FOOTNOTES:
[101] In one single year (1854), the imports into Australia of Chilean grain amounted to £630,000. In a good year Chile produces 2,500,000 fanegas (920,755 quarters) of wheat, 4,500,000 fanegas (1,855,054 quarters) of barley, and 180,000 fanegas (16,071 tons) of beans. The fanega varies in weight according to the article measured; thus a fanega of wheat is 165 lbs., of barley 155 lbs., and of beans 200 lbs.
[102] That ships in good holding ground and with sound tackle are in no great danger riding out even a heavy storm in the roads, is best proved by the fact, that in the inner harbour there is a floating dry dock in use throughout the year, which, notwithstanding the occasionally severe weather while we were there, had a three-masted ship, full-rigged, masted and tackled upon it, with repairs of all sorts going on upon her sides.
[103] About 1s. 1d.; a dollar is about 4s. 4d., and a dollar has 8 reals.
[104] We must especially remark the large and valuable zoological collection with which our natural history stores were enriched by a German gentleman, Dr. C. Seget of Santiago de Chili. With similar liberality another gentleman, Mr. Friedrich Leybold, a Bavarian by birth, now resident in Santiago, where he practises as a chemist, presented the Expedition with several valuable geological and botanical specimens.
[105] The charge for apartments of three persons (two sleeping and one drawing-room), including board, was 30 Spanish piastres = £6 6s. per diem!
[106] The Chilean Mint is entirely arranged on the French system, and is provided with French machinery.
[107] "Historia fisica y politica de Chile, segun documentos adquiridos en esta Republica durante doze años de residencia en ella, y publicado bajo los auspicios del supremo Gobierno por Claudio Gay, &c., Paris, 1844, 8vo.;" besides two large quarto volumes, "Atlas de la historia fisica y politica de Chile."
[108] The results of the great attention bestowed on public instruction have not been inadequate, as is apparent from the latest statistics on the subject, according to which the average proportion of the inhabitants, who can read and write, is 100 out of every 561 of the male population, and 100 in 1095 of the females, or an average of 100 in every 828. In 1858, there were on the whole State 950 schools, attended by 39,657 scholars (viz. 27,288 male and 12,369 female). There is, however, a difference in these two statements of 6 per cent. The proportion of females to males attending school is 45 to 100; of those able to read and write, of 51 females to 100 males.
[109] There are in the whole country 37 public and 12 private libraries (including in the latter only such as are really worthy of the name).
[110] See Gay's History of Chile, Zoology, vol. i, p. 161.
[111] The whole consumption of ice used in Valparaiso and Santiago is supplied by American ships, which take in their cargo at Boston, and sell it here at about 2 1⁄4d. per lb. It is cheaper to import the ice from America round the Horn than from the Andes, though the latter are only 50 or 60 miles distant, and though ice is found on these at certain seasons at an elevation of only 6000 feet.
[112] Mr. Haidinger, who at the very first exerted himself to the utmost of his ability and patriotism to promote the objects of the Novara Expedition, was so thoughtfully kind as to provide the geologist attached to it with a number of copies of publications of the Imperial Institute, as well as a corresponding number of neat little specimens of tertiary petrifactions from the Vienna basin, for the purpose of presenting them to kindred institutes in different quarters of the globe.
[113] The lines of road already in operation or projected throughout Chile are as follows:—
a. From Valparaiso to Santiago, 110 miles, constructed at the expense of the State, and estimated to cost $7,150,000 (£2,860,000). This had been opened when we were there, as far as Guillota, 30 miles, but the whole was to be finished by 1862.
b. From Valparaiso to Talca (180 miles), and
c. From Port Caldera to Copiapó, the mining capital (50 miles), both constructed by private companies. From Copiapó a tramway leads to Pabellar, whence there is a mule-road to the mines of Chanarullo (4400 feet above sea-level). Mr. Evans had invented a new description of locomotive, capable of climbing even to this elevated region. Lastly, a road is projected to unite Copiapó with the mining district of Tres Puntos.
[114] See a very interesting "Essay" upon Chile, published at Hamburg by Señor Vicente Perez-Rosales, Consul-General for Chile at that port.
[115] This estimate is founded on the following calculations:—
| 120,000 tons at $40 per ton, comes to $4,800,000, the annual expenses of which, such as crew, insurance, &c., and including interest for money invested, amounts to 30 per cent. for 20 days | $80,000 |
| Further saving of interest and insurance on goods valued at $16,000,000 at 20 per cent. for 20 days | 177,776 |
| ——— | |
| Total saving effected by vessels using the Straits of Magelhaen | $257,776 |
[116] The Steam-packet Company which now carries the mails twice a month from Valparaiso to the southern ports of Chile, receives an annual subsidy from Government of $50,000 (£10,500).
[117] According to the reports of Mr. George Schuthe, governor of the little colony in the Straits of Magelhaen, some very valuable coal-strata exist near Punta Arenas. These, although difficult of access, would, nevertheless, fetch a high price, considering the high price of coal in the harbours along the east coast of South America. In Buenos Ayres and Monte Video, 12 to 15 days' sail distant, the average price of coal is 12 dollars (£2 10s.) per ton.
[118] We cannot help stating here that we think it far from unimportant, that when employed to measure the altitude of prominent objects, the Aneroid may be made to supply widely different results from those of the ordinary barometer, as the elimination of gravity in the Aneroid readings remains as a constant element, and hence the difference between the two can only be rectified by due regard being had to this circumstance, when performing the requisite calculations.
[119] This group, between 51° and 53° S., and 57° and 62° W., comprises, besides the two larger islands, 90 smaller islands, the superficial area of the whole being about 6000 square miles, or 3,840,000 acres. The summer temperature is 69°.8 Fahr. and that of winter rarely falls below 30°.2 Fahr., so that the climate greatly resembles that of Scotland in many respects. The islands present a cheerless aspect; a rolling country with peat soil, covered with rank grasses, and intersected by low ranges of hills, alternating with marshy rivers and torrents. The lower part of the country is clay, slate, and sandstone, covered with turf, which is used for fuel. Tussock grass (Dactylis cespitosa) is the most common plant.
XXII.
