Riobamba

“ On either side it is lined by wrought-iron rejas and open shop-doors; at either end it dies out in sand and cactus-bordered paths between mud-huts. As the main plaza of Riobamba is to Ecuador, this street forms the center of what is reputed the greatest native market in Peru. Each Sunday it offers a pulsating vista of Indians from a hundred miles around, in every color known to an artist’s palette—and some which the boldest of painters would not venture to use—an unbroken stretch of humanity, shimmering in the glaring sunshine. ”

“ The great mountain displays a double peak, the snow-clad crests of which are outlined against the upland sky, at those times when the firmament is free from clouds. The plateau of Riobamba has a healthy climate, described, on the authority of Humboldt, as one of the best in the world. In this region a considerable increase in the production of wheat has followed upon the building of the railway. ”

“ Red, tile roofs stand strikingly forth from deep-green corn-fields, and thousands of fertile, cultivated acres are shut in by barren, sand-faced hills, though there are no imposing peaks south of Cañar, and I had seen none snow-clad since leaving Riobamba. With no census for twenty-five years, the metropolis of southern Ecuador, third city of the republic, and capital of the rich province of Azuay, estimates its population at 45,000. Some have it that this great cuenca, six leagues long, gouged out of the Andes, was the original Tomebamba, birthplace of Huayna Ccápac. ”

“ My kind host assured me, that the province of Riobamba contained extremely rich mines of gold and silver, and that from undoubted tradition this province sent more silver and gold for the purpose of ransoming Atahualpa than any other in the kingdom.
The province produces annually about four thousand quintals of sheep's wool, which is manufactured into different kinds of cloth; its other productions are wheat, maize, barley, potatoes, arracachas, and European culinary vegetables. The capital is so situated, that it is not likely ever to become a place of commercial notoriety. ”

“ No amount of bribery will secure a meal in less than two hours. Ten years ago there was not a posada in the country; now there is entertainment for man and beast at Guayaquil, Guaranda, Mocha, Ambato, Tacunga, Machachi, and Quito. Riobamba has a billiard saloon, but no inn.
Leaving Ambato, we breakfasted at Cunchebamba, an Indian village of half a dozen straw huts. Thence the road for a long distance winds through vast deposits of volcanic débris, the only sign of vegetation being hedges of aloe and cactus. ”

“ In the kingdom of Quito, the great catastrophe of Riobamba, which we have before mentioned, has led several well-informed persons to think, that this unfortunate country would be less often desolate, if the subterraneous fire would break the porphyritic dome of Chimborazo; and this colossal mountain should become a burning volcano. At all times analogous facts have led to the same hypothesis. ”

“ Many ride, and the more poorly dressed seem to pay for the privilege; but the Indians take good care not to be caught on any such risky, new-fangled contraption.
There is commonly not a “sight” to be seen in Riobamba, unless it be the stern, white face of Chimborazo looking down upon the city from the middle distance to the north. The traveler who chances upon the town of a Saturday or Sunday, however, will find it a place of interest. Then the Indian population of a thickly inhabited region comes from thirty or more miles around to what is rated Ecuador’s greatest market. ”

“ There are many villages in this province of the Puruaes, which I shall not further allude to, in order to avoid prolixity. To the east of Riobamba there are other villages in the forests near the sources of the river Marañon, and the mountain called Tinguragua, round which there are also many villages. The inhabitants have the same customs as all the others, they wear clothing, and their houses are built of stone. They were conquered by the Kings Yncas, and their captains speak the general language of Cuzco, although they have their own tongue as well. ”

“ Beyond Riobamba, which is noted for its market, made picturesque by hundreds of Indians from the surrounding country, the highest point of the railway is reached, the Chimborazo Pass, 11,841 feet. A descent follows to Ambato, altitude 8550 feet. The climate is more equable than most of the other basins enjoy, and the “Fair” held here is the most famous in Ecuador. In the Latacunga Valley are good pasture lands with cattle, and irrigated fields where fruits and vegetables of the temperate zone are raised. ”

