Note 525 — Chapter CXIII

Olive trees from Seville were introduced into Peru in 1560, by Don Antonio de Ribera, a citizen of Lima, ten years after Cieza de Leon left the country. Ribera brought more than a hundred young plants out very carefully in two jars, but, as might have been expected, there were only three alive when he reached Lima, and he was very fortunate in preserving any. He planted them in a fruit garden near Lima, and stationed an army consisting of a hundred negroes and thirty dogs, to guard and watch over them night and day. In spite of all this care, one of the three plants was stolen and carried off to Chile, where it yielded many cuttings, which eventually formed flourishing plantations. At the end of three years the same olive tree was secretly planted again in Ribera’s garden, and he was never able to discover who had stolen it, nor who had restored it. There are now several olive plantations in the coast valleys of Peru, especially at Tambo, near Aiequipa, where there are five thousand olive trees and seven mills. G. de la Vega.