An Overland Journey from Valparaiso to Gibraltar, viâ 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 principal street-scavengers.—Churches and Monasteries.—Hospitals.—Charitable institutions.—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 Pachacamác.—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.—Païta.—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 passengers and their effects a process anything but agreeable. I have, therefore, the greater pleasure in expressing my gratitude 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 assembled 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 shore 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 endorsement,—"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 passengers 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 passengers 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'état 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 passengers; 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 grass,—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 1s. 4d. English. The charge for supplying water alone to 90 or 100 workmen amounts to 40 dollars, or £8 8s., 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 Copiapó, 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 Copiapó, 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 Copiapó 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 anchored 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 quantities 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 shipment in sacks of 250 lbs. It is worth, if purified, 21 reals (about 11s. 4d.) per cwt. on the spot, and fetches £16 to £17 per ton in England. Upon a rough calculation, the quantity 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 1⁄2d.
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-fashion. 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 passengers, 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 assiduously 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 anchored 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 shipped 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 assured that there were numerous graves of queens to be found there, as well as quantities 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 superstitions, 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 canalization 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 dykes 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 quantity 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 constituents, 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 circumstance 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 passengers, 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 hardships and privations, at last succeeded in finding employment at the salt mines of Iquique. He was now
earning 3 dols. a day (12s. 6d.), and was on his way to fetch his family away from the colony of Pozúzu, 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 Pozúzu, its present condition and possible future.
On 23rd May, at 6 A.M., the steamer anchored 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 shore. The chief exports are wool and copper, the latter being found at Chaipa and Atiquipa, nine miles N. of Chala.
The following morning, after passing the Barracoon of Pisco, a rather dangerous passage 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 ships approaching within two or three miles of the shore. 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 ships and the embarkation of passengers, 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 passed 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 passing 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 shores 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 ships 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 diminishing, and there were only a few vessels in the harbour.
The islands have a melancholy, naked, barren look; the same substance which, in smaller quantity, 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 laridæ, 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 6s. 3d.) 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 class 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 shipment 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 instituting, 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 shipping 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 quantity 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 mass was at that period about 11,050,852 tons English. Assuming an average price, this would imply a money value of about £120,000,000. Since 1841, when the first considerable shipment 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 mass of guano left to accumulate undisturbed for centuries, the very natural error was made of reckoning the quantity 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.
The Peruvian Government does not seem to realize the calamity impending over the country on the exhaustion of the guano beds, which would dry up one of its principal sources of revenue. Certainly it seems impossible to make a more unwise use of the immense sums which are flowing
into the State treasury. Nothing is done for making roads or railways so as to furnish intercourse with the fertile provinces of the interior, or to raise and encourage agriculture or commerce. Just as this revenue does not result from the energy or industrial activity of the people, it is expended without any object of utility to show for it. The Government pockets the dues as a monopoly, and expends the sums thus obtained in avaricious schemes of aggrandizement, or warlike expeditions against Ecuador and Bolivia, which keep the country in perpetual hot water, and only add to its burthens. The guano duties go in gunpowder! Lightly won, as lightly gone!
During the nine days of our voyage between Valparaiso and Callao de Lima there were some musicians on board, who gave us a concert on deck every evening. As we left the Chincha Islands some frolicsome young Peruvians, disregarding the discord of the flute and violin, and unmindful of the timeless tuneless twanging of the two harps, got up a dance.
In the course of the night we ran into Callao harbour, and when I came on deck, in the cool of the morning, I found we were already lying at anchor in this spacious and secure port. The tradition that with a calm sea and a clear sky it is possible to perceive the ruins of the old town, with its houses and church-towers, which sank here suddenly in 1746 by the shock of an earthquake, has survived to the present day, and is told to every new-comer, who greedily swallows it down, though not one of the narrators has ever beheld the
marvel with his own eyes! Earthquakes, indeed, are by no means so frequent as at the beginning of the present century, when it was rare for a fortnight to elapse without at least one temblore or horizontal oscillation. The vertical shocks (terra-motos), the most dangerous kind of earthquake, have not occurred here since 1828. The season at which earthquakes most frequently occur are the months of March, April, and September, whence the latter month has received from the people the jocular name of "Se tiembla!" (it trembles!) One Peruvian who has long occupied himself with scientific observations has repeatedly witnessed that a magnet, freely suspended, regularly lost its attractive powers a few minutes before each shock, and that a piece of steel held by the magnetic force fell to the ground. If this be confirmed by a series of observations the magnet might ultimately become a sort of earthquake-monitor.
The Callao of the present day is a dirty, ugly hole, with narrow streets, and low houses built principally of mud and cane, with flat roofs. Only a few of the houses of foreigners, erected out of hearing of the hubbub of the port, form a grateful exception. The entire population will be about 20,000 souls.
The most interesting building of the port is undoubtedly the new Custom House with 31 colossal magazines, each capable of containing six to eight entire ships' freights. I repeatedly heard complaints made of the slovenliness of the attendants, in consequence of which it frequently happened
that days elapsed ere goods, paid for, were delivered out of bond. The warehouse charge is very small, and consists chiefly of stamp-duties, which are imposed on the money paid for goods. The trade of Callao is apparently on the increase, and, considering the productiveness of the country, would be even greater, were internal order restored, when peace and confidence would follow in its train.
As I had to prosecute my journey northwards by the next steamer, I hastened on to Lima, so as to satisfy my curiosity as to this the most important city of Peru in modern days. A few hours after my arrival in Callao, I found myself on the road to the "City of the Kings."[131] Only a few years back the journey from Callao to Lima, though only six English miles, was an exceedingly arduous and even dangerous undertaking. The road lay through a shadeless desert of deep sand, between uncultivated fields and low scrubs, and was absolutely unsafe owing to attacks of robbers. Now it is a frequent excursion, a tolerably good railroad performing the distance in about half an hour.
By the kindness of Mr. Wilhelm Brauns, the Consul-General of Hamburg, and head of the distinguished English house Huth, Grüning, and Co.,[132] to whom I brought letters of
introduction, and who was most kindly in waiting for me. I was speedily and pleasantly conveyed from the station in Lima, to take up my quarters in his house till I took my leave. Owing to this fortunate event, I found myself unexpectedly brought into the very thick of the very best German society. Nowhere in the course of many years of travel in various countries, all over the globe, did I meet with more cordial hospitality, or a more delightful reception, than during my 19 days' stay in the "City of the Kings."