“ If by chance some have remained, they continue to irrigate their fields. At the time when the Adelantado Don Pedro de Alvarado came to this kingdom, the Adelantado Don Francisco Pizarro, who was his Majesty’s governor, was in Cuzco; and, while the marshal Don Diego de Almagro was doing those things which I mentioned in my chapter on Riobamba, he came down to the coast, and determined to{249} found a city in this valley. At that time neither Truxillo, Arequipa, Guamanga, nor any of the other cities were commenced. ”

“ At sunrise thrice a week most of the town turns out to watch the trains that have “overnighted” here leave for Quito and Guayaquil respectively; whence its suggestion of some frontier village of railroad hotels in our Western states. Unlike Quito, Riobamba has a street-car. It is a platform on wheels with a flat roof supported by gas-pipes, under which are some crosswise boards that are called seats with the same Latin-American tolerance with which a place to lie on the floor is called a bed, and a place the traveler may possibly be able to make his way through is called a road. ”

“ This place suffered severely in the earthquake which destroyed Latacunga, as the volcano of Carguirazo, part of which fell in, vomited forth torrents of mud, ashes and water; and the heat of the crater melting the snow, it precipitated down the sides of the mountain, sweeping away every thing before it.
In Riobamba, the Llamas, or Peruvian camels, are seen; they are indeed so common, that hardly any Indian has less than one to carry his goods when he travels ”

“ Yet it lies on the plateau on which stood Riobamba, where such terrible destruction was wrought in 1794, and at the base of the great volcano of Pichincha. It has been shaken time and again more severely than towns in the vicinity that have been totally destroyed. Yet it remains intact, and the people have an indifference to earthquakes that is astonishing. They attribute their safety to the fact of having deep cellars under every house. When we remember that tropical races are not, as a rule, a cellar building people, it may be that the idea is worthy of serious consideration. ”

“ South America is noted for the frequency and extreme violence of its earthquakes; of which more hereafter. Though possessing a greater number of very lofty volcanic{467} cones than any other region, the direct effect of its eruptions have not been so disastrous as the results of many eruptions elsewhere. There is but one very notable exception; the earthquake that destroyed Riobamba in 1794 was followed at once by an outpour of mud from Tunguragua, which overwhelmed forty thousand people, still dazed by the shock, or struggling in the ruins of their villages. ”

“ Its public offices are the chamber of finance, and those of the government of the city; and the tithes and taxes of Loja and Jaen de Bracameros, are collected here.
The men are said to be very indolent, the manufactures of baize and cottons, being carried on by the women, who transact most of the business.
Its inhabitants exceed 20,000. The district of Cuença is subdivided into two departments, Cuença, and Alausi; the former including ten villages, and the latter, which borders on Riobamba, has four. ”

“ The chief wealth of the department appears to be in agriculture, for Cochabamba may certainly claim to be the agricultural capital of Bolivia, La Paz, Potosí, and Oruro being the chief mineral centres, whilst the true capital of the republic, Sucre, is the political and educational centre. Cochabamba is the storehouse for the crops of wheat, maize, barley, and potatoes that are grown on the plains on which the city is built. ”

“ There are high mountains on either side, covered with dense jungle and dark green foliage, in pleasing contrast to the light green of the fields of waving sugar cane. The valley is steep, the road is very winding, and the torrent of the Vilcabamba roars loudly, even in July. What it must be like in February, the rainy season, we could only surmise. About two leagues above Paltaybamba, at or near the spot called by Raimondi “Maracnyoc,” an “abandoned tampu,” we came to some old stone walls, the ruins of a place now called Huayara or “Hoyara.” ”

“ The city of Oropesa is the capital of a province named Cochabamba, of about 40 leagues in extent, which is bounded by Sicasica on the north-west, La Paz on the west, Chayantas on the south, and Charcas, or La Plata, and Santa Cruz de la Sierra on the east, and lying 50 leagues south-east of Plata. It possesses one gold mine, and several of silver, but they are not productive. The chief wealth of this province is in its agricultural produce, as it is fertilized by so many rivers and streams, that it yields immense harvests of grain, &c. ”

