THE PROVINCE OF CARAVAYA.

A short Historical and Geographical Description.

The Peruvian province of Caravaya is drained by streams which form part of the system of one of the largest and least known of the tributaries of the Amazon—the river Purus.

The Purus is the only great affluent flowing into the Amazon from the south, the course of which has never yet been explored. We have detailed accounts of the Huallaga from Maw, Smyth, Poeppig, and Herndon; of the Ucayali from Smyth, Herndon, and Castelnau; and of the Madeira from Castelnau and Gibbon; but of the Purus, the largest apparently, and one which, in course of time, will probably become the most important, we have next to nothing. Its mouth, and the course of its tributaries, near the base of the Andes, are alone described.

Condamine and Smyth, in descending the Amazon, mention the great depth and volume of water at the mouth of the Purus: Herndon heard from a Brazilian trader at Barra, who had ascended its stream for some distance, that it was of great size, and without obstructions; and HaËnke, in the last century, arguing from reliable geographical data which he had collected from Indians, stated his conviction that a very large river, flowing from the Andes east of Cuzco, reached the Amazon to the westward of the mouth of the Madeira.

This is the sum of our knowledge of the mouth and lower course of the Purus. The tributaries which flow into it drain the eastern slopes of the Andes, from the latitude of Cuzco quite to the frontier of Bolivia—that frontier dividing the streams flowing into the Purus, on the Peruvian side, from those which feed the Beni, on the Bolivian. These affluents of the Purus are divided into three distinct systems: the furthest to the north and west, consisting of the streams flowing through the great valley of Paucartambo, which unite under the name of the Madre de Dios, or Amaru-mayu; the middle system, draining the ravines of Marcapata and Ollachea; and the southern and eastern, being the numerous rivers in the province of Caravaya, as far as the Bolivian frontier, which unite as the Ynambari. The Madre de Dios and Ynambari together form the main stream of the Purus.

The Paucartambo system is the only one which has, as yet, been described by modern explorers. In Spanish times the streams which compose it were explored, and farms of cacao and coca were established on their banks; and in the end of the last century an expedition was sent to explore the course of the Madre de Dios, under an officer named Don Tiburcio de Landa. This must have been at some time previous to 1780, for Landa was killed in that year in the great rebellion of the Indians under Tupac Amaru.[286] After the declaration of Peruvian independence, General Gamarra, the first Republican Prefect of Cuzco, sent an expedition to protect the farms in the valley of Paucartambo from the encroachments of the wild Chuncho Indians, and to explore the Madre de Dios. It was commanded by a Dr. Sevallos, now a very old man, retired to a farm in the Caravaya forests, but he has, unfortunately, lost his journal. General Miller made an expedition into the same region in 1835, and penetrated to a greater distance than any other explorer before or since. A very brief account of his journey was published in the 'Royal Geographical Society's Journal' for 1836; but there is a much fuller and most interesting journal kept by this gallant veteran, which has never been printed. In 1852 Lieut. Gibbon, U.S.N., entered the valleys of Paucartambo; and in 1853 I explored a part of the course of its principal stream, the Tono.[287] Another expedition to explore this region, under the sanction and with the aid of the Peruvian Government, was undertaken by some native adventurers, accompanied by a few Americans, and an English artist named Prendergast, in 1856, but it completely failed. Since that time the wild Chuncho Indians have continued to attack and encroach upon the few farms which existed in these valleys at the time of my visit in 1853, and at the present moment there is not one remaining. The rich valleys of Paucartambo, once covered with flourishing cacao and coca farms, have again become one vast uncultivated tropical forest.

Following the eastern slopes of the Andes to the south and east, we next come to the streams which drain the valleys of Marcapata and Ollachea, but of these very little is known. These valleys are in the province of Quispicanchi, in the department of Cuzco; and it is said that in times past they were cultivated with advantage, and contained many coca farms. In the beginning of the last century a Jesuit found gold in a hill called Camante, in the Marcapata valley, situated between two ravines, in one of which, called Garrote, a Spanish company established gold-washings. The leading man of this company, named Goyguro, employed hundreds of Indians, and extracted gold from the Camante hill in lumps; but one day an immense landslip fell into the Vilca-mayu,[288] the chief stream of Marcapata, and all the workmen ran away, and could not be induced to return. This was in about the year 1788.