On our way from the station to the house of Mr. Brauns, I remarked that the houses in every part of the city that we passed were painted with variegated stripes, and heard, to my intense astonishment, that, in consequence of a recent decree of the Government, every householder in each quarter was ordered, with a view to facilitating the identification of their houses, to paint them of a colour corresponding with the coloured official plans of the city! Accordingly in one quarter all the houses were green, in another yellow, in a third white, in a fourth reddish, and in a fifth sky-blue. As in all Spanish American cities exposed to earthquakes, most of the houses in Lima also are but one storey high. The larger buildings are constructed of sun-dried bricks or fire clay, the smaller of cane set up double, with the space between filled up with clay, and the whole whitewashed. Their most singular feature is the flat roofs, which consist of a layer of
cane and straw mats, which, for better security, occasionally have a coating of clay. Thus an open space (Azotea), surrounded by balustrades, is secured, which is used as a playground by children, and serves as a promenade for the grown-up portion of the community. Some of the windows communicate with the roof by a sort of trap-door, which instead of sashes of glass has shutters of wood, which communicate with the rooms beneath by a long cord, so that they can be opened or shut from below at pleasure. Many of the chambers in the interior of the house get light and air solely through these apertures (called Ventana de Teatinas, because first introduced by the Theatine monks), while windows properly so-called are less numerous, and when looking towards the street are usually provided with large, broad, sometimes richly-gilt iron shutters. We saw these curious cords for opening and shutting the trap-doors in the roof hanging down in the middle of even elegantly-furnished apartments, and not even the circumstance of being made of silk prevented their having a peculiar and ungraceful effect.
The mode of constructing the houses, together with the elegant ornamentation of the open courts (patìo) of the interior, speedily remind the stranger that he is in a place where rain (at least according to Northern ideas) is an unknown phenomenon, since one single, even down-pour must inevitably do immense damage in the Lima of the present day. During the winter months, however, as they are called, viz. June to November, fogs (garuas) are very frequent, which, albeit light,
are sufficiently penetrating thoroughly to soak the pedestrian or horseman who happens to be surprised by them. I have myself repeatedly experienced in Lima fogs of such density, that it was quite practicable to count each separate drop. During these winter months, fine, clear days free of all cloud are comparatively rare; but the statement one occasionally hears, that for five months together the sun is invisible in Lima, is an exaggeration. The temperature of Lima is much lower than we could expect from a city within 12 degrees of the Equator, and seems to be affected principally by the proximity of the eternal snows of the Andes, and the prevailing atmospheric currents. The thermometer never rises higher than 85°.8 Fahr., nor falls below 68°.2 Fahr. The average temperature during the hot season is 77°, and during the cold 63°.5 Fahr. Such a climate renders fires superfluous, and it is more habit than necessity that induces some Spanish families to carry about copper or iron pans (Brasero) filled with live coal, with which to warm their hands or feet.
The exteriors and internal equipments of the dwellings are very simple and devoid of ornament, only a few of the older buildings, such, for instance, as the house of Torre Tagle, near San Pedro, forming the exception. Among the architectural decorations, which preserve to the present day the tradition of the glories of the Peruvian kingdom, one may marvel at majestic designs and beautiful mosaics, which even in their ruin tell of the magnificent luxury that was once indulged in here.
The streets are wide and tolerably regular, but the absence of gutters and the wretched foundation of the roadway prevent their being used by carriages or horsemen, or by pedestrians even more than they can help. The open ditches at either side are full of filth and animal impurities, which are continually being thrown in, and but for the services of numerous carrion crows (cathartes fœtens), who perform the duties of scavengers, Lima, owing to the supineness of the native authorities, would be one of the filthiest and most unhealthy cities in South America. But the gallinazos, as these black-headed birds are called by the natives, although lazy and unwieldy, nevertheless are in such immense numbers here, that they suffice to keep the streets comparatively free from putrescent odours. Everywhere, even in the thick of places of public resort, one sees these birds, which no one injures on account of their usefulness, and which even the rising generation never think of disturbing in their disgusting avocations, hopping about upon the bare ground, and gorging themselves on the garbage around.
One of the greatest improvements to the city is its almost universal illumination by gas, which in the evening imparts a peculiar charm to the streets and fashionable shops of Lima, and enables them, in this particular at least, to vie with those of the capitals of Europe.
The largest buildings in Lima are, as we might expect from a country conquered and colonized by Spaniards, the churches and monasteries, of which there are in this capital
no fewer than eighty. Many of these Spanish memorials, of a religious epoch more bigoted than sincere, are at present decayed, and even those which are still preserved in something like good order fail to charm the eye by any graces of architecture or majestic simplicity in their interior fittings up. The Cathedral even, which takes up almost the entire east side of the chief square, is no exception to this rule, and, though it was 90 years in erection, is after all a very indifferent edifice. The interior is lofty and spacious, but owing to the choir having its proportions curtailed by a wide altar in the midst, one perceives on entering the church only the smaller half, so that the impression is destroyed, which, but for this interposed erection, would undoubtedly be made by the high altar, richly overlaid with gold and silver, seen through the vista of the entire building. The ornaments, the sacred vessels, and censers used in performing mass are exceedingly rich and valuable, but are too much overlaid to please an æsthetic taste. In the catacombs of the Cathedral repose the remains of Francisco Pizarro. Few strangers omit to visit this spot, and usually feel as much surprised as pleased at finding offered them for sale by the sacristan, various sorts of relics of the renowned conqueror of Peru, though all cannot hope to be so fortunate as an English lady at Lima, who informed me with all gravity that she had purchased from a guide a slipper taken from the coffin of Pizarro. Should this mania for relics on the part of visitors, and readiness to humour it on the part of vergers, continue
unchecked, there will remain ere long in the catacombs only an empty shell, in which once lay the celebrated Conquistador. Perhaps, though, the speculative sacristan contents himself with gratifying the wishes of curiosity-loving visitants, by means similar to those of the artful cicerone who accompanies the enthusiastic stranger in his rambles among the ruins of classic antiquity.
The monastery of San Francisco is more worth notice for its immense extent, which equals in size many an old imperial walled city of Suabia, than for elegance of style or tasteful artistic interior. The façade, painted in various colours, and overlaid with ornament, resembles by far more a Buddha temple than a Roman Catholic church. The corridors are the finest part of the building, their wooden ceilings being very richly carved. On all the walls of the passages are suspended drawings illustrative of the lives of various holy men, which, however, singular to say, are hung with their faces to the wall, and are only turned round on appointed festivals to charm the eyes of believers!
