Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara Volume Iii Part 18

XXII.

An Overland Journey from Valparaiso to Gibraltar, _via_ the Isthmus of Panama.

16th May To 1st August, 1859.

Departure from Valparaiso.--Coquimbo.--Caldera.--Cobija.-- Iquique.--Manufacture of saltpetre.--Arica.--Port d'Islay.-- _Medanos_, or wandering sand-hills.--Chola.--Pisco.--The Chincha or Guano Islands.--Remarks respecting the Guano or Huanu beds.-- Callao.--Lima.--Carrion crows, the princ.i.p.al street-scavengers.-- Churches and Monasteries.--Hospitals.--Charitable inst.i.tutions.-- Medical College.--National Library.--Padre Vigil.--National Museum.--The Central Normal School.--Great lack of intellectual energy.--Ruins of Cajamarquilla.--Chorillos.--Temple to the Sun at Pachacamac.--River Rimac.--Amancaes.--The new prison.-- Bull-fights.--State of society in Peru.--The _Coca_ plant, and the latest scientific examination respecting its peculiar properties.--The _China_, or Peruvian-bark tree.--Departure from Lima.--Lambajeque.--Indian village of Iting.--Pata.--Island of La Plata.--Taboga Island.--Impression made by the intelligence of Humboldt's death.--Panama.--"Opposition" Line.--Immense traffic.--The Railway across the Isthmus.--Aspinwall.-- Carthagena.--St. Thomas.--Voyage to Europe on board the R.M.S.

_Magdalena_.--Falmouth.--Southampton.--London.--Rejoin the _Novara_ at sea.--Arrival at Gibraltar.

Five days after the departure of the _Novara_, I left the roads of Valparaiso on board the mail steamer _Callao_. The weather was exceedingly unfavourable, the rain falling in torrents, while a heavy tumbling sea made the embarkation of the numerous pa.s.sengers and their effects a process anything but agreeable. I have, therefore, the greater pleasure in expressing my grat.i.tude for the courtesy of the Captain of H.M.S. _Ganges_, who sent his own gig to take me off to the steamer, and to the numerous friends, who despite the stormy weather had a.s.sembled on board to bid me a last farewell, and provide me with letters of introduction to the authorities and most influential persons of the more important of the localities I was about to visit. At 2 P.M. the sh.o.r.e bell sounded, a little boat made its appearance on the port side, pitching heavily in the swell, and a long thin figure stepped on deck. This proved to be Captain Stewart of the _Louisa_, whose acquaintance I had formed at the island of Tahiti, and who now, half breathless, handed me a small packet with the following endors.e.m.e.nt,--"These are the extracts you requested from my journal, and which I promised to prepare for you on my first voyage from Norfolk Island to Pitcairn." They consisted in fact of those remarks upon the latest phase of the strange destiny of the Pitcairn Islanders, which have already appeared in a previous chapter. The worthy Captain had kept his word with true John Bull punctuality. A few moments more and the _Callao_ was steaming out of Valparaiso Roads, on her voyage northwards.

Although the boats of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company plying between Valparaiso, Callao de Lima, and Panama, are tolerably large, clean, and elegantly fitted, yet the number of pa.s.sengers for intermediate ports make them anything but a comfortable mode of travel. For, notwithstanding the high fares,[120] it is necessary to crowd three or four pa.s.sengers into each state-room, which in the heat of the tropics is most inconvenient, and at times almost intolerable. Personally, however, I had no reason to complain on this score, as all the captains of the various steamers in which I journeyed north, so soon as my connection with the _Novara_ Expedition was known, at once, with the most marked courtesy and attention, secured to me a state-room for my own exclusive use, and whenever we reached a port, placed their own boats at my disposal during our stay.

The morning after we left Valparaiso, we reached Coquimbo, where, a few weeks before (24th April, 1859), a severe action had been fought between the Chilean troops and those of Pedro Gallo, the former proving victorious. Coquimbo is a small town of about 2000 souls, whose sole claim to importance is its proximity to some rich copper-mines. M. Longomasino, one of the many victims of the _coup d'etat_ of the second December, who, the reader will recollect, received permission to make the voyage from Tahiti to Valparaiso on board the _Novara_, was among our pa.s.sengers; he left the steamer at Coquimbo, intending to go to the adjoining mining town of Serena (20,000 souls), where, through the kindness of friends, he had been invited to edit a political paper.

