remely good and very well flavored. All
Peru and a great part of Chile are supplied with this liquor from the
Vale of Yca. The common brandy is called _Aguardiente de Pisco_, because
it is shipped at that port. A kind of brandy of superior quality, and
much dearer, made from Muscatel grapes, is called _Aguardiente de
Italia_. It is distinguished by a very exquisite flavor. Very little
wine is made at Yca. In some plantations they make a thick dark-brown
kind, which is very sweet, and much liked by the Peruvians, though not
very agreeable to a European palate. Only one planter, Don Domingo
Elias,[49] the richest and most speculative cultivator on the whole
coast, makes wine in the European manner. It is very like the wine of
Madeira and Teneriffe, only it is more fiery, and contains a more
considerable quantity of alcohol. Specimens which have been sent to
Europe have obtained the unqualified approbation of connoisseurs. The
flavor is considerably improved by a long sea voyage.

The brandy, which is exported by sea, is put into large vessels made of
clay, called _botijas_. In form they are like a pear, the broad ends
being downwards. At the top there is a small aperture, which is
hermetically closed with gypsum. The large _botija_ when filled weighs
six or seven arobas. Two are a load for a mule. To the pack-saddle, or
_aparejo_, two baskets are fastened, in which the _botijas_ are placed
with the small ends downwards. These _botijas_ were formerly also used
for conveying the brandy across the mountains; but, in consequence of
the dangerous, slippery roads, over which the mules often fell, many
were broken. Still greater damage was sustained at the springs and
wells on the coast, for the poor animals, after their long journeys
through the sandy wastes, rushed, on perceiving water, in full flight
to the springs. As it happens that there is often room for only five
or six mules, and from seventy to eighty were often pressing forward,
a great number of the _botijas_ were unavoidably dashed to pieces in
spite of all the caution the arrieros could exercise. The annual loss
of brandy was immense, and to counteract this evil, bags of goatskin
were introduced. These skins are now generally used for the
conveyance of brandy across the mountains. The method of skinning the
goats is the most horribly cruel that can be conceived. A negro hangs
the living animal up by the horns, and makes a circular incision
round his neck, which, ho