The church is very roomy within, but quite bare of ornament. The sacristan with evident pride directed our attention to San Benito, a "black" saint, who was held in high esteem by the negroes, probably on account of his colour. Quite close to the monastery is the "Casa de Ejercicios," whither the monks repair at certain periods of the year to perform the prescribed religious exercises. The cells here have a more comfortless look than in the cloister proper. A
bed-frame with a skin stretched upon it, a hard stool, a plain table, a crucifix, and a human skull, comprise the entire inventory. The latter, the cranium of a departed brother, was covered with numerous aids to religious meditation, some written, some carved on the substance of the bone.
The lay-brother who escorted us round had not long been a denizen of this gloomy monastic abode. Though still very young, he was leaving behind him a tolerably enlarged experience of the world. Starting as a gold-digger in California, he became a gambler and speculator, when he quickly lost all he had so laboriously wrested from the soil, and returned to Lima, where, more for the sake of change and comfort than for any special vocation or imperious spiritual necessity, he had entered the order of Franciscans. His temperament being much more that of a man of the world than a monk, he must have felt himself sorely hampered by the restrictions of monastrism, were it not for the lax morality which is the standard of convent life in the capital of Peru; but the monk's cowl is in Lima not only the attire of humility and resignation, it is likewise the cloak for all manner of licentiousness and hypocrisy—the "surtout" which conceals many a lapse from virtue!
The monastery of San Pedro was the wealthiest in Lima, so long as it remained the property of the Jesuits. When, in 1773, the order went forth for the suppression of the Order throughout South America, it was not executed without the Spanish viceroy's cherishing certain secret hopes of obtaining
large riches. The Jesuits, however, on this occasion vindicated their reputation for subtlety, which has become proverbial among mankind. When the inventory was taken, nothing but empty boxes were to be found, and the most strict investigations and inquiries led to no more favourable result.
Among the hospitals which we visited, that of San Andres deserves foremost notice for its size and comprehensiveness. It has room for 600 patients, who are tended by 50 Sœurs de la Charité, the majority of whom are French. The yellow fever, which, introduced in 1852 by immigrants, penetrated deep into the interior, though of a milder type, had of late carried off numerous victims, and indeed had seriously weakened the hygienic good name[133] of Lima; the small-pox also had annually committed fearful ravages; for vaccination is not made imperative by law, and inoculation is therefore neglected. Besides the hospital of St. Andrew, there are others for female patients, for the military, for incurables and imbeciles, an asylum for orphans,[134] and one for foundlings.[135]
The best managed hospital apparently is that of Santa Anna, the wards of which are roomy, light, and airy, and make up about 350 beds. On the other hand, a portion of the above hospital set apart for those mentally afflicted, as also the regular Lunatic Asylum (casa de Locos), were in a state of filth and neglect, that are a positive disgrace to the present century. It is, in fact, a singular consideration that in every quarter of the globe men have only now begun to bethink them of their duties to those unhappy fellow-creatures, whose wretched lot should have commanded their most active sympathies! The reform of hospitals, and even of prisons and penitentiaries, had long been carried out in Europe, before asylums especially designed for the treatment of lunatics were projected. I must not, however, omit to add, in justice to the philanthropic society (Sociadad de Beneficiencia), to whose management the whole of the hospitals and poor-houses of the capital are intrusted, that a new Lunatic Asylum was in course of construction, the cost of which will amount to 85,000 dollars (about £17,800).
The Hospital de los Locos (Hospital for the Insane) in the Cercado is all on the ground-floor, with chambers used at once for sitting-room, dining-room, and bed-chamber, but with accommodation for about 200 patients. Twenty of the cells are set apart exclusively for refractory patients. The institution is in charge of Dr. Ulloa, one of the most skilful
of the native physicians, who studied both in France and England. The patients are tended by the Grey Sisterhood, which has only recently reached the country.
The old university buildings, on what formerly was called the Square of the Inquisition, now named Independence Square, are at present only used for festivities, examinations, conferring of degrees, &c. &c., while the different lectures are read in various buildings. I visited the School of Medicine, of which at that time Dr. Cajetano Herredia was rector, a gentleman more respectable for his zealous discharge of duty than by his scientific attainments. There are some good lecture-rooms, a chemical laboratory, a small museum, consisting mainly of pathological specimens, and a very fair library, which boasts several really valuable and little-known prints and books, especially such as relate to the history of Peru. One of the Professors, Don Antonio Raimondi, a Neapolitan by birth, bids fair to raise the reputation of the School of Medicine of Lima by his extensive knowledge and excellent mode of instruction. This gentleman teaches several branches of Natural History, and, during the short period he has been in Lima, has already given practical proof of his activity in a variety of fields.
Unfortunately Professor Raimondi, with a number of his pupils, was absent on an excursion for practical scientific instruction, so that I was deprived of the opportunity of making his personal acquaintance. In his studio I saw two very remarkable skulls of Indians, which, owing to artificial pressure,
had assumed a most singular form, one of which had belonged to an Indian of Cuzco, the other to a native of the Chincha tribe, who reside between Pisco and Cañete. I was also shown on the same occasion a female skull in such excellent preservation, that one could still easily perceive the expression of the face. This was the skull of a half-breed Indian woman, named Maria Palacel, aged 25, who had died in the hospital of Santa Anna, 27th Sept. 1856, of dysentery, and on 1st March, 1859, nearly two and a half years later, had been disinterred in a state of complete preservation. Nature had in this case taken on herself the process of embalming, and had, owing to the dryness of the atmosphere, and the quantity of saline matter in the soil, secured results which in Europe could only have been obtained artificially and at a considerable expense.
Adjoining the Escuela de Medecina is the National Library, a large building containing some 30,000 volumes, treating of every department of human knowledge, but which, owing to want of means, has of late years received hardly any accession. The librarian is Don Francisco de Paula Vigil, a highly intelligent and liberal-minded priest and man of the world, who had been excommunicated by Pio Nono on account of his learned work, "Defence of the Principles of Secular Authority against the Pretensions of the Holy See." Nothing daunted by the fulmination of this penalty, the excellent old gentleman is prosecuting his researches yet farther, and is energetically defending his principles; and what
is still more surprising, he has anything but fallen off in public estimation in consequence. This is due to the fact that, unlike the female population, the Peruvians are very tolerant in religious matters, and rather averse from those pre-disposed to spiritual matters, whence there results the very small influence of the Peruvian clergy, everywhere visible, and the obstinate virulent enmity with which also, since the Spanish yoke was cast off, the priestly party oppose the progress of liberal ideas. This feeling is moreover powerfully aided by the ghastly testimony of history, that it was the monks who first introduced the rack and the Inquisition into the country.