Here I went on board the British corvette _Amethyst_, which just a year before had been lying alongside of the _Novara_ in Singapore harbour, and was received by her excellent commander with a most cordial welcome. To my astonishment I found a number of civilians on board: refugees, who had taken an active part in the late insurrection, and who now, when all hope of success was over, sought an asylum on British soil, for such is the deck of an English man-of-war, and, thanks to British political proclivities, had been cordially received there.

About 11 P.M. the same night we were off the insignificant little harbour of Huasco, and about nine next morning ran into Caldera, a dreary-looking little place of some 2000 inhabitants, built upon one of a succession of sand-slopes. There is not a trace of vegetation; no foliage, no shrubs, no patches of gra.s.s,--all around as far as the eye could reach was a cheerless waste of sand. Only extraordinary opportunities for money-making could have induced the inhabitants to settle in this desolate wilderness, deficient in the very first necessity of life--fresh water. Every drop of this most important beverage has at present to be brought from 90 miles inland, so that a cask containing some 15 gallons costs 31 cents or 1_s._ 4_d._ English. The charge for supplying water alone to 90 or 100 workmen amounts to 40 dollars, or 8 8_s._, a week! At the time I visited it, the people were negotiating for the erection of a steam distilling apparatus, for procuring fresh water from the sea, at a less cost than was paid previously. From Caldera, a locomotive line of rail leads to the mining town of Copiapo, 71 miles inland, in the vicinity of which are rich mines of silver and copper. This enterprise has proved so remunerative, that, although its construction cost 2,500,000 dollars (525,000 or about 7400 a mile), the shareholders receive an annual dividend of 16 per cent.

I visited the copper-smelting kilns, which belong to an English company, and produce annually from 1800 to 2000 tons of almost virgin copper (90 to 96 per cent.), in ingots and pigs, as they are termed, an ingot weighing from 16 to 18 lbs avoirdupois. The ore, as at first found in the mines of Copiapo, has barely 18 to 36 per cent. of copper, and has to undergo six or seven smeltings before it becomes sufficiently pure to be sold at a profit in the markets of Europe. The smelting-furnace produces about seven tons of copper per diem, at a consumption of 60 tons of coal,[121] which is imported from Swansea, partly from Pennsylvania, and is worth 12 to 15 dollars per ton of 2240 lbs. The rate of wages at Caldera remains pretty steady at two to three dollars per diem, and this is the reason why the enterprise is less remunerative than would be the case if wages were lower.

The total annual yield of the copper and silver mines of the department of Copiapo is worth about 14,000,000 dollars, and gives employment to from 6000 to 7000 labourers, or one-third the entire population of the district.

On 20th May we anch.o.r.ed off Cobija, the sole harbour possessed by Bolivia on the west coast, and with a population of 1000. The state of affairs in Bolivia affords a marked example of how closely the development of a country is connected with the fact of its possessing more or less of sea-coast. How great is the commerce, the. prosperity, and the civilization of Chile, a proportionally small strip of not over-fertile soil, but the entire extent of which is sea-coast, compared with the poverty and barbarism of the interior state of Bolivia, so admirably fitted by nature for raising all manner of valuable produce, but whose sole means of communication with the rest of the world is through one insignificant harbour!

The same day we reached Iquique, the southernmost harbour of Peru, with a population of about 4000, and which quite recently has increased greatly in importance, owing to the trade in saltpetre, which is found in immense quant.i.ties all along this rainless coast, and of which 1,000,000 hundredweight (50,000 tons) are exported annually to England, North America, and Germany, in which countries it is extensively and beneficially used for manure.[122] Here we found lying at anchor a large merchantman, the _Victorine_ of Bordeaux, 3000 tons burthen, which was taking in a full cargo, exclusively, of this valuable product. The saltpetre is found between beds of clay from one to six feet below the surface, boiled in large vats to free it from impurities,[123] and dried in the form of cakes, which are packed for s.h.i.+pment in sacks of 250 lbs.

