Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/377

Rh and productions which are not to be found in the other parts of the dependency of Tarija. This valley extends in the same direction with the mission of las Salinas, by which it is protected; and is distant ten leagues only from the above mentioned appendage of Padcaya.

As throughout the whole extent of the department of Tarija, the natural fertility of the soil affords, without the aid of man, abundant pastures, a great number of herds of cattle and flocks of sheep are reared. In proportion as the different breeds are augmented, they are driven to the confine, and sold to the inhabitants of the province of Cinti. The annual transports of black cattle alone are computed at little less than ten thousand heads, which are valued at from eight to ten piastres each; and the cattle are no sooner slaughtered, than an advantage is taken of the hides, which are tanned and prepared on the frontier itself. In this manner, Potosi, Chuquisaca, and the surrounding departments, are supplied with sole-leather to a very considerable amount, each of the tanned hides producing at least four piastres, notwithstanding the imports of that article from Cochabamba are equally great. The demands for Spanish and colonial merchandizes annually exceed sixty thousand piastres; and the returns for these imports are made in territorial productions, and other effects drawn from the province.

Amid these advantages, the inhabitants of the valley of Tarija are extremely poor, on account of their propensity to idleness. Relying on the comparative facility with which their subsistence is procured, they spend their days beneath the shade of their huts, in imitation of the inhabitants of Tucuman. The ridiculous notions relative to the distinguished bility