For forty years after this event coca-farms and gold-washings were alike abandoned in Marcapata, until in 1828 the cura of the village of that name, Dr. Pedro Flores, again opened a road into the valleys, and, with some associates, established several farms for raising coca and fruit. In 1836 a company was formed by several young adventurers, the chief of whom were JosÉ Maria Pacheco of Cuzco and JosÉ Maria Ochoa[289] of Huara, with the object of again discovering the long-lost golden hill of Camante. The party assembled at Ocongate, in the cold region of the Andes, whence the distance to Marcapata, at the commencement of the warm valleys, is fourteen leagues over a bad road, which traverses the cordillera of Ausungate and Pirhuayani. From Marcapata the two adventurers Pacheco and Ochoa, both active and intrepid young men, advanced into the forests with fourteen Indians, and a stock of chuÑus and dried meat. These explorers penetrated for several leagues, following the course of the Vilca-mayu, but their expedition led to no practical results.[290] In 1851 Colonel Bologenesi became the manager of an expedition for collecting chinchona-bark in the forests of Marcapata, and proceeded to the scene of his labours, accompanied by a young Englishman named George Backhouse. They advanced into the forests until they fell in with parties of wild Chuncho Indians, who were propitiated by presents of knives and other trifles, and induced to assist young Backhouse and his party in collecting bark. Some of the Chunchos, however, who had received knives, neglected to work, which enraged the Indians in Backhouse's service, and a quarrel ensued, ending in the massacre of Backhouse and all his party. Those who were out collecting bark, on discovering what had happened, fled to Colonel Bologenesi; but in their retreat, while fording a river, the Chunchos poured in a volley of arrows amongst them, and killed forty of their number. Bologenesi then collected a military force and advanced into the forests, where he suffered great hardships, fighting with the Chunchos all day, and harassed by alarms during the night. He, however, collected a thousand quintals of bark, at a cost of fifty lives and three hundred thousand dollars. During this expedition indications were met with of the ancient gold-washings.

It will thus be seen that fevers and perilous roads are not the only dangers to be apprehended in a search for chinchona-plants.

Lastly, and extending for a distance of one hundred and eighty miles, from Marcapata to the frontier of Bolivia, is the watershed along that part of the eastern Andes known as the Snowy Range of Caravaya, where the numerous streams take their rise which unite to form the Ynambari. The Madre de Dios, Marcapata, and Ynambari are thus the three great sources of the Purus. The tributaries of the latter drain the province of Caravaya.

The first mention of this region is to be found in the pages of the old Inca historian, Garcilasso de la Vega, who says that "the richest gold-mines in Peru are those of Collahuaya, which the Spaniards call Caravaya, whence they obtain much very fine gold of twenty-four carats, and they still get some, but not in such abundance."[291] The Jesuit Acosta also mentions "the famous gold of Caravaya in Peru."[292] After the final overthrow of the younger Almagro in the battle of Chupas in 1542, some of his followers crossed the snowy range, and descended into the great tropical forests of Caravaya,[293] where they discovered rivers, the sands of which were full of gold. On the banks of these rivers they built the towns of Sandia, San Gavan, and San Juan del Oro; large sums in gold were sent home to Spain, and the last-named settlement received the title of a royal city from Charles V. In 1553 these settlers received a pardon from the Viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza, in consideration of the gold they sent home to the Emperor. It is said that they sent him a nugget weighing four arrobas, in the shape of a bullock's head; and that afterwards another nugget, in the shape of a bullock's tongue, was sent to Philip II., but that the ship which carried it was lost at sea. Eventually the wild Chuncho Indians of the Sirineyri tribe fell upon the gold-washers, and overpowered them. In the following century certain mulattos occupied the gold-washings in Caravaya, and the king, as a reward for their labours in extracting treasure, offered to comply with any request they might make. The mulattos asked to be called SeÑores, and for the privilege of entering every town on white mules with red trappings, and the bells ringing. The SeÑores mulattos were finally expelled for knocking the priest of San Juan del Oro on the head while he was saying mass, after a drunken broil. There are many vestiges of washings, bridges, and cuttings made by these mulattos, in different parts of Caravaya.[294]

The Spaniards, however, long continued to extract gold from the rivers of Caravaya, and established coca-farms and coffee-plantations in some of the ravines formed by spurs of the cordillera. Gold, however, was the product for which Caravaya was most famous.