Father Vigil received me with much cordiality, and we had a long talk upon a variety of subjects. At last it turned upon his own well-known work, and the painful position in which he felt himself with respect to the See of Rome. This was the most interesting portion of our conversation. "It is not Catholicism that has made the majority of Catholic nations lag so woefully in the career of progress," exclaimed the venerable priest, "but that which Catholicism has suffered to be mixed up with it,—the Inquisition and Monasticism. It is marriage and labour that make individuals moral and useful, and nations great and powerful. Human society can get on very well without monks or nuns, but not without morals, not without matrimony and labour."
Had I not transcribed these words almost at the moment they were spoken, I should hardly have dared to repeat them
here, for I durst not have trusted to my memory, that a Spanish American priest, should have made such a remark in the "city of the Three Kings." These revelations, which are far from being solitary, but find a responsive echo in the bosoms of a portion at least of the male population of the capital, are highly important in arriving at a conclusion respecting the actual religious sentiment of the Peruvian Republic, and are very marked indications that an immense movement is likewise preparing in the Catholic Church on the further side of the Andes; and that Peru also has found its "Father Passaglia." Nay, it would not surprise me in the least, should South America, which for upwards of three centuries has been dumbly obeying the behests of spiritual intolerance, suddenly emit letters and propositions which would amount to a virtual separation from the Roman Catholic Church! It is but a few years since Catholic priests in the Legislative Assemblies of Nicaragua and Honduras recorded their votes in favour of repealing the ordinance of celibacy, and from their pulpits harangued their flocks on the advantages of revolutionary insurrection!
In a wing of the Library buildings is the National Museum, which, however, merely fills two moderate-sized apartments. The Natural History collection is in such a wretched neglected state that it is in imminent danger, the ornithological department especially, of being entirely eaten up by insects.
Amongst the most valuable are some Peruvian antiquities, such as weapons, mummies, and what are called Huacos,
earthen jars, pots, and other utensils from ancient Indian graves. To the historical student the portraits of the whole of the Viceroys and Governors of Peru, which are suspended on the walls of the first apartment in chronological order, will prove extremely interesting. The finest head of the series, the one which most clearly tells of manly vigour, acuteness, and energy, is that of Francisco Pizarro, the natural son of a Spanish nobleman, who tended swine in his boyhood, and ended his life as Viceroy of Peru, having been slain by an assassin in the 64th year of his age.
Of the educational institutions, the only one deserving special remark is the "Escuela Normal Central" (Central Normal School), established by Government, at an expense of 160,000 dollars (£33,600), and opened in 1859. Its object is to provide suitable school instruction for industrious children of poor or aged parents; but hitherto the prefects of the provinces have, by protection, presented almost exclusively children of persons of means and position, and sent them on to the capital. Owing to the great want of good schools hitherto, it happens that every one crowds towards this new institute, which seems to promise to its pupils a more complete education and better training than any other. The number for which it was destined was 40 boarders and 200 day-scholars, the former of whom are well taken care of.
The system of education pursued is the Lancasterian, and is carried out by five professors. The estimated annual expenditure is about 20,000 dollars. One of the directors, Mr.
J. C. Braun, a German by birth, who not long before had come to Lima to settle, and taught Natural Philosophy and Chemistry, accompanied me throughout the extensive building, and specially pointed out a class-room comfortably and even elegantly fitted up, as also a small museum of Natural History, with an excellent geological collection, and a small library attached to it. Singularly enough, the latter comprises a great number of school-books in much request among Protestant pedagogues. Apparently an order had been sent, without specifying any particular writers, to purchase good school-books at some German publishing-house, and now the Catholic youth of bigoted Lima is taught from the works of Protestant teachers! Various surveys and maps covered the walls of this class-room, all bearing evidence of their German origin in the names of publishers and places, most of them having been sent out from the distinguished house of Justus Perthes in Gotha.
One very remarkable and characteristic incident occurred at the opening of the school, at which were present the President of the Republic, Don Ramon de Castella, so hated and dreaded for his despotism, together with several senators and deputies. The Rector, Don Miguel Estorch, laid considerable stress, in the course of his address, upon the importance of really effective schools in a State, and maintained that, when children are well brought up, there is no longer any need of so large sums being spent for police and standing army to keep up security and order in the country. This remark, which made
a deep impression on all present, nevertheless gave much offence to the President, who rose and replied, in a tone of considerable asperity, that the Rector's view was erroneous, and that a proper military force was as indispensable as a good system of education; that it least of all became the Rector to touch upon such a topic in that place and such presence.
Under the present political régime, it is out of the question to look for anything like intellectual vigour in Lima, so sparse are the elements of such. There is an utter absence of that sympathy, interest, and support which is necessary to its existence, alike on the part of Government and of society at large.[136] Works, such as Manuel Fuentes' valuable "Estadistica General de Lima" (General Statistics of Lima), can only be considered as solitary special performances. Also in the
field of Journalism there is no person of mark visible, and even the few journals which appear in Lima, such as the Comercio and the Independiente, have a very limited circulation. As only a small proportion of the population can read or interest itself in politics, the principles advocated in those journals exercise no influence, so that Government has less difficulty in acting up to them than would otherwise be the case.
One thing that particularly struck me was the hostility displayed to Austria, which, during my stay in Lima, manifested itself in the daily press and a fraction of the population. The politics of Austria were discussed with a bitterness of hate, which was the more surprising in a nation which is itself a prey to intestine disorders, and suffers itself to be led about a willing captive, in the fetters of a half-Indian despot. I found, however, the clue to this excited language, when I learned on one occasion, that there are upwards of 8000 Piedmontese in Lima and Callao alone, chiefly shop-keepers and shipping-owners, who exercise a certain influence upon the native population. The war in Europe had so raised anew the pride of country in each Italian, and filled him with such sanguine patriotic aspirations and hopes of a united Italy, that his heated fancy beheld in every incident of the war the most righteous struggle that ever was engaged in, and in the opposite party the most detestable and inhuman of opponents.
