y mind
with the recollection of a most mortifying accident. A mass of rock,
such as I have just described, gave way, and rolling down the
precipice, hurled one of my mules into the foaming abyss. My most
valuable instruments, a portion of my collections, my papers, and--to
me an irreparable loss--a diary carefully and conscientiously kept for
the space of fourteen months, were in a moment buried in the river.
Two days afterward the current washed the dead mule ashore at
Matucanas, but its load was irrecoverably lost.

Every year many beasts of burthen, and even travellers, perish on this
road. In the Tambo de Viso I met an officer who, with two of his sons,
was coming from the Sierra. He had placed the youngest before him, and
the other, a boy of ten years of age, was seated on the mule's
crupper. When they were within about half a league from Viso, a huge
mass of rock, rolling down from the mountain, struck the elder boy,
and hurled him into the river. The afflicted father was anxiously
seeking to recover the body of his lost child.

San Mateo is on the right bank of the river, and is the largest
village in this valley. It corresponds in situation with Culluay in
the Quebrada of Canta; as Matucanas corresponds with the village of
Obrajillo. San Mateo is 10,947 feet above the level of the sea.[62]
The soil produces abundance of potatoes, Ocas (_Oxalis tuberosa_) and
Ullucas (_Tropaeolum tuberosum_). Maize ripens here perfectly, but the
heads are small. The lucerne is also small, but very abundant; it is
very much exposed to injury from the frost, and is only good for use
during the five rainy months of the year. Five hundred feet higher,
that is to say, about 11,500 feet above the sea, is the boundary
elevation for the growth of lucerne.

The spirit of hospitality, so generally prevalent among the Sierra
Indians, does not seem to animate the Cholos of San Mateo. Their manners
are rude and reserved, and they are very distrustful of strangers. As
soon as a traveller enters the village, the Alcade and the Rejidores
make their appearance, and demand his passport. If he cannot produce it,
he may possibly be put upon a donkey, and conducted to the nearest
Prefect, or may moreover run the risk of being ill-treated. But,
fortunately, it is easy to escape such annoyances. Any scrap of printed
or written paper will answer for a passport, as it rarely happens that
either the Alcade or the Rejidores can read. On one occasion whe