The produce of these provinces is, for the Lima market, cattle, sugar, _bayetones_, _tocuyos_, coarse stockings, ponchos, bordillos, jerga, sweetmeats, tobacco, some timber for particular uses, cheese, which is of an excellent quality, butter, and other minor articles; for exportation, bark (cinchona) of Arancay, wool, hides, and the precious metals.
The inhabitants of these provinces are industrious, and generally speaking kind and hospitable; among the indians poverty is very visible, and the shyness which they show to white people who arrive at their huts, _ranchos_, may be attributed to several causes--the universal oppression which they experience from the whites--their abject state in society--their incapacity of affording any accommodation to travellers--and their ignorance of the Spanish language:--all these contribute in some degree to render the accusation of invincible stupidity, as Ulloa says, apparently true; but if an indian is in what may be termed easy circumstances, though, alas! this very rarely occurs, he is equally kind, generous, and hospitable with the creoles or Spaniards.
Among the animals indigenous to the new world, the lion, so called by the Spaniards, by the Peruvians _pagi_, and by some others the _puma_, is found in the mountainous parts of the aforementioned provinces. I have already, when speaking of the province of Conception, given a description of this animal, together with the depredations it commits, and the manner of killing it. The habits of the puma in Peru are similar to those of the same animal in Chile; any further description therefore becomes unnecessary.
The name of puma was given by the ancient Peruvians to some of their most illustrious families, whose descendants are still called Caciques; it seems as if there were two orders of distinction among them, bearing the titles of the particular attributes of the puma and the condor. Of these families the unfortunate Puma-cagua, or lord of the brave lion, was a Cacique; Colqui-puma, lord of the silver lion, is another; of the condor here are the families of Apu-cuntur, the great condor, Cuntur-pusac, of eight condors, and Condor-canqui, condor by excellency, or master of the order; this last family resides in the province of Caxatambo.