Among such an auditory as those in which such opinions were ventilated, there was no difficulty in finding adherents. The ignorance of the native population respecting all countries
on the other side of the Andes became conspicuously evident in the course of the discussion. Of Italy and her plains they had at least heard tell, since Peru maintains a pretty active trade with Genoa. If I am not mistaken, the great revolutionary leader and popular idol of Italy was once captain of a ship along the Peruvian coast, and left here many a friend and well-wisher to his cause and himself. Of Austria, on the other hand, there were simply dim rumours flitting about as of some shadowy land, or the vanished empire of the Incas. Singular to say, it was precisely the renowned Concordat made with the Papacy which had brought such discredit on Austrian policy among the Roman Catholic population. I dare not repeat here the strong language which was used, not alone in the journals but to myself personally, by educated Peruvians and foreigners settled here.
In fact, all the misery that Peru has suffered since its subjugation by the Spaniards, and its present drooping condition, is here universally ascribed to the overwhelming influence of Spanish monks and priests in secular affairs. It has not yet been forgotten that monks stood at the head of the Inquisition,—that for centuries the people groaned under their oppressive sway. Conscious of their own fate, and the condition to which the clerical weapons reduced the puerile half-civilized races which inhabit Mexico and Central America, the lively imagination of the Peruvians led to consequences resulting from such a state-policy far more disastrous than could possibly be the case among a free-souled people like the
Austrians. For it is the chief merit of European civilization, that every political measure threatening to impede the march of ideas by any process of fettering men's minds, only serves to evoke a more restless activity, as in our actual state of human culture enlightenment and science form far too formidable a bulwark for reaction to obtain any permanent success, or even to succeed in overleaping.
Among the excursions which I made during my stay in Peru, there were two of special interest,—a ride to the ruins of Cajamarquilla, and a visit to the Temple of the Sun at Pachacamác, the erection of which dates from a period antecedent to the dynasty of the Incas.
The ruins of Cajamarquilla are about nine English miles distant from the capital. Owing to the insecurity of life and property even in the region immediately around the capital, these ruins are but rarely visited. But very few strangers settled in Lima knew these ruins, and it required a long time ere I could procure the slightest information respecting them. My excellent host, Mr. Braun, who very soon perceived how much my heart was set on visiting these ancient Indian ruins, exerted himself to make up a party for me. It was a piece of real friendliness undertaken with the very kindest intentions, but unfortunately scientific objects do not usually admit of being mixed up with pleasure-parties, it being very difficult to unite the two. About twenty horsemen, chiefly English, had assembled to make the excursion. Among our company there were also a few ladies, whom the difficulties
and dangers could not deter from joining us. As we had to take with us provisions for the entire party, a string of mules heavily laden with prog had been sent off early in the morning to the goal of our excursion. These preparations seemed to be by far the most important in the eyes of a majority of the cavalcade, after their arrival at the ruins themselves, an examination of which was evidently the last thing they had thought of when they bestrode their steeds in the morning.
The road to the ruins of Cajamarquilla is excessively fatiguing, rough, and rocky: nothing but climbing over rocky hills, upon which close to the very edge of the precipice is a faint Indian track, or crossing torrents, where the horse sinks to his crupper in the water, so that only a practised horseman can save himself from a thorough soaking.
Immediately on leaving the city begins a tract of desolate sterile stone-fields, in the midst of which one reaches what is known as the Hacienda de Pedrero, a lonely farm, where, it being as usual a fête-day of some Peruvian saint, a dozen field labourers had collected under the shadow of the verandah round the farm-house, blissfully occupied in doing nothing. No two of these were of the same breed; there were men of every variety of race and shade of colour; whites, Indians, Chinese, Negroes, Mulattoes, Mestizoes, Chinos, Sambos, Quadroons, &c. &c., and this specimen in little of the population of Peru would lead any observer to conjecture correctly as to the main reason of the low position held by the country
in the scale of nations. As in the Hacienda of San Pedrero, so throughout the country one encounters fifty coloured men of all shades for one full-blooded white. In Chile, on the other hand, one has to penetrate deep into the interior before one finds any traces of the Indian stock, while of negro population, (and this is the greatest advantage enjoyed by that Republic over Peru,) there is absolutely none. In the settled parts along the coast of Chile there are none but whites, and even the working classes are Spaniards, English, German, Italians, and North Americans. The preponderating white element in the population, their greater intelligence, energy, and perseverance, form the principal source of that intellectual and political activity which has placed Chile far in advance of the other Southern and Central-American Republics, and is opening a brilliant future to that State, far surpassing that of any of the neighbouring republics.
From the Hacienda de San Pedrero it is half an hour's ride to that of Guachipa and the Neveria of Don Pablo Sassio, where we engaged a guide, who accompanied us a couple of miles further to the goal of our excursion.
Cajamarquilla is an ancient Peruvian hamlet in the valley of and close to the river Rimac, which waters the whole district and makes it productive. The remains of the dwellings are built exclusively of sun-dried bricks, and the laying out of each single apartment differs little from the mode of constructing Indian huts at the present day. It must to all
appearance have been an extensive place once, as the ruins cover eight to ten acres. Considering the little space which the Indian of the present day requires for his household gods, it may be assumed that this was a place of from 30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants. I saw no buildings of very remarkable dimensions, nor indeed any one the laying out of which designated it as once intended for religious purposes. The ruins are for the most part, relics of simple mud-huts, all similarly laid out in single chambers, differing from each other mainly in the greater or less dimensions of the apartments. Nothing here told of the existence of any buildings intended for public meetings, temples for worship, sacrificial altars, &c., such as one meets with in the ruined cities of Central America, in Copan, Quiriguá, Petén, Palenque, and so forth. One perceives that each of these huts, like those inhabited by the Indians at the present day, consisted of two compartments, the entire superficial area being from 36 to 42 feet square. The larger of the two apartments is about 60 feet, the smaller from 12 to 18 feet in width and depth. Nowhere could we discern a trace of that special construction which is observable among the Indian races of the high lands of Guatemala, and is there usually employed for taking vapour-baths (Temaskal.)
To form any notion of the antiquity of these buildings is doubly difficult in a climate where it never rains and the temperature is the same throughout the year, and where consequently buildings are not exposed to the destructive alternations
of cold, damp, and scorching heat, as in other less favoured countries. Even earthquakes are here not so much to be dreaded as where houses are of brick or stone, since the Adoba possesses far more elasticity than intractable building material, and is therefore better able to withstand the repeated undulations of the earth's surface.
