As Canta is considered a sort of hospital for the ailing people from Lima, it may be proper to remark, that in a medical point of view, it is invested with a great deal of interest, and that it is built on a hill whose base skirts the village of Obrajillo; while, from the plaza of the lower village to the higher town, the ascent is no more than about thirty minutes’ walk. Canta, however, is considered to enjoy a far purer air than Obrajillo; and, as it is only twenty-five leagues from the capital, the hectic, phthisical, and slowly convalescent Limenians, are wont to prefer this to remoter districts. By the people of Obrajillo and Canta, alfalfa, or lucern, is everywhere cultivated near the river and in their little enclosures, and the surrounding hills are covered with pasture: the lower declivities and gentle slopes produce good crops of wheat, beans, potatoes, maize, &c.
Here the culen is one of the most common shrubs, and the natives make a tea of its leaves which is deemed an excellent stomachic. During the wet season flowers and flowering shrubs are spread abroad with liberal profusion; but the trees are too few to supply the wants of the inhabitants, whose houses are therefore constructed at great trouble; being obliged to convey timber from distant places and deep ravines. The stone or adobe walls and thatched roofs of the small villages or pueblos of the Sierra characterize, with only one exception, the buildings of Obrajillo. The dwelling-houses are employed for stowing potatoes, maize, and whatever eatables the residents may be blessed with; and, when the family retire to rest, most of them lie down on sheep-skins wherever they can find room in their disorderly apartments. We need hardly observe that every traveller on these roads must carry with him his own blanket or ponchos to repose on at night.
At Obrajillo there are in all about sixty families; and we saw a maudlin school-master among them with only six pupils, whom he taught, _sub Jove_, in an open corral.[27] He was looked upon as a _savant_ by the villagers, some of whom found him useful in drawing up their accounts; and we observed that he spoke about the zoology of Aristotle when a friend of ours displayed his more practical zeal and science in collecting and preserving specimens of ornithology, in search of which he frequently waded the river, gun in hand; and a pretty sight it was to see the delicately plumaged diving ducks exhibit wonderful agility, in passing the most foaming rapids. This village of arrieros, or muleteers, is about half-way between Lima and that great source of mineral wealth the Cerro Pasco. From the capital to the Cerro a rider on a good traveller will arrive in four days without injury to himself or beast, and this is considered good work; but we have known the journey from the Cerro to Lima performed in about fifty hours: this again is a work of over-exertion for the man, who is very likely to incapacitate one or perhaps two animals in the undertaking. It may be said, in general, that on a rough and hilly road a league an hour is a fair rate of travelling for a fresh beast on any ordinary journey in the interior of Peru.