Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/406

354 but makes every sacrifice, and encounters every risk, for the welfare of the subject. Thus it was with our intendant, who, in bestowing on his work its highest degree of perfection, by the opening of a convenient road which might facilitate the traffic and exportation of the productions of Vitoc, was crushed by the fall of a huge tree, and narrowly escaped with his life. As a recompense for his assiduous labours, this zealous minister has, by the repopulation of Vitoc, united to the crown a territory which, abstractedly considered, is of a considerable extent; has conferred happiness on eighty families who already inhabit that valley; and has freed the inhabitants of Tarma from the straits to which they were reduced by the want of arable land, and by the nipping frosts. The mineral regions of Yauli and Pasco are no longer at a loss for their supplies of coca and corn. And, in conclusion, upwards of forty plantations, regularly formed, which the fertile Vitoc can already boast, together with the triple crops of coca, cotton, cacao, and various grains, the produce of its exuberant soil, become a great acquisition both to the sovereign, and to Peru.

These are not, however, the sole consequences of the talents and persevering industry of Don Juan de Galves. Emulation, the parent of great a6tions, has inspired those who dwell within the limits of the intendency, with an energy to which they were before strangers. The inhabitants of Xauja, desirous to be placed on a footing, in point of prosperity, with those of Tarma, solicited him, towards the close of his government, to further their endeavours for the reestablishment of Monobamba. Under his auspices, the first and greatest difficulties were soon overcome; and if his worthy successor should