It is worth, if purified, 21 reals (about 11_s._ 4_d._) per cwt. on the spot, and fetches 16 to 17 per ton in England. Upon a rough calculation, the quant.i.ty of saltpetre along the coast of Peru at an average breadth of 30 miles amounts to 60,000,000 tons, enough to maintain the existing supply[124] for at least another thousand years. The rate of wages of the men engaged in the trade, owing to the scarcity of labour, is from two to three dollars per diem! The scarcity of water at Iquique is so great, that the town has to be supplied by means of a distilling apparatus, an undertaking the gross daily receipts of which are six hundred dollars! For the precious element has to be purchased not merely for men but animals; the price, for example, for a male to drink _ad libitum_ is one real, about 8-1/2_d._

Tincal, or Biborate of Soda, is also largely found all along the coast, but the export was long prohibited, the suspicious jealousy of the Peruvian Government seeking to obtain first of all conclusive evidence of the value of this natural product, and the best means of making it contribute to the State treasury. At present about 200 tons, worth from 16 to 20 per ton, are exported annually. As we lay at anchor off Iquique, numbers of natives shot about with arrow-like rapidity in their exceedingly primitive boats, made of seal-skins fastened together in canoe-fas.h.i.+on. To avoid overturns, these curious specimens of naval architecture have bladders attached on either side!

The heat now began to be very perceptible. The bare, treeless, almost perpendicular sand-bluffs along the coast, impart to it a dreary aspect, which even the rocky chain immediately behind, rising some 2000 to 4000 feet, scarcely succeeds in softening. A great number of the pa.s.sengers, mostly Peruvians, indemnified themselves for the cheerless monotony of the prospect on deck, by intense devotion to the mysteries of the green table in the saloon. All through the day, till far on in the night, the painted pasteboard flew from hand to hand. The favourite game was Rocambor, something like Ombre, diversified with Monte and dice, and for very high sums. I saw ten condors (21) laid upon a single card. A few elderly gentlemen sat regularly in a distant corner of the saloon, where they played a.s.siduously from nine in the morning till midnight without interruption. One wealthy Peruano, well known along this coast, in the course of a single voyage is said to have lost 80,000 dollars (16,800)!!

On 20th May we anch.o.r.ed in Arica, an elegant seaport of some 7000 inhabitants, surrounded by beautiful luxuriant gardens, and which, though belonging to Peru, may be considered as the chief outlet for the produce of Northern Bolivia, since Tacna, the most important manufacturing town of that State, with a population of 12,000, is only nine English miles distant, lying at the foot of the Cordillera, while La Paz, the capital of the Republic, with a population of 75,000, is 288 miles distant, and is easiest reached from Arica. The political division of Bolivia is a crying injustice to that lovely country and its industrious population. The harbour of Arica belongs by natural position to Bolivia and not to Peru; commercial interests and general intercourse unite it far more intimately with Northern Bolivia than with Peru. The chief exports of Arica are silver, copper, alpaca wool, cinchona bark, chinchilla furs, cotton, and tin. There are also two steam flour-mills within the little town in full operation; the grain comes from the interior, and is s.h.i.+pped as flour to the various harbours along the coast. A railroad from Arica to Tacna greatly facilitates traffic and commerce, but further in the interior all intercourse is carried on by means of narrow mule-paths.[125]

The houses, constructed for the most part of sun-dried bricks all along the coast of Peru, where rain is absolutely unknown, and even the dew-deposit is trifling, are flat, barely roofed in with thin strips of cane, and consequently when seen from the street have a very untidy appearance. Unfortunately these terrace-like roofs are likewise the sole receptacles for the refuse of the house, and any one who, in order to get a better view, ventures to ascend one of the adjoining dazzling white sand-heaps, will long remember the filthy but unique spectacle which greets his eye.

Immediately outside of the suburb of Chimba, the desolate nature of the country comes conspicuously into view. I next walked to one of the nearest sand-hills, because I was a.s.sured that there were numerous graves of queens to be found there, as well as quant.i.ties of mummies. Owing to the extreme dryness of the atmosphere, the skulls of the dead which here lay scattered upon the surface of the soil, seemed as though they were so many anatomical preparations. Even some dead bodies of animals showed no symptoms of decomposition, but had been perfectly dried. The peculiarity of the meteorological conditions, the extreme dryness of the atmosphere, and the saline impregnation of the soil, have very much more to do with these marvellous antiseptic appearances than any indigenous skill in embalming the Indian corpses; since, even now, when the brown Catholicized Peruvians have lost none of their old superst.i.tions, though they have abandoned most of their former arts and customs, the dead committed to the earth without further preparation, present the same mummified appearance when disinterred. I took away with me the skull of an Indian, from the neighbourhood of Arica, which was remarkable for the singular malformation resulting from compression by circular bandages.

