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Show A HARD K0AD TO TRAVEL. A JOURNEY IN THE ANDES TO ANCIENT CUZCO. Caieo to the Ancient Capital of the Iocs, and the Trip Thither la surrounded With much Interest In-terest Wild Cattle. It would be a pity for the sojourner in this part of Peru to miss seeing Cuzco, the ancient'capltal of the Incag, writes Fannie B." Ward, in a letter from Ariquipa to the Philadelphia Record. There are no hotels along the route, and one must depend upon private hospitality, which is freely accorded to those who bring letters at recommendation. Every villBgaJaOw ' Its tambo, however, similar to the innars of Egypt In Mary's time. ' The first day is by far the hardest of the entire trip, as much because one is not yet used to it as because the road is incomparably worse; and at all hazards one must reach Aguas Callentes before night-fall. To the right of a lofty, snow-clad mountain one follows for some miles' and finally fords a small water-course, which seems to rise in one of the hot springs so numerous in that locality, and which Peruvians regard as the mother spring of the great Auiazonas river system. j The little stream which here take the name of the near-by mountain i known as the Chalca further on, an0 afterward as the Urabamba. Man' miles farther northward, having gaincii much strength and volume, it joins tlA Rio Tambo, and their united watels form the famous Ucagoli, the largeft of Peru's tributaries to tho Amazon!- " The second night out one is book 11 to sleep at the village of Licuain.li ride of only eighteen miles, throufl'i I charming scenery. There Is a possil' drawback, however, in tho LicirJf river, which must be forded sev f times, and is likely to be rather h 1 1, There is a road on the left of it. I it travelers are warned to take to j.e water instead, for there are list swamps on that sido, with quicks:H els treacherous enough to ingulf an aimy; and, besides, one must pass thnl.jh the unfenced hacienda of Antacul a, which is celebrated far and widijfor its wild cattle. Nobody goes over lhatj dangerous road if ho can avoid it, there being no place of refuge should-he should-he be attacked by the torros. Fancy a party of United States tourists, including includ-ing two women, riding peaceably along on mule-back, when a herd of wild bulls come charging full tilt upon them, and not a wall or treeateft&h, to hide behind. -fclaji In the vicinity of the hot springs there are acres of plump mushrooms, and no passer-by whose palate hai been properly educated will fail to secure se-cure a supply for his evening msiil, whether he takes it at the tambots'r at the hospitable home of Don TWiS Mejias. The third night one sloeps at "Tints," a hacienda owned by an educated Italian, Senor Don Francisco Masclotta, who is sure to give the pilgrim a kindly kind-ly welcome. The road thereto lies through an ancient Indian village called Raccha, built within the apter of an extinct volcano. Among ooiirf--curlositles, it contains a remarkable wall, which is said to be the remains of a palace built by an Indian prince, eldest son of Tupac Yupangl, who revolted re-volted against paternal rule and here maintained his independence. Near iff is one of the many small round towers so frequently found in this part of Peru, which are believed to have been astronomical observatories wherein the Incas determined the moridian passage of the sun. On the fourth day one may take a leisurely jaunt of only fifteen miles to Chocacupe, where he will be made to feel quite at home by Colonel Martin Aluasez, who is a regular king In his little world a large landed proprietor, a member of congress and a wealthy wool merchant. We went out of the way a few miles to view the little ISwo called Urcos. famous In Peruvian tradition tra-dition for being the burial place of that great gold chain of the Inca Huascar." We read that the celebrated chain was long enough to encircle the grand Plaza Mayor of Cuzco, and that every link in it was as heavy as a strong man could carry all of pure gold. Of course the story is nonsense; nevertheless nev-ertheless we spurred our beasts to the perilous brink and faithfully tried to believe that we saw gold shining through the dark waters. No securer hiding place for the heavy treasure could be found, because the lake has a bottom of unfathomable ooze, which speedily swallows anything thrown into it, and affords no footing for divers. Twelve miles beyond is Zucre hacienda, where the traveler is advised to stop over night This very fine estate, a mile or two from the village of Oropesa. belongs to the Garmendla . family, and includes a cloth manufactory. manufac-tory. Only twelve miles beyond Oropesa Oro-pesa is Cuzco, in the midst of a tropical valley. After leaving the highlands the weather grows warm and warmer; paroquets and monkeys, palms and fig trees are seen; and one sultry afternoon (midwinter at homo) we came cantering canter-ing into the stony streets of the old, old city that had seen several centuries before be-fore the United States was born. |