Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A tall, white beggar with refined features and a long, flowing beard had often attracted my
attentioninthestreets.Heappearedtobedeaf,dumbandblind,andwheneverhehadwalkeda
fewstepshesuddenlystoppedandwentthroughaseriesofmostpeculiarnervouscontortions.
I was very friendly with the mayor of the town, and one day whilst we were dining together I
asked him if he knew this man, and this is the extraordinary story he told me about him.
This beggar was the son of a good family and had enjoyed an excellent education. When
his parents died he inherited a considerable fortune and became the owner of several prosper-
ous
haciendas
(farms). Being young and foolish he began to envy a friend of his who was
married to a beautiful girl, and in the course of time he succeeded in winning her affection.
One day the two eloped and went to hide in one of the young man's
haciendas
in the moun-
tains.Theinjuredhusbandsoonheardwherethecouplewerehiding,andconsultedwithsome
Indian friends of his to see if they were willing to help him to avenge the wrong his false
friend had done him. The average Indian is by nature a gentleman, and moral crimes, such as
the one they now heard about, are beyond the range of their understanding, so they agreed to
punish the criminal. They followed the couple to their place in the mountains and mixed one
of their mysterious poisons in the man's food, and soon after he returned to town deaf, dumb
andblind, andshaking with nervousconvulsions. Hecalled various doctors fromfarandnear.
When they failed to cure him he travelled to Europe, where he consulted the best specialists,
but all their efforts, too, were futile. By degrees he spent his fortune, and later returned to his
native town, where he had ever since been living on the charity of passers-by.
Batshadbittenthehorseswherethesaddlespressedonthem,andoneortwoofthesespots
had become sore and infected. It would have been unwise to resume travelling before these
sores were better, and this obliged me to spend several more days in Ayacucho than I had ori-
ginally intended. In the meantime a thing I had been fearing all the time had happened; the
rainyseasonhadsetin,butinspiteofreportsaboutlandslidesandturbulentriversthatreached
me, I saddled up as soon as the horses' backs were well, and within an hour or two Ayacucho
became only a memory.
Landslides and swollen rivers made it impossible to follow the road and compelled me to
make a large detour over the mountains to the west. Natives who knew these regions advised
me to take a guide, for alone I should have difficulty in finding the direction among the nu-
merous little Indian footpaths.
Withthemayor'sassistanceIfoundanIndianinavillagewhoagreedtocomewithme,but
unfortunately the man could neither speak nor understand Spanish. I bought some provisions,
and without losing time started out, the guide, like most Indians, preferring to go on foot, and