In 1615 the viceroy Marquis of Montes Claros spoke of the rich lavaderos or gold-washings of Caravaya;[295] and his successor, the Prince of Esquilache, wrote a long report upon them in 1620. It appears that, at that period, the richest of the Caravaya mines was called Aporuma, and that it had then been worked for fifteen years by a company of adventurers. These men, the chief of whom were named QuiÑones, Frisancho, and Perez, had excavated very extensive works to drain off the water, and they petitioned the Viceroy to grant them a mita of Indians to complete the works, for that thus the royal fifths would be augmented. The Prince of Esquilache wrote a marginal note, which may still be seen on the original petition, ordering Don Pedro de Mercado, the "visitador-general" of Caravaya, to grant them a mita of Indians within a circuit of twenty leagues of the Aporuma mine, with three dollars a month each, besides salt-meat and other provisions.[296] In 1678 the yield of the royal fifths from the Caravaya gold-washings was at the rate of 806 dollars in three months.[297] From this time to the end of the seventeenth century Franciscan missionaries were at work amongst the wild Chunchos in the forests of Caravaya.[298] Towards the end of the last century Caravaya was separated from Peru to form part of the new viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, and the population of whites and civilised Indians was then only estimated at 6500 souls. Just before that period the town of San Gavan, with four thousand families and a large treasure, had been surprised and entirely destroyed by the Carangas and Suchimanis Chunchos. This calamity took place on the 15th of December, 1767. The viceroy Don Manuel Amat swore vengeance on the Chunchos; but his famous mistress, Mariquita Gallegas, better known as La Perichola, interceded for them, and eventually nothing was done. The other town of San Juan del Oro had been abandoned some time before; and the very sites where they stood are now uncertain.

In the great rebellion of Tupac Amaru the caciques and people of Caravaya took part with the Indians, probably owing to the influence possessed by the Inca, arising from the large coca estate which belonged to him near San Gavan.[299] At the independence Caravaya became a part of the Peruvian department of Puno.

In 1846 Don Pablo Pimentel was appointed Sub-prefect of Caravaya, and he endeavoured, by giving a glowing account of its vast capabilities, to induce the government to make roads and develop the resources of this important province. Shortly afterwards, in 1849, Caravaya attracted notice as a land rich in the precious metal, and it soon became the California of South America. In July of that year two brothers named Poblete, in searching for chinchona-bark, discovered great abundance of gold-dust in the sands of one of the Caravaya rivers, and the news soon spread far and wide. Up to 1852 crowds of adventurers, among whom were many Frenchmen, continued to follow in the footsteps of the Pobletes, but most of them returned empty, and the excitement has now died away. The trade in chinchona-bark, which once was remunerative, and in which many Peruvians displayed extraordinary energy and endurance of fatigue, ceased to exist in 1847, owing to the habit of adulterating the Calisaya bark with inferior kinds, which gave the Caravaya article a bad name in the market, and at length rendered it unsaleable. This adulteration was practised either through fraud or ignorance. If the former, it was certainly very short-sighted; but Don Pablo Pimentel declares that it was done through ignorance, the bark-collectors mistaking the motosolo (C. micrantha) and carhua-carhua (Cascarilla Carua) for the Calisaya bark.[300]

The above meagre notices are all that I have been able to glean respecting the history of Caravaya; and I will now give a brief description of the geographical features of this interesting region.

The province of Caravaya consists of a narrow strip of lofty table-land, bordering on that of Azangaro; the snowy range of the Eastern Andes for a distance of 120 miles; and the boundless tropical forests to the eastward, stretching away towards the frontier of Brazil. It is bounded on the east and south by Bolivia, on the N.W. by the province of Quispicanchi in the department of Cuzco, on the north and N.E. by the illimitable forests, and on the west by Azangaro.

The lofty table-land to the westward of the snowy Andes extends for 120 miles, the whole length of Caravaya, but is only from five to ten miles broad. It is 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, and here, about a century ago, after the destruction of San Gavan, the town of Crucero was founded, as a central position for the capital of the province, and as being free from the attacks of wild Indians. It derives its name from the numerous roads which branch from it to the villages on the eastern slopes of the Andes. This narrow plain, on which Crucero[301] is situated, is very swampy, covered with long tufts of ychu grass, and intensely cold. It yields pasture to immense flocks of sheep; and to the curious hybrid, first bred by the cura Cabrera in 1826, between an alpaca and a vicuÑa, called the paco-vicuÑa, with a black and white fleece of long fine wool, which is wove into fabrics like the richest silk.[302]

But the largest and only important part of Caravaya consists of the forest-covered valleys to the eastward of the Andes. On the western side that mountain-chain rises abruptly into peaks covered with snow, from an elevated plateau 14,000 feet above the sea; but on its eastern side the descent is rapid into tropical valleys. Long spurs run off the main chain to the northward, gradually decreasing in elevation; and it is sometimes a distance of sixty or eighty miles before they finally subside into the boundless forest-covered plains of the interior of South America. Numerous rivers flow through the valleys between these spurs, to join the Ynambari; and in these valleys, near the foot of the main chain of the eastern Andes, are the few villages and coca and coffee plantations of Caravaya. In these long spurs and deep valleys Caravaya differs in geographical character from the more northern region of Paucartambo, where the Andes subside much more rapidly into the level plain.

