ocopa, who has recently proceeded to the lake, as will be seen hereafter in his very interesting travels. His companion entered the Maranon, and descended to the outlet of the Uxayale, in front of the Omaguas. The Pastaza is likewise navigable to the vicinity of Quito.
- ↑ Even the great Reaumur included, there is not one of them who makes mention, either of this caterpillar, or of its production. Father Calancha alone, in his Augustinian History of Peru (lib. i. p. 66), gives an account of it, and observes, that it is peculiar to the valley of Pampateco, now, Pampantico, in the vicinity of the Panamas, now Panataguas, at a small distance from Huanuco, and ten days’ journey from Lima, where the Jesuits built the tovyn of Ascension. This is properly the site discovered by Bezares. Calancha adds, that he had in his possession a leaf of this paper, inscribed by father Alonso Gomez, and addressed to father Lucas Salazar, who was assured by his correspondent, that it was cut from a piece a yard and a quarter in length, and that there were other pieces which measured a yard and three-quarters, &c. Next follow the details relative to the mode the worm pursues in weaving the paper. The loss of the towns above referred to, and the scarcity of Calancha's work, buried in oblivion the discovery and remembrance of this phenomenon, unfortunately not the only one which has been subjected to that lot. The degree of interest occasioned by so extraordinary a species, obliges us to relate what has been observed respecting the sustillo, which, it is to be lamented, is sought after by the Indians as a most delicious food. This caterpillar is bred in the pacae, a tree well known in Peru, and named by the Peruvian Flora, MS. mimosa inga. In proportion to the vigour and majestic growth of this tree, is the number of the insects it nourishes, and which are of the kind and size of the bombyx, or silk-worm. When they are completely satiated, they unite at the body of the tree, seeking the part which is best adapted to the extension they have to take. They there form, with the greatest symmetry and regularity, a web which is larger or smaller, according to the number of the operants; and more or less pliant, according to the quality of the leaf by which they have been nourished, the whole of them remaining beneath. This envelope, on which they bestow such a texture, consistency, and lustre, that it cannot be decomposed by any practicable expedient, having been finished, they all of them unite, and ranging themselves in vertical and even files, form in the centre a perfect square. Being thus disposed, each of them makes its cocoon, or pod, of a coarse and short silk, in which it is transformed, from the grub into the chrysalis, and from the chrysalis into the popilio, or moth. In proportion as they afterward quit their confinement, to take wing, they detach, wherever it is most convenient to them, their envelope, or web, a portion of which remains suspended to the trunk of the tree, where it waves to and fro like a streamer, and which becomes more or less white, according to the air and humidity the season and situation admit. A complete nest has already been transmitted to his Catholic Majesty; and, by the hands of his naturalist, Don Antonio Pineda, a piece of this natural silk paper, measuring a yard and a half, of an elliptical shape, which is peculiar to all of them.
- ↑ The royal schedule, commendatory of the zeal and activity of this minister, in the repopulation of Vitoc, was dated at Madrid in March 1790.