Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/403

Rh effect, that the governor, the marquis of Mena-Hermosa, was obliged to draw a line of circumvallation, by the construction of several small forts at the edge of the mountain, and to assign them limits between the Spaniard and the barbarian.

Vitoc remaining in the possession of the latter, Tarma was consequently deprived of its granary, of the want of which it soon became sensible. The Indian and the mestizo were condemned to endure the poverty to which they were reduced by the loss of Vitoc. The frosts, which in repeated instances destroyed the seeds planted in the more elevated grounds, revived both their grief, and the recollection of the mountainous territory free from such calamities; but the order not to pass the line of the fortifications was strictly enforced; the subject was exposed to the risk of being considered as a traitor; and the glad moment was not yet arrived, when the administrator was to break these chains, so perplexing to the Spaniard, and so galling to his valour.

Don Juan Maria de Galves, intendant of the province of Tarma, who, in imitation of the pretors of ancient Rome, was desirous to signalize his government by some monument by which its remembrance should be transmitted to future ages, chose, instead of pyramids and inscriptions, the offspring of vanity, to restore to Tarma the fruitful Vitoc. His ardent spirit, and profound discernment, disdained the accumulated difficulties, either real or imaginary, which presented themselves to the view of the ordinary observer. To a beneficent hand resources are never wanting, to give a successful issue to an enterprize, without burdening the commonweal, or