FORD OF THE CCONI WAS PASSED JUST OUTSIDE THE
TOWN."]

The first ford of the Cconi was passed just outside the town, at a point
where the right bank of the river, growing steeper and steeper, became
impracticable, and necessitated a crossing to the left. The ford allowed
the peons to stagger through at mid-leg on the uneven pavement afforded
by the large pebbles of the bed. At this point the valley of the Cconi
was seen stretching indefinitely outward toward the east, enclosed in
two chains of conical peaks: their regular forms, running into each
other at the middle of their height, clothed with interminable forests
and bathed with light, melted regularly away into the perspective.
Indian huts buried in gardens of the white lily which had seemed so
beautiful in the chapel of Lauramarca, hedges of aloe menacing the
intruder with their millions of steely-looking swords, slender bamboos
daintily rocking themselves over the water, and enormous curtains of
creepers hanging from the hillsides and waving to the wind in vast
breadths of green, were the decorations of this Peruvian paradise.

The pretty lilies gradually disappeared, and the thatched cabins became
more and more sparse, when from one of the latter, at a hundred paces
from the caravan, issued a human figure. The man struck an attitude in
the pathway of the travelers, his carbine on his shoulder, his fist on
his hip and his nose saucily turned up in the air. Neither his
Metamora-like posture nor his dress inspired confidence.

"He is evidently waiting for us," remarked Colonel Perez, an heroic yet
prudent personage: "fortunately, it is broad day. I would not grant an
interview to such a _salteador_ (brigand) alone at night and in a
desert."

The salteador wore a low broad felt, on whose ample brim the rain and
sun had sketched a variety of vague designs. A gray sack buttoned to the
throat and confined by a leathern belt, and trowsers of the same stuffed
into his long coarse woolen stockings, completed his costume. He was
shod, like an Indian, in _ojotas_, or sandals cut out of raw leather and
laced to his legs with thongs. Two ox-horns hanging at his side
contained his ammunition, and a light haversack was slung over his back.
This mozo, who at a distance would have passed for a man of forty,
appeared on examination to be under twenty-two years of age. It was
likewise observable on a nearer view that his skin was brown and clear
like a chestnut, and that his li