or forty, in the vicinity of the capital, and plunder every traveller
they encounter; but they are most frequently in smaller detachments. If
they meet with resistance they give no quarter; therefore, it is most
prudent to submit to be plundered quietly, even when the parties
attacked are stronger than the assailants, for the latter usually have
confederates at no great distance, and can summon reinforcements in case
of need. Any person who kills a robber in self-defence must ever
afterwards be in fear for his own life: even in Lima the dagger of the
assassin will reach him, and possibly at the moment when he thinks
himself most safe.

Foreigners are more frequently waylaid than natives. Indeed, the rich
and influential class of Peruvians are seldom subjected to these
attacks,--a circumstance which may serve to explain why more stringent
police regulations are not adopted.

The most unsafe roads are those leading to Callao, Chorillos, and
Cavalleros. This last place is on the way to Cerro de Pasco, whither
transports of money are frequently sent. A few weeks before my departure
from Lima a band of thirty robbers, after a short skirmish with a feeble
escort, made themselves masters of a remittance of 100,000 dollars,
destined for the mine-workers of Pasco. The silver bars from Pasco are
sent to Lima without any military guard, for they are suffered to pass
unmolested, as the robbers find them heavy and cumbrous, and they cannot
easily dispose of them. These depredations are committed close to the
gates of Lima, and after having plundered a number of travellers, the
robbers will very coolly ride into the city.

The country people from the Sierra, who travel with their asses to Lima,
and who carry with them money to make purchases in the capital, are the
constant prey of robbers, who, if they do not get money, maltreat or
murder their victims in the most merciless way.[41] In July, 1842, I was
proceeding from the mountains back to Lima, and, passing near the Puente
de Surco, a bridge about a league and a half from Lima, my horse
suddenly shied at something lying across the road. On alighting I
found that it was the dead body of an Indian, who had been murdered,
doubtless, by robbers. The skull was fractured in a shocking manner
by stones. The body was still warm.

The zambo robbers are notorious for committing the most heartless
cruelties. In June, 1842, one of them attacked the Indian who was
conveying the mail to H