The other towns are, Velen, Mazo, Leiva, Villa de Purificacion, Tocaima, and Tunja, all of which, theugh rapidly increasing, are of less account than the villages filled with agricultural inhabitants, which cover the better portions of this province.
The province of Popayan was very early settled,1 and the descendants of the first settlers have remain ed fixed there. The proportion of noble families is greater than in any other part of America. Though many of these are reduced to poverty, they have not relaxed that pride which was the distinguishing cha racteristic of the old Castillians. The privilege of wearing a sword is one of which they are extremely tenacious ; and it is not even now unusual to see in Popayan the proprietor of an hereditary estate, de rived from the first conquerors, but diminished to a fraction by the misconduct of its successive owners, employed in cultivating his own field, with a sword at his side, as evidence to every passenger of the no bility of his origin. The province of Popayan is both healthy and fertile ; and though it has no access to the sea, no intercourse with Europe, and very little external commerce, it has increased in population with a rapidity unexampled, except in the United States. The climate is mild and equable, storms are of short duration, and earthquakes are less known than in other portions of the presidency of Quito, of which this province makes a part. Such is its ex cellency, that, " As good as the sky, the soil, and the bread of Popayan," has become a proverb in the kingdom of New Granada. Wheat, maize, and bar ley, are abundantly produced; and, in some of the deeper valleys, sugar and coffee, whilst the numerous herds of cattle furnish a cheap provision, and supply abundance of hides and tallow for domestic consump tion, as well as for the neighbouring provinces. One vegetable production of considerable importance is grown extensively in this province. The Coca or Coca grows on a weak stem ; like the vine, it re quires support from some more sturdy plant, around which it twines itself. Its leaf, the valuable part, is an inch and half in length, and is chewed in the same manner as the inhabitants of India use the betel. ,A small portion of calcareous earth is rolled in the leaf of the Coca, and, carried in the mouth ; it produces heat, and excites a copious flowing of saliva, which is swallowed, and thus assuages the excessive thirst which the inhabitants endure in passing the lofty and arid mountains. The natives attribute to it the most nutritive and invigorating qualities ; and affirm that they can labour with no other sustenance during seve ral successive days. Whatever may be its qualities, the estimation of it may be inferred from its having been, even before the establishment of Europeans, an article of considerable commerce. It is carried to all the mining districts, and the masters provide themselves with a considerable store of it, without which they could procure no labourers ; nor, as they affirm, would the labourers have sufficient strength to execute their severe work, without its invigorating use. In some of the southern districts, a gum ex udes from the trees, called mopa-mopa, from which a varnish is made, transparent, and so durable as to be indestructible by boiling water, or even the strongest acids. It is applied to cabinet ware, and the superior kinds of furniture, and gives to them a beauty superior to any which India or China can produce. The roads in this province are gene
rally bad ; but the intercourse between Santa Fe and Popayan is carried on by means of so singular a nature, that, without the recent visit, and the detailed description, of that excellent traveller, Ba ron Humboldt, it would scarcely be credible. It is necessary to cross the central ridge of moun tains, by a pass called Garito de Paramo. This pass is 11,500 feet above the level of the sea, and is consequently above the line of perpetual conge lation. The mules which convey goods, and even passengers, over this ridge, are frequently destroyed by the severity of the cold ; and the road, for leagues, is covered so thick with their bones and frozen car cases, that it is difficult to avoid treading on them. The road, or rather track, passes through an unin habited forest, which occupies, in the most favour able weather, ten or twelve days to pass it. No ha bitation is to be seen, nor any provisions to be found ; so that the traveller is compelled to carry at least a month's subsistence, to provide against the imdi ments which the sudden showers or swellings of the streams may oppose to him, and which often protract his journey till his food is exhausted. The path through the upper part of the pass is not more than two feet in breadth. It is a kind of deep gully, at whose bottom is a thick and tenacious mud. It is so deep, that, from that circumstance, and the great number of vegetable substances which cover the top, it is almost totally dark. Some of these natural ravines are more than a mile and a half in length. The oxen and mules have the greatest difficulty in forcing their way through the deep mud. Few greater embarrassments can occur than arise from the meeting of travellers in these horrible crevices. Sometimes the sludge is so deep as to cover the backs of the animals ; and, in some cases, they are even obliged to drive in the oxen, and to make a kind of bridge of their suffocated carcases. The roots of the bamboos, which are studded with hard and short prickles, and project into the path, contribute no in considerable share of the miseries of these dreadful passes. In this journey, especially, the better class of people are carried on the backs of men, harnessed and accoutred for the purpose. Besides their hu man load, these men carry a roll of leaves of the Vi jao, of which to construct the nightly habitations of the party. These leaves are two feet in length, and a foot and half in breadthand, being covered With a down, from which the rain runs off, they make good temporary roofs to the huts, whose sides are formed at the resting place by cutting a few trees, and inclining them to each other. The com mon price for the conveyance of the living load through this pass of horrors, which occupies from twelve to twenty days, is from ten to fourteen dol lars, which, notwithstanding the cheapness of pro visions, seems to be a very slight recompence for the labour and danger. There is, however, another pass, less terrific, though the danger from cold is greater. It goes by the sources of the Cauca and the Magdalena, between two summits called Coco noco and Houila, whence, if the carrier of goods is nearly benighted, he deposits his goods, and descends, lest he should be frozen to death, by the excessive severity of the cold.