s late
proprietor, Castilla. When I rode into the court, I was in a moment
surrounded by about fifty fine greyhounds, and from every side others
came springing forward. This was but a remnant of Castilla's collection.
He was passionately devoted to hunting, and generally kept from 200 to
300 greyhounds, with which he rode out daily. A bell was rung at certain
hours to collect the light-footed tribe to their meals. A gallows was
erected in the court, where the intractable underwent capital punishment
as a warning to the rest. One day when Castilla went out to hunt, he was
joined in the chase by an Indian, who brought with him a common mongrel.
This animal outstripped some of the greyhounds in speed, and quickly
overtook the deer. Castilla immediately bought the dog, for which he
gave the immense price of 350 dollars. A few days after he rode out to
hunt with his best greyhounds, together with the newly-purchased dog.
The pack being let loose, all the dogs set off in full chase, but the
mongrel remained quietly beside the horses. On returning to the
plantation, he was hung up on the gallows as a warning example.

To the north of Huacho, the _Pampa del medio mundo_, a sand plain, seven
leagues long, stretches out to the village of Supe. At short successive
distances farther to the north are the villages of _Baranca_,
_Pativilca_ (or rather Pati Huillca), and _la Fortaleza_. Then there
intervenes a vast waste, which extends nearly to Huarmay. Between that
village and the Port of Casma there is a similar long plain of sand.
Thus do wastes, and fruitful valleys, alternate along the whole coast
until near Tumbez, on the frontiers of the Republic of the Ecuador.

The whole district is rich in memorable monuments of the time of the
Incas. The most important are the remains of the palace of King Chimu
Cancha, not far from the harbor of Huanchaco, and the ruins of
Paramanca, near la Fortaleza. Doctor Unanue[45] is of opinion that the
latter edifice was built to commemorate the peace between King Chimu
Cancha and his conqueror, Capac Yupanqui; and that of two other
buildings, one (the larger), situated towards the east, marks the
dominions of the powerful Inca Pachacutec, and the other (the smaller),
towards the west, indicates the territory of the conquered Chimu. This
supposition is, in my opinion, quite erroneous. Independently of the
plainly-recognizable character of those ruins, the construction of which
shows them to have be