This artificial disfigurement of the skull has its origin in the peculiar customs of several Indian races of both North and South America, of mechanically altering the form of the cranium in the new-born infant. Of the difference in point of beauty of the different Indian races along the west coast of North America, a clear indication is afforded by the profile of the head of a native of Puget Sound, Oregon territory, for which I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Ried of Valparaiso, he having been presented with it in 1856, by the medical officer of an American man-of-war. Here, in strong contrast with the oblong form of the cranium of an Indian from the neighbourhood of Arica, it appears that the skull has been flattened transversely, by pressure between two boards.

At first one is disposed to attribute the squeezed-in appearance of the head, remarked in different Indian races, here lengthened in an unsightly degree, there hideously flattened, to some freak of nature; but more accurate investigations leave no doubt that the deformity in question, in whatever form, is the result of pressure artificially applied, and that this displacement of the brain is not confined to individuals, but is characteristic of entire tribes, yet without any sensible diminution of the intellectual faculties, or morbidity in their exercise.

The valley of Azapa, three Spanish leagues (nine miles English) distant from Arica, is very fertile, and a good soil, but badly supplied with water. However, at an expense of a few millions of dollars, a communication might easily be established with the waters of the river Arica, the expense of which would be amply repaid by the increased productive power thus given to the valley. Sugar-cane, vintage-grape, oranges, pine-apples, olives, and vegetables of every description, could forthwith be raised, and advantageously disposed of at Arica.

Among the Germans resident in Arica, we formed the acquaintance of M.

Colmann, a merchant, and Consul for Chile, as also of Dr. Mittendorf, the latter of whom is physician to the Railway Company here. By the latter gentleman we were told that cuticular diseases, dysentery, and intermittent fevers were the most common ailments, but that on the whole the climate of Arica is healthy, and that many cases of illness were solely attributable to the irregular, licentious mode of life of the natives. Although it hardly ever rains, yet during the summer season (January to March), when the snows begin to melt in the interior, and tremendous falls of rain occur on the Cordillera, the beds of the rivers become torrents, wheeling along vast volumes of water to the sea, and partly sinking into the soil, so that, at a depth of two or three feet, one comes upon water, or, at all events, moisture, while the surface remains burned to a cake. A little ca.n.a.lization of the river-bed, and damming up the water, so as to have a permanent reservoir, would not merely secure a better supply of water, but would most beneficially influence the salubrity of the neighbourhood. The river dries up entirely every year in the months of July and August, during which accordingly occur the largest number of cases of sickness, and it seems the more necessary that measures of some sort should be at once taken to control the water, as otherwise there is reason to fear that unless artificial d.y.k.es and dams be constructed, the bed of the river will gradually be sanded up, when the whole district will be worse off for water than ever; since with each successive year's floods, as they dash down from the mountains, a perceptible falling off in quant.i.ty has been remarked, so that whereas ten years ago the bed of the river was full for four or five months together, at present it is rarely full so long as two months in all.

On 22nd May, we entered the little harbour of Port d'Islay, the access to which is very difficult. The settlement itself stands on a steep rock, 150 feet high, descending almost perpendicularly into the sea on all sides, so that the only landing-place is a mole, which communicates with the village above by an iron ladder. The well-known traveller, Count Castelnau, who in the course of a scientific expedition through South America visited this port in 1848, prophesied a splendid future for it; but I do not believe that its commerce has materially increased since then.

The sole claim to consideration of Port d'Islay consists in its proximity to Arequipa, a city of 40,000 inhabitants, and the variety of valuable natural products which abound in that fertile section of country, from which, however, the port is separated by a sand-barren, 36 miles in width and 120 in length, the city of Arequipa itself being 7500 feet above the sea, at the foot of the volcano of the same name,[126] and amid a magnificent scenery.

