On May 1st we prepared to enter the dense entangled forest, where no European had been before, and no human being for upwards of thirteen years, except the Collahuayas and incense-collectors. Our party consisted of seven: the three Indians, Weir, Pablo, Martinez, and myself. The Indians, each with their _chuspas_ of coca, and a _chumpi_ or belt round their waists, carried the _ccepis_ or bundles of provisions; Pablo bore the tent; and we were all armed with _machetes_, or wood-knives, to clear the way. My people were all dressed in coarse cotton cloth, and I wore a leathern hat, red woollen shirt, fustian trousers, and the indispensable _polccos_, or shoes made of _bayeta_ or felt, always used in these forests. We were all mustered and ready to start on the verge of Gironda's clearing, which is surrounded by tall forest trees, with the river rushing noisily past, and the opposite mountains covered to their summits with fine timber, when half a dozen pale-faced men emerged from the tangled thicket in our front. They looked wan and cadaverous like men risen from the dead, and worn out by long watching and fatigue. They turned out to be Collahuayas, collectors of drugs and incense, who penetrate far into the forests to obtain their wares, and come forth, as we then saw them, looking pale and haggard. These Collahuayas, called also Chirihuanos on the coast of Peru, Yungeños, and Charasanis, are a very peculiar race. They come from three villages in the forest-covered ravines of the Bolivian province of Larecaja, called Charasani, Consata, and Quirbe; and their knowledge of the virtues of herbs has been handed down from father to son from time immemorial. They traverse the forests of Bolivia and Caravaya collecting their drugs; and then set out as professors of the healing art, to exercise their calling in all parts of America, frequently being two and three years away from their homes, on these excursions. With their wallets of drugs on their backs, and dressed in black breeches, a red poncho, and broad-brimmed hat, they walk in a direct line from village to village, exercising their calling, and penetrating as far as Quito and Bogota in one direction, and to the extreme limits of the Argentine Republic in the other. Their ancestors did the same in the time of the Incas, and Garcilasso de la Vega gives some account of the medical treatment adopted by the ancient Peruvian physicians. They were in the habit of letting blood and purging, they administered the powdered leaf of the _sayri_ (tobacco) for headaches, _mulli_ (_Schinus molle_) for wounds, and a host of other simple herbs for other ailments. Both Garcilasso[330] and Acosta[331] mention their knowledge of the virtues of sarsaparilla, yet it is remarkable that the Collahuayas should never have discovered the febrifugal qualities of chinchona bark.