ra, por una herradura un cavallo, por un cavallo un
cavallero_,"[59] and he felt assured that I must have the damage repaired
at any price. Shortly after my arrival in the Sierra I got myself
initiated in the art of horse-shoeing, and constantly carried about with
me a supply of horse-shoes and nails, a plan which I found was generally
adopted by travellers in those parts. It is only in the larger Indian
villages that farriers are to be met with, that is to say in places
fifty or sixty leagues distant from each other.

From Surco the road runs to the distance of two leagues tolerably
level, and very close to the river, which, from Cocachacra, bears the
name of Rio de San Mateo. The next village is San Juan de Matucanas, at
a little distance from which there is a tambo, situated at the height
of 8105 feet above the sea.[60] These tambos of the Sierra are wretched
places, but the traveller may find in them shelter, and possibly some
miserable kind of food. Even in Lima the tambos are not much better. In
the capital a tambo affords the traveller the accommodation of a room,
containing a table, a chair, and a bedstead; for it is always
understood that he brings his mattress and bedding along with him. In
the interior of the country the accommodation is limited to an empty
space on the floor, just large enough to spread a mattress upon.
Whenever the state of the weather permitted I always preferred sleeping
in the open air. Even on a rainy night a lodging on the outside of the
door is preferable to the interior of the hut, where Indians, negroes,
dogs and pigs are all huddled together. In these tambos there is
seldom any scarcity of brandy or chicha; but the hungry traveller
sometimes cannot get even a potatoe or a bit of maize. Frequently, when
the Indians really have provisions they will not produce them, because
they are fearful of not being paid. This suspicion is pardonable
enough; for when troops march through the villages the inhabitants are
often cheated by the officers, and ill-treated into the bargain.
Generally, in this part of the country, the people are civil, and will
readily sell provisions if they are paid. Not so the Indians of the
higher mountains eastward of the Cordillera. To the traveller's demand
for something to eat, their uniform reply is "_Manam canchu_" (we have
nothing); and it is often found necessary to resort to force in order
to convert this monotonous answer into the more agreeable "_Ari
conch