The dreary waste between Port d'Islay and Arequipa is continually swept by drift sand, which, by constantly obstructing the road, renders travelling thither absolutely unsafe, and indeed frequently dangerous to life. For the unfortunate who misses his way amid these wastes is lost beyond all possibility of succour. The wandering sand-columns or _medanos_,[127]

formed of drift sand, present a singular appearance as they spin along before a S.E. wind, admirably described by Tschudi in his valuable Sketches of Travel in Peru. These extraordinary pillars, which constantly change both their form and position, and complete the perplexity of the traveller, are usually semi-circular, 8 or 10 feet high, and from 20 to 50 feet wide, but occasionally they are seen 50 feet in height, when their diameter is about 150 feet. They are of most frequent occurrence in the hot season, when the parched sand obeys the slightest impulse of the atmosphere, whereas in winter, owing to the deposition of a fine penetrating dew (_garua_), which all along the coast of Peru supplies the place of rain, which is never seen, the sand increases in weight, and the basis of the column is solidified, so to speak, by the moisture absorbed.

Between Port d'Islay and Arequipa, the _medanos_ are first encountered about 18 miles inland, or nearly half-way across the sand-barren.

In the dells near the harbour volcanic ashes are occasionally found at certain spots, whereas they are never discovered further inland, nor near the volcano of Arequipa, which since the memory of man has never been known to be in a state of activity, and whose beautiful cone, not unlike that of Ometepec in Nicaragua, seems to be densely wooded up to the very summit. Apparently these are the remains of former eruptions of a neighbouring volcano, which have been borne towards the coast by the prevailing winds. The ashes themselves have no saline const.i.tuents, and are used by the natives in the manufacture of sun-dried clay-bricks (_adobes_), the quality of which they materially improve.

We made an excursion to a churchyard in the vicinity of d'Islay, where the skulls of some half a hundred human beings lay exposed to view. They all seemed to have been bleached by exposure, and were in good preservation, so that on many might still be discovered heavy heads of hair. The eyes had shrivelled up into the skull, and were by no means gleaming and crystal-like as is alleged of those found in Indian graves, and offered for sale to strangers. These so-called "crystallized human eyes," of which an Italian curiosity dealer of Arica possessed one or two sacks-full, belong to a species of mollusca (_Loligo gigas_), and were used by the Indians to adorn their dead. To this circ.u.mstance must be attributed the great number that are to be found in the graves in the neighbourhood of Arica.

We continued to coast along during the entire night. The number of pa.s.sengers, especially of those on the "'tween decks," had again increased. Among the late arrivals was an Austrian, a Tyrolese, from Iquique, who was travelling into the interior of Peru. This man, seduced by dazzling promises, had in 1856 emigrated to Peru with 293 of his fellow-countrymen, and after two years of the most terrible hards.h.i.+ps and privations, at last succeeded in finding employment at the salt mines of Iquique. He was now earning 3 dols. a day (12_s._ 6_d._), and was on his way to fetch his family away from the colony of Pozuzu, and taking them with him to the scene of his labours. That none of his countrymen did not follow him was, as he explained to us, in consequence of one of the colonists, "a half student," dissuading them from doing so, and himself leading them to try their luck at another spot, where unfortunately they had to battle with want in its severest form. I have rarely seen any man so excited and agitated at the sound of his native tongue as this hearty specimen of the sons of the Alps, when I addressed him "in good Austrian,"

and shook him by the hand. The reader will find further on, in the account of my stay at Lima, a more full account of the Tyrolese colony at Pozuzu, its present condition and possible future.

On 23rd May, at 6 A.M., the steamer anch.o.r.ed off Chala, which first attained the dignity of a seaport in 1857, being intended to facilitate intercourse and increase the trade with Cuzco. Chala is the nearest harbour to the ancient capital of the Incas, 240 miles distant. Though singularly ill-adapted for a port, being, in fact, nothing but an open roadstead, Chala bids fair to become a place of some importance, so soon as the country is at peace, and a good road is constructed hence to Cuzco, so as to be able to convey with dispatch the numerous valuable products of Cuzco. When we visited it, the little settlement, barely a year old, had 212 inhabitants, in some thirty wooden huts extending along the sandy sh.o.r.e. The chief exports are wool and copper, the latter being found at Chaipa and Atiquipa, nine miles N. of Chala.

