About four o'clock in the afternoon we arrived at Ocros, a small village, where the indians were all prepared to go to Cochas the following day, to repair the bridge. This task is annually imposed on them jointly with those of the neighbouring villages, who pass it toll free, while other passengers pay a real or one-eighth of a dollar: the money is kept to provide food for the indians who assemble to assist in the repairs; they employ a week at the work, although it might be finished in a day; but it is rather a week of feasting than of labour. About thirty mules, all laden with _cabulleria_, as it is called, made from the maguey, were collected in the plasa, or square, and there appeared to be as much bustle as if an army had been removing its camp. My companion was known to the _cura_, rector, to whose house he took me, and we were entertained with his best cheer and most cheerful hospitality. The cura complained bitterly of a want of society in his place of exile, _destierro_, as he called it, and jocosely said, that if the Pope himself were cura of Ocros, he would wish to have a wife to keep him in good humour: excepting, said he, when a traveller passes this way, I hear no news, and know of nothing that occurs in the world which I have left. I often welcome the arrival of a pedlar, to whom I would not even have spoken at Lima, but here he seems to me like something dropt from the clouds, and his words and actions delight me, because they savour of my beloved Lima. The village or rather hamlet of Ocros is situated on an eminence; the climate is cold, and although but eleven leagues from the coast, it is subject to heavy rains. The inhabitants are for the most part indians, who have some few small flocks of sheep and goats; they labour on the neighbouring farms, and on the whole live miserably. Barley, maize, and milk from their goats are their principal food, and a coarse suit of clothes will generally wear out the life of its owner; the contrast between these indians and those on the coast in regard to their manner of living surprised me not a little:--more ragged and dirty in their appearance, their small huts containing but one room having the fire in the middle of it, without any windows, and the absence of every thing that might contribute to their comfort:--indeed their stock of household goods made a most miserable shew. I inquired into the cause of this penury, and was informed by the cura, that their vicinity to the coast allowed them, if they could purchase a mule, to fetch small quantities of brown sugar, _chancaca_, and fruit, and to take them to Chiquian and other towns in the interior, to sell, and that they usually spent in eating and drinking the small profits which they derived; they thought, he said, but little of their homes; but left the women to till their plots of ground, to tend their sheep and goats, and to provide for their families. Here the Quichua language begins to be spoken; the indians use