ma, conferred the name. It is said
that before the time of the Incas persons suspected of magic were
banished to the valley of the Rimac, on which account it obtained the
name of _Rimac-malca_, that is, the WITCHES-VALLEY. This account, which
is given by some early travellers, requires farther historical and
philological inquiry, before its correctness can be admitted.]

[Footnote 40: The Quichua language has no word for potatoe, but in the
Chinchayauyo language, which is spoken along the whole coast of Peru,
the potatoe is called _Acsu_.]

CHAPTER VIII.

Robbers on the coast of Peru--The Bandit Leaders Leon and Rayo--The
Corps of Montoneros--Watering Places near Lima--Surco, Atte and
Lurin--Pacchacamac--Ruins of the Temple of the Sun--Difficulties of
Travelling on the Coast of Peru--Sea Passage to Huacho--Indian
Canoes--Ichthyological Collections--An old Spaniard's recollections
of Alexander Von Humboldt--The Padre Requena--Huacho--Plundering of
Burial Places--Huaura--Malaria--The Sugar Plantation at
Luhmayo--Quipico--Ancient Peruvian Ruins--The Salinas, or Salt
Pits--Gritalobos--Chancay--The Piques--Mode of extracting
them--Valley of the Pasamayo--Extraordinary Atmospheric
Mirrors--Piedras Gordas--Palo Seco.

All the inhabited parts of the coast of Peru, especially the districts
adjacent to Lima and Truxillo, are infested by robbers, and travelling
is thereby rendered extremely unsafe. These banditti are chiefly runaway
slaves (simarrones, as they are called), free negroes, zambos, or
mulattos. Occasionally they are joined by Indians, and these latter are
always conspicuous for the cruelties they perpetrate. Now and then a
white man enters upon this lawless course; and, in the year 1839, a
native of North America, who had been a purser in a ship of war, was
shot in Lima for highway robbery. These robbers are always well mounted,
and their fleet-footed steeds usually enable them to elude pursuit. It
is no unfrequent occurrence for slaves belonging to the plantations to
mount their masters' finest horses, and after sunset, when their work is
over, or on Sundays, when they have nothing to do, to sally forth on
marauding expeditions.

Most of the highway robbers who infest the coast of Peru belong to an
extensive and systematically-organized band, headed by formidable
leaders, who maintain spies in the towns and villages, from whom they
receive regular reports. They sometimes prowl about in parties of thirty