“ Handsome shops fringe the fashionable avenues, glittering with costly fabrics and toys; then again packed side by side, in nooks, alcoves, and niches, are small merchants, who from their numbers, one would suppose to be all sellers and no buyers.
The little river Rimac flows noisily through the city, fed from far away by the silvered pinnacles of snows and ice in the lofty Andes. It is spanned by a substantial and lofty bridge, whose every stone has been loosened by the earthquake. Lima might be made one of the cleanest cities in the world ”

“ The capital, Oruro, 127 miles south of La Paz, while for years the terminus of the railway from Antofagasta, became an important commercial and industrial centre; in [Pg 216] addition it is one of the busiest mining districts. Half of the mining men are foreigners; a large proportion of the ordinary population is Indian. There is also agreeable society, with people quite up to date in Paris fashions. The only other city in the Department is Challapata.
Cochabamba, south of El Beni, east of La Paz and west of Santa Cruz, is sometimes called the granary of the Republic. ”

“ Nauta lies on the north bank of the Marañon, opposite the entrance of the Ucayali. Its inhabitants, about 1000, trade in fish, sarsaparilla, and wax from Ucayali. Yurimaguas is the port of Moyabamba, a city of 10,000 souls, six days' travel southwest. This vast eastern slope, lying on the branches of the Marañon, is called the Montaña of Peru. It is a region of [Pg 232] inexhaustible fertility, and would yield ample returns to energy and capital. The villages are open to foreign commerce, free of duty ”

“ Beyond Chupas, on another spur, is the farm of my old friend Don Manuel Tello, called Cochabamba. The view towards the cordillera is very grand. The sides of some of the gorges form perpendicular precipices, above which rise the snowy peaks. Beyond Cochabamba is the wheat farm of another of my old friends called cojo Arias; [132] and further on is the village of Chiara, whence the road leads by Sachapampa and Pomacocha, to Vilcas. This was the route taken by Almagro's army from Vilcas, after crossing the lofty ridge of Cangallo. Guamanga is now usually written Huamanga. ”

“ That part of the Beni which lies on the eastern border of Yungas is called the province of Apolobamba. The chocolate, coca, and cinchona bark from Apolobamba are superior. The southeast trade-winds from the South Atlantic ocean meet, and are checked by the great Sorata mountains. The town of Apolobamba, on the river Tuiche, is situated half-way between the gold mines of Tipuani and Carabaya. There is no such cinchona as that known as the “calisaya” of Apolobamba. At the feet of these trees are found the richest gold mines of Bolivia. ”

“ Each group of fans has a population proportioned to its size and fertility. If there are broad expanses a town like Urubamba or a great hacienda like Huadquiña is sure to be found. One group of huge stony fans below Urubamba (Fig. 180) has only a thin population, for the soil is coarse and infertile and the rivers deeply intrenched. In some places the tiny fans perched high upon the flanks of the mountains where little tributaries burst out of steep ravines are cultivated by distant owners who also till parts of the larger fans on the main valley floors. ”

“ The city of La Rioja, the Capital, is still in a state of arrested development, similarly with Catamarca, only even more so. It has not yet experienced sufficient prosperity to enable it to recover from the paralysing effects of the civil disturbances which raged in and around it for very many years after the overthrow of the Spanish rule. The people, the great majority of whom have a large admixture of native Indian blood, are, however, of a rather more lively and energetic disposition than their Catamarcan neighbours. ”

“ Pomabamba is a province bounded on the north by Tomina; east by the lands of the independent tribes; west by Porco and Amparaes, and south by Pilaya y Paspaya. It is about 24 leagues in length, and has no other town than its capital, the inhabitants being dispersed in their plantations.
Its population is only 3000 souls, who gain a scanty subsistence from their farms, which are often plundered by the Chiriguanos Indians. It has the river Parapeti on the north, and the Rio Nuevo on the east, which separates it from the Indian territories. ”