The site of the town, which lies in a long deep valley surrounded on all sides by hills of the most fantastic shape, rising to a height of from 8000 to 10,000 feet, is exceedingly grand. Unfortunately when we visited it, all the peaks and hills of the country around were naked, barren, and bleak-looking. But in winter after the first dews have fallen, those slopes and table-lands that now looked so desolate are covered with dense deep-green verdure, when they make a far more agreeable impression on the beholder.
Of trees I saw only a few kinds of bamboo and acacia, which, more spreading than lofty, were visible in the swampy ground along the edges of the torrents. Some of the hills around seem at first sight like artificial fortifications, but when we approach closer there is not the slightest indication of Cajamarquilla having ever been a fort or place of defence. To all appearance the spot, at the time of the Spaniards first coming to Peru, was inhabited by the Quichua Indians, who afterwards either abandoned voluntarily their peaceful abodes through dread of their pursuers, or were driven thence by violence. None of the present inhabitants of the vicinity, to whom I spoke, could give us any definite information as to
the ancient history of the ruins, and one hoary Indian, named Pablo Plata, who lives in the village of Guachipa, and remembers some wild traditions respecting Cajamarquilla, which he received by word of mouth from preceding generations, I unfortunately missed seeing owing to the shortness of my stay.
Quite close to the remains of the town, is at present a large Hacienda, with magnificent clover pasturages, fertilized by the river Rimac. It was at one of these green oases that our company sat down to a comfortable pic-nic, which spoke volumes for the preparations that had been made for creature comforts. No small portion of what had been brought with us was left on the field, to be gobbled up by the clouds of negroes that crowded round, glad of the opportunity of tasting something cooked in the European fashion, though they do not like them as well as the product of their own wretched native kettles. Thus, for example, our guide, a negro, preferred vegetables and dulce (sweets) to meat, and declared sherry and cognac offered him to be "too strong."
If not in ease and comfort, at any rate in scientific interest, I found my excursion to Cajamarquilla surpassed by that made to Pachacamác in the valley of Lurin, which I made in company with some friend, and in the course of which I stayed behind the rest of my party, in company with the flag-lieutenant of the since world-renowned frigate Merrimac.
My visit to Pachacamác was, however, in so far less interesting than that to Cajamarquilla, that the greater part of the
road, as far as Chorillos, was accomplished by railroad, the remainder of the way being over sand barrens, abhorred by both steed and rider.
Chorillos, about nine miles from Lima, and a favourite watering-place of the inhabitants of the capital, with salt-water baths and gaming-tables, lies in a small romantic cove, but is of rather difficult access, owing to the steep sand-hills which, 150 to 200 feet in height, bar all access from seaward. Formerly the ride to Chorillos, like that from Callao to the capital, was performed under considerable difficulty and danger, whence it has not seldom resulted that visitors to the watering-place, who have made money at the tables of Chorillos, have on their homeward ride to Lima been eased of their winnings by some of their previous companions over the board of green cloth! At present one bowls thither over a well-made road, easily and without dread of being called on to "stand and deliver," since, even in Peru, people have not yet succeeded in amalgamating railroads and robbery.
The little place itself boasts of a few good dwelling-houses, and some 100 to 150 Ranchos of wood and adobes, or constructed of mud and reeds, in which delectable abodes the good folk from the capital are content to pass the hottest and most unhealthy months of the year (from January to May). These Ranchos, very unsightly without and exceedingly poorly furnished, are sometimes most habitable within-doors, and fitted with delightful verandahs or open porches,
in which the free-and-easy occupants loll about in grass hammocks or rocking-chairs, fanned by the cool sea-breezes, in a state of dreamy dolce-far-niente. Altogether Chorillos is a very unpretending and altogether uncomfortable place, in which there is little room for elegancy or self-assertion, the President of the Republic himself occupying a wretched, dirty Rancho. Don Ramon passes most of his time in the gaming-room, where he is a much-desired and most welcome guest, on account of the large sums which he is in the habit of wagering.
On a lovely June morning, about 6.30 A.M., we rode out of Chorillos, and three hours later reached the ancient Pachacamác,[137] a Quichua village close to the sea-shore, with the temple of the Sun there existent at a period antecedent to the Incas, and which was afterwards dedicated by the Incas to the service of the invisible God. These ruins are much older than those of Cajamarquilla. They are partly of clay-tile, but by far the largest part consists of hewn stone, held together by mortar, the whole presenting, even in its ruined state, a lasting and massive aspect. Of the temple which once stood here, there is, however, no trace at present visible beyond mere indistinct traces of the foundation.
In the midst of a spacious Indian village there is seen a hill about 400 feet high, with artificial terraces in regular gradation, and surrounded by lofty walls, that look as though they had been battlemented. On this rising ground once stood the temple which the Yuncas had built in honour of
their chief god. Somewhat later, when this wild race had been subdued by the Incas, these consecrated the temple in honour of the Sun, flung out the idols of the Yuncas, and designed a number of royal virgins for its service. Pizarro, however, completed the work of destruction, when, with his fanatical followers, he penetrated, in 1534, into the valley of Lurin, hitherto the most populous and peacefully prosperous of the entire Peruvian coast. The villages were laid waste, the temple overthrown, and its virgin priestesses delivered over to the brutal soldiery, and afterwards put to death.
Quite close to the ruins, as they lie scattered along the coast, the island of Pachacamác, or Morosolar, rises from the bottom of the ocean, scarcely accessible owing to its steep, precipitous sides, and on which there is not a single architectural memorial of any sort to be found, as erroneously stated, or copied, by several authors.
From the summit of the hill the visitor finds a surprising landscape, stretching over the beautiful and fertile valley of Lurin; it is difficult to imagine a more vivid and delightful contrast than is presented by the greyish-brown, sandy, far-extending ruins, and the soft verdure of the surrounding plain, variegated with the hues of every description of tropical plant. The attention is further arrested by the singularity of the abounding vegetation beginning close to the sea, where sugar-cane and grass flourish in the most luxuriant superabundance, while scarcely a half-mile distant the landscape resumes the barren, sandy features, which extend for
miles inland. Not till the Lurin valley is reached does the magnificence of tropical vegetation again enliven the scene.