The following morning, after pa.s.sing the _Barrac.o.o.n_ of Pisco, a rather dangerous pa.s.sage beset with low islands between Barraca Head (on Sangallan Island) and Huasco Head (a projecting headland of the mainland), we reached Pisco, also nothing but an open roadstead, the tremendous surf in which does not admit of s.h.i.+ps approaching within two or three miles of the sh.o.r.e. Several years before a Mr. Wheelwright had commenced to construct a mole here, to project some hundreds of feet into the sea, so as to facilitate the loading and unloading of s.h.i.+ps and the embarkation of pa.s.sengers, but the works were still unfinished, and indeed would need to be very largely added to ere the object aimed at could possibly be obtained. On the declivity of Barraca Head sloping seaward are visible three marks in the form of crosses, which, according to tradition, were made in the sand by the pious monks of former centuries. Their size must indeed be colossal, since, though we pa.s.sed from four to five miles off, the outlines of the three figures were plainly visible. Well-known as this phenomenon is to everybody, no one has ever had the curiosity to make an excursion thither from Pisco, so as to clear up the fact of their being actually the work of human hands, or, as seems more probable, simply columns of drift sand, like the _medanos_ of Arica, thrown into this fantastic shape by the caprice of some pa.s.sing storm.

The chief staple of cultivation at Pisco, and throughout the province, is the vine. I never tasted such delicate, juicy, luscious grapes as those I got there. They are chiefly used in the manufacture of the well-known "Pisco," a sort of "Aguardiente" (burning water, sc. brandy), the consumption of which is extraordinarily great. There were also fruits in most diverse profusion, chirimoyas (a species of anona), bananas, aguacales, mangoes, pine-apples, lemons, oranges, peaches, apples, pears, &c., which are grown here of the most delicate description for the market of Lima.

Pisco is the first point along the entire barren coast at which the traveller, since leaving Valparaiso, sees the sh.o.r.es covered once more with vegetation. With inexpressible relief the eye rests upon the green carpet which, on all sides, gleams forth, even between and among the houses. The place has about 3000 inhabitants, and possesses numerous churches, whose lofty belfries impart to it quite the appearance of a large town. About 45 miles inland, in a lovely and fertile valley, lies the large city of Ica, with which there is considerable traffic, and the chief product of which is also the grapevine. Ten English miles N. of Pisco, and, in fact, opposite the town, are the renowned Chincha or Guano Islands, and towards these our course was now directed. These are three small islands rising close to each other out of the bosom of the sea, the most north-easterly of which has been the most stripped. Here also is the chief village, consisting of upwards of 100 wooden huts, inhabited by some 200 to 250 persons. In 1858 there were some 2000 men living on the islands, while several hundred s.h.i.+ps at a time would be lying at anchor in the harbour, loading with the valuable excretions of innumerable sea-fowls, of which the islands chiefly consist. When we visited them, the depredations had somewhat fallen off, the number of labourers was diminis.h.i.+ng, and there were only a few vessels in the harbour.

The islands have a melancholy, naked, barren look; the same substance which, in smaller quant.i.ty, contributes so powerfully to promote the productiveness of the soil, to which it is applied, here stifles all vegetation, by reason of its very abundance, and fails to show any trace of that fertilizing principle which lies concealed within it.

The northern island is about 4200 feet long, and 1500 to 1800 feet wide.

Its height is from 150 to 180 feet. The _Huanu_,[128] consisting of the excrement of various descriptions of sea-birds, chiefly sea-mews, sea-ravens, divers, and _laridae_, forms strata, sometimes of a greyish-brown, sometimes of a rusty red colour, which at some points attain a thickness of 120 feet. The huts of the settlers are erected on the very guano beds. A handsome, comfortable hotel has latterly been added. All the necessaries of life, even drinking-water, have to be brought from the mainland, 14 miles distant. Living, consequently, is very expensive on the island, though there is anything but privation, or even lack of enjoyment. One of the inhabitants, a Swede, who has a small store on the island, observed to me, "We live as well and comfortably on the Chincha Islands as anywhere on the globe, and have occasionally even music and a dance!"

In May, 1859, the population consisted of 50 Europeans, 50 Chinese, and 250 Peruanos and Negroes. The majority were labourers, who were in great request as "_Mangueros_" or "_Abarrotadores_," and were busily engaged in excavating the indurated excrement, and transporting it to the various points for lading. The daily wages of the free labourers was 1 dollar 50 cents (about 6_s._ 3_d._) per diem; the Chinese, on the other hand, received only 5 dollars per month, and a daily ration of rice. One Peruvian planter, Domingo Elias, had imported at his own cost several hundred Chinese coolies, who, like those in the West Indies, were to pay in labour for the expense of their voyage. The remuneration given to these hardy sons of the Middle Empire was of the scantiest. While they had to work alongside of convicts, longer and harder than any other cla.s.s of labourers, they only received one-tenth of the pay of the latter.

