adventurers, accompanied by a few Americans, and an English artist named Prendergast, in 1856, but it completely failed. Since that time the wild Chuncho Indians have continued to attack and encroach upon the few farms which existed in these valleys at the time of my visit in 1853, and at the present moment there is not one remaining. The rich valleys of Paucartambo, once covered with flourishing cacao and coca farms, have again become one vast uncultivated tropical forest. Following the eastern slopes of the Andes to the south and east, we next come to the streams which drain the valleys of Marcapata and Ollachea, but of these very little is known. These valleys are in the province of Quispicanchi, in the department of Cuzco; and it is said that in times past they were cultivated with advantage, and contained many coca farms. In the beginning of the last century a Jesuit found gold in a hill called Camante, in the Marcapata valley, situated between two ravines, in one of which, called Garrote, a Spanish company established gold-washings. The leading man of this company, named Goyguro, employed hundreds of Indians, and extracted gold from the Camante hill in lumps; but one day an immense landslip fell into the Vilca-mayu,[288] the chief stream of Marcapata, and all the workmen ran away, and could not be induced to return. This was in about the year 1788. For forty years after this event coca-farms and gold-washings were alike abandoned in Marcapata, until in 1828 the cura of the village of that name, Dr. Pedro Flores, again opened a road into the valleys, and, with some associates, established several farms for raising coca and fruit. In 1836 a company was formed by several young adventurers, the chief of whom were José Maria Pacheco of Cuzco and José Maria Ochoa[289] of Huara, with the object of again discovering the long-lost golden hill of Camante. The party assembled at Ocongate, in the cold region of the Andes, whence the distance to Marcapata, at the commencement of the warm valleys, is fourteen leagues over a bad road, which traverses the cordillera of Ausungate and Pirhuayani. From Marcapata the two adventurers Pacheco and Ochoa, both active and intrepid young men, advanced into the forests with fourteen Indians, and a stock of chuñus and dried meat. These explorers penetrated for several leagues, following the course of the Vilca-mayu, but their expedition led to no practical results.[290] In 1851 Colonel Bologenesi became the manager of an expedition for collecting chinchona-bark in the forests of Marcapata, and proceeded to the scene of his labours, accompanied by a young Englishman named George Backhouse. They advanced into the forests until they fell in with parties of wild Chuncho Indians, who were propitiated by presents of knives and other trifles, and induced to assist young Backhouse and his party in collecting bark. Some of the Chunchos, however, who had received knives, neglected to