In the warm valleys are to be found all the wealth and population of Caravaya. The population consists of 22,000 souls, almost all Indians; and the wealth, besides the flocks of sheep on the western table-land, is created by the produce of coca, coffee, sugar-cane, and aji-pepper plantations, fruit-gardens, and gold-washings. Correct statistical returns are unknown in Peru; but, as near as I could make out, there is an annual yield of 20,000 lbs. of coffee and 360,000 lbs. of coca.[303] I could obtain no reliable statements respecting the yield of gold.

The Caravayan valley which is furthest to the north and west is that of Ollachea, bordering on Marcapata, where there is a small village at the foot of the Andes. Next come those of Ituata and Corani. The little village of Ayapata, near the source of the river of the same name, comes next; and thirty miles further in the interior, an intelligent and enterprising Peruvian, named Don Agustin Aragon, has established a sugar-cane estate called San JosÉ de Bella Vista. It is situated at the junction of two rivers, and he is thus protected from the attacks of the savage Chuncho Indians who prowl about in the surrounding forests. He has made a road practicable for mules from the village of Ayapata to his estate; and he finds the manufacture of spirits from the sugar-cane far more profitable than digging for gold or hunting for chinchona-bark. He is a man full of energy and resource. His attempt to establish a manufactory of india-rubber only failed through the refusal of the Peruvian government to give him a contract for supplying the army, and thus assist his first efforts; in 1860 he sent an expedition into the forests to collect wild cacao-plants; any scheme for developing the resources of the country is sure to receive his advocacy; and he looks forward with confidence to the day when a steamer shall ascend the Purus and Ynambari, and return to the Atlantic with a cargo of the produce of Caravaya. It would be well for Peru if she contained many such men as Don Agustin Aragon.

It is supposed that the old Spanish town of San Gavan was situated near a river of the same name, about twenty miles from Aragon's estate. The site is now overgrown with dense forest, and it has never been visited since its destruction; yet it is believed that vast treasure lies concealed amongst the tree-covered ruins, because the attack of the Chunchos was sudden, and at once successful; they care nothing for the precious metals, and San Gavan contained a royal treasury, and was a central deposit for the gold of Caravaya. The Chunchos, in former times, were in friendly communication with, and even took service under, the Spaniards; but the tyranny of the latter at length exasperated them, and led to the destruction of San Gavan. Since that time the Chunchos have wandered in the forests in small tribes,[304] the implacable enemies of all white men and Inca Indians.

Following the eastern slopes of the Andes to the south-east, the next village to Ayapata, at the head of another deep ravine, is Ccoasa, and next follow Usicayus, Phara, and Limbani. Phara is in a ravine on the eastern slope of the Andes, about thirty-five miles from Crucero. Here many gold-mines were worked by the SeÑores Mulattos, and at no great distance is the famous gold-mine of Aporuma, in the ravine of Pacchani. Phara is on the road to the gold-diggings, which were discovered by the brothers Poblete, and which attracted so many luckless adventurers between 1849 and 1854. They are at a distance of fifteen leagues to the northward. The path lies along a long ridge, gradually descending for six leagues to a little hamlet called La Mina. Thence to the banks of the river Ynambari, here called Huari-huari, is a distance of three leagues, down a very dangerous road, covered with huge blocks of schist, and skirting along fearful precipices. For this distance the road is passable for mules. The river is seventy yards broad, and is crossed by an oroya, or bridge of ropes, traversed by a sort of net or cage, into which the passenger gets, and is hauled over to the other side, at a giddy height above the boiling flood. On the other side, at the junction of the Huari-huari and the golden river of Challuma,[305] there is a place which has been named Versailles by some French adventurers, of whom the most daring and energetic is a M. La Harpe. The road, so far, was opened by a party of soldiers of the batallion Yungay. From Versailles to the lavaderos or gold-washings is a distance of six leagues up a narrow forest-covered ravine; and, in this distance, it is necessary to wade across the river Challuma no less than fifty-three times—the water coming up to the waist, the feet constantly slipping over loose rounded stones, the only support a long staff, and where one false step would be inevitable destruction. At the end of this perilous journey there is a place called Alta-garcia, where the administradores of the company of first discoverers were established in 1850. Thence to Quimza-mayu (three rivers) is half a league, and here the lavaderos commence. In this part of its course the river is called Taccuma. Many of the gold-seekers, such as the SeÑores Carpio, La Harpe, Valdez, Tovar, Cardenas, and Costas, have been men who were formerly engaged in the chinchona-bark trade, and who know the country thoroughly. The tributaries of the Challuma, called Quimza-mayu, rise in hills completely isolated from the Andes, and their sands are full of gold, both in dust and nuggets. Immediately above the lavaderos rises a hill called Capacurco, and by the French adventurers Montebello, formed of quartz and other primitive rocks, with rich veins of gold. Here Don Manuel Costas of Puno erected a house, and brought out machinery for crushing the quartz, but the undertaking failed through the badness of the machinery, and the immense cost and difficulty of transporting materials through such a country. A few adventurers, however, still continue to wash for gold in the Challuma or Taccuma. In the part of its course above the lavaderos this river descends rapidly from an isolated range of forest-covered precipitous hills, and in one place its waters plunge down in a cascade, with a sheer fall of forty feet.[306] The gold-seekers of the Challuma have penetrated further into the forests, and nearer to the main stream of the Purus, than any other explorers; and their discovery of the Challuma, and of the auriferous hills near its banks, has added something to our geographical knowledge of this region.