The sanitary condition of the settlement was described to me as exceedingly favourable. The guano-getters contribute the smallest contingent to the sick list, and even the strong, penetrating, and exceedingly disagreeable stench of the substance, impregnated as it is with ammonia, seems to have not the slightest prejudicial effect upon the lungs, pulmonary complaints hardly ever making their appearance among the workmen. So far from this being the case, it is even contended that persons suffering under affections of the lungs derive benefit in the first stage of the malady from a residence in the Huanu Islands, and find themselves in improved health on their return to the mainland.

The centre island has been only partially excavated, but the works there have been discontinued. At present it is entirely uninhabited, though there are still visible on its summit a few wooden huts, which formerly sheltered the workmen, as also some of the "shoots" or slides used for facilitating the collection and s.h.i.+pment of the guano.

The southernmost of the three islands is quite in its primitive state, never having been touched. No sign indicative of man's presence on it is anywhere visible.

The earliest attempts to export guano to Europe as a manure were made in 1832, but they proved so losing a speculation, that not till eight years later did the Peruvian mercantile house of Messrs. Quiros again direct attention to the importance of guano as an article of export, when the Government of Peru granted them, for a fixed sum, the exclusive privilege of exporting guano for six years. This gave an opportunity for inst.i.tuting, on a sufficient scale, those experiments which, it will be remembered, Mr. Meyer of Liverpool was making at that period, and which was followed by such surprising results.

From March to October, 1841, 23 vessels conveyed 6125 tons of guano to England, Hamburg, Antwerp, and Bordeaux. In November of the same year, the English barque _Byron_ brought to Peru the cheering intelligence that a ton of guano was selling in England for 28 per ton. This totally unexpected and startling result induced the Government, by a decree of 17th November, to declare that the agreement with Messrs. Quiros was cancelled, and fresh offers for the privilege of s.h.i.+pping guano were invited from speculators.

Since that period the exportation of this important manure has attained unprecedented dimensions in every part of the globe. Of late years it has reached the enormous amount of 500,000 tons from these islands alone, and the revenue to the Government has been 12,000,000 to 15,000,000 dollars.

The contractors sell the guano in Europe for account of the Peruvian Government, and receive for it a commission fee of from 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 per cent. of the gross amount; for this they get, moreover, paid 5 per cent.

of interest for outlays and pecuniary advances (pretty considerable) which they make to the native Government. The contracts are generally entered into for four years.

A complete exploration and survey of the islands was made in 1853 by M. C.

Faraguet, a French engineer. According to his report, which was pretty comprehensive, and drawn up under the co-operation of several other scientific gentlemen, the quant.i.ty of guano on the northernmost island, in September, 1853, was 4,189,477 Peruvian tons (about 3,740,866 tons English); the middle island about 2,237,954 English tons, and the southernmost 5,072,032 English tons; or the entire cubical ma.s.s was at that period about 11,050,852 tons English. a.s.suming an average price, this would imply a money value of about 120,000,000. Since 1841, when the first considerable s.h.i.+pment was made, to 1861, there had been exported from the Chincha Islands 3,000,000 tons of guano, worth about 135,000,000 dollars (29,250,000).

At first, owing to the enormous ma.s.s of guano left to acc.u.mulate undisturbed for centuries, the very natural error was made of reckoning the quant.i.ty deposited at too high an estimate, and the amount annually taken at too low a figure.[129] Hence it happened that a few native and many foreign writers have spoken of these islands as affording a supply which only centuries could exhaust. It is now, however, ascertained that, supposing the export proceeds at its present rate, only 25 to 30 years will elapse ere the entire strata of excremental manure of all the three Chincha Islands will have been carried off!

Notwithstanding ample supplies of guano have been discovered besides all along the west coast of South America, on uninhabited islands and promontories, and upwards of 7,000,000 tons of this valuable commodity been found on the islands south of Callao alone,[130] yet, even should this statement turn out correct, it would only supply the existing demand for other 10 or 15 years, while the formation of beds of guano must year after year become more and more confined to solitary, inaccessible islands of the Southern Ocean. For so soon as such beds of guano begin to be explored, they are quickly abandoned by the birds, which are gradually retreating from the islands along the coast and the usual channels of commerce.