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. The traveller cannot have any dealing with the muleteers without discovering that he is entirely in their power; and that they will furnish him no cattle for his journey, unless he pay them money on account, or “adelantado,” beforehand. Of course he will have to advance some part of the mule-hire before he can budge on another man’s beast; but he should not be ignorant of the Peruvian rule on such occasions, which is, to suspect every man to be a cheat till very certain of the contrary,—a rule which is entirely indispensable. Acting upon the opposite English precept,—to believe every man honest till we find him a rogue,—we were once cheated by the military commandant of Junin, who, being paid “adelantado” for two beasts for the next morning’s journey, furnished one of them with only three legs, the fourth being so contracted that it could not reach the ground. He maintained—and, as he was the first authority in the place, he did so successfully—that as he only agreed to provide two beasts, without respect to quality, he would neither replace the lame nag, nor return our dollars.