The remaining villages on the eastern slopes of the Caravayan Andes are Patambuco, Sandia, Cuyo-cuyo, Quiaca, Sina, and the farm of Saqui, on the frontier of Bolivia. The river of Sandia has one of its sources near the pass twenty miles north-east of Crucero, whence it flows past Sandia, and for many leagues down a narrow gorge, with magnificent mountains rising up abruptly on either side. At a distance of twenty miles below Sandia, in a part of the ravine called Ypara, the coca and coffee plantations commence, at a height of 5000 feet above the sea. Beyond Ypara cultivation ceases, and the river, now increased to double its former size by its junction with the Huari-huari, flows for many leagues between mountains covered from their summits with a dense tropical forest. This region is known as San Juan del Oro, once famous for its gold-washings; and here the royal town of the same name stood, founded by the fugitive Almagristas, and afterwards tenanted by the SeÑores Mulattos, but long since destroyed and abandoned. The forests contain chinchona-trees of valuable species, and, until the last fourteen years, they were frequented by bark-collectors.

While flowing through the forests of San Juan del Oro the river takes a turn to the westward, and, at a distance of sixty miles from Sandia, enters the Hatun-yunca, or Valle Grande, where the people of Sandia have very extensive coca and coffee plantations. The curve here made by the river is so considerable that the people from Sandia reach their farms in the Valle Grande by leaving the ravine above Ypara, and making their way across the grass-covered mountains. The coffee-plants in these farms receive no attention whatever from the time they are planted, so that, instead of the dense well-pruned bushes of India or Ceylon, they grow into tall straggling trees about twelve feet high, with a very small harvest of berries on each, but each berry well exposed to the sun. The coffee is certainly excellent.

Passing through the Valle Grande the river flows on past Versailles, where it receives the golden Challuma, and, uniting with all the other rivers of Caravaya, becomes that great Ynambari which finally effects a junction with the Madre de Dios, and forms the main stream of the mighty Purus.

The river Huari-huari, which is formed by two streams flowing from the villages of Sina and Quiaca, joins the river of Sandia about thirty miles below that town, and their united streams compose the Ynambari. Finally the river Tambopata rises near a farm called Saqui, just within the boundary between Peru and Bolivia, at the foot of a ridge of the Eastern Cordillera. After a course of forty miles it receives the river of San Blas, on the banks of which the people of the Sina village have their coca-plantations. Eighty miles lower down the Tambopata unites with the river Pablo-bamba, on its right bank, at a place called Putina-puncu. The Pablo-bamba rises in a hill called Corpa-ychu on the very frontier of Bolivia, and is only divided from the Tambopata, during its whole course, by a single range of hills. The frontier between the two republics has never been surveyed. Below Putina-puncu the united waters of the two rivers enter the vast forest-covered plains into which the spurs of the Andes finally subside, and henceforth its course is entirely unknown. I think it probable, however, that the Tambopata finds its way direct to the Purus, without previously uniting with the Ynambari.

The respective distances and populations of the villages of Caravaya are as follows:—