After a cursory examination of the locality, we passed the night at an adjoining Hacienda, a large sugar plantation and refinery, which employs 180 Chinese coolies. Each Chinese labourer receives rations of rice and vegetables, besides four dollars a month, and binds himself to stay eight years with his employer, to repay the latter's outlay for his voyage, &c. The speculator, however, who imports the coolies from the northern provinces of China receives a premium of 300 dollars for every coolie imported. The Chinese whom we saw at Lurin, as indeed all those we encountered throughout Peru, were very filthy and depressed-looking, but seemed in good health, and, on the whole, better off than in Brazil or the West Indies. We were told that two Chinese will not get through so much work as one negro. There are at present about 10,000 Chinese in Peru, who have been imported by speculators during the last ten years, to some of whom their deportation has been a vast benefit, since, after their eight years' service, they are free, and may and do begin to work zealously on their own account. In Peru, as in the Indies, Java, and indeed wherever they are employed, the Chinese cling close to each other, and mutually assist each other, should any of their number fall into poverty.
The following morning early we paid a second visit to the ruins of Pachacamác, and took with us from the Hacienda a number of negroes, with working implements, for the purpose
of digging up and examining the graves. At various points, especially close to the hill on which stands what probably was once a fort, we found a great number of skulls lying about. Most of those we picked up had been artificially compressed, though they did not all seem to have had the pressure applied at the same place, thus affording unmistakeable proof that artificial pressure had been resorted to here. Many of the skulls, though they had been interred for centuries, were still thickly covered with hair. There cannot be a doubt that most of those buried here belonged to the race which occupied this part of the country when the Spaniards first visited it, for after the occupation and the subsequent wholesale baptisms which the proselytizing monks performed upon the ignorant brown natives in droves, it is improbable that any of the Christianized Indians would thereafter be interred in unconsecrated earth.
The Peruvian Indians, as is well known, were accustomed to envelope their dead in coarse cloths, after which they were buried in basket or sack-shaped straw-plait work, certain objects and utensils being placed by their side, preference being given to those the deceased had most used in life. Thus, fish-nets, baskets, &c., were placed in the grave, and in the case of a chief, weapons, staffs with golden knobs, pots of wood or burnt earth, and so forth. The head usually reposes on a sort of pillow of grass or cotton. I brought away with me from Pachacamác about half a dozen of the most remarkably shaped of these skulls, as also some portions of mummified
corpses, which the negroes had disinterred in my presence. All these objects were in excellent preservation, about three or four feet under the surface, some in simple graves, others in longish sepulchres of hewn stone, such as we might imagine were occupied by the wealthier class of the community. It is usual to find several skeletons (probably members of the same family) in each separate grave. I also found layers of woven stuffs, some of very superior design and finish, interposed between various corpses.
While the negroes were engaged in further excavations, I once more ascended the hill on which the Temple of the Sun must once have stood, and which to this day is called by the neighbouring inhabitants "Castillo del Sol." On the side next the sea, there are still visible a number of buttresses, which seem as though they had formed part of an older line of fortifications. There was nothing resembling a sacrificial altar, or to tell of the religious ceremonies that must once have been performed here. Here and there the material of the wall was still covered with a reddish tint, just as if it had been but recently painted. In several portions of the wall still standing, there were pieces of wood alternating with layers of mortar, now quite decayed, and affording unmistakeable evidence of the antiquity of the buildings. We also remarked in the walls of several of the Indian huts niche-shaped depressions, about 1 1⁄2 feet deep by 1 1⁄2 feet in length and width, the use of which has never been even plausibly conjectured. While the whole of the buildings of Cajamarquilla consisted of sun-dried tiles
and bricks, those of Pachacamác seem to have been almost entirely built of stone hewn into the shape of tiles. So much of the wall as still remains is very strong and solid. According to tradition the walls of ancient Pachacamác once stretched as far as Cuzco, 240 miles distant E.N.E.!
The proprietor of the sugar plantation in the Lurin valley told me that he himself, about ten years previous, had seen mummies disinterred in the neighbourhood of Pachacamác, in the mouths of which were gold ornaments, while various objects were buried with them, such as small idols of gold and silver, staffs with golden buttons, earthen jars and vessels filled with Chicha (the well-known favourite intoxicating drink of the Indians), and fruits, the Chicha and fruits having remained in a wonderful state of preservation.[138]
On our way back to Chorillos we passed the beautifully situated village of Susco, environed with neat country-houses, which was a favourite summer retreat of the inhabitants of Lima, before Chorillos reached its present development. At present Susco is dreary and forsaken-looking.
When I reached Lima on my return from this interesting
excursion, I had only a few days more left before I was to take steamer again en route to Panama, which I employed in riding about to examine all that was best worth seeing in the environs, and making a few parting calls.
One of the finest promenades in Lima is the Alameda Nueva, opened about two years previous, which lies on the road to Amancaes on the further bank of the Rimac, which divides the city into two unequal parts, of which, however, far the larger one, constituting indeed the city proper, lies on the left or southern bank. After the romantic descriptions I had read of the Rimac, I found myself woefully undeceived by the reality. Of the thundering rapids below the bridge, of which Castelnau gives us such a picturesque sketch, I found not a trace visible, the greater part of the river-bed, 150 to 200 feet wide, being quite dry, with a wretched little driblet of water trickling through it. The season of the year may, however, have contributed to this disenchanting prospect, and in August and September, when the melting snows and violent rain-storms of the neighbouring Cordilleras swell the brooks and rivers, they possibly impart a more imposing and lively aspect to the Rimac. The stone bridge over the river, which forms the communication with the suburb of San Lazaro, is a handsome structure, built in 1638-1640, from the designs of an Augustine monk, and cost nearly half a million dollars.
The Alameda Nueva consists of a long, wide lane, with pretty garden nurseries and flower-beds on either side, interspersed with tasteful marble statues life-size, the whole enclosed in an
elegant iron railing richly ornamented. In the winter season, more particularly (June to September), this beautiful promenade is in great request, when, after a few heavy falls of dew, the hills and valleys of the environs are covered with verdure of the most delicate shades, and the residents of the capital wander through the lovely glades of Amancaes, which is so overrun with the yellow blossoms of the Amaryllis (Ismene Hamancaes of Herbert), that this fine plant has given its name to the whole valley. On such occasions quite a colony of booths is extemporized, where eatables and drinkables are consumed, and giants and dwarfs, panoramas and art-saloons, are thronged with visitors, while ballad-singers, musicians, rope-dancers, mountebanks, jugglers, gamblers, and thieves, are never weary of plying their various trades, to the lightening of the purses of the pleasure-seeking crowds.
Of public amusements and places of resort there are but few in Lima, and these not of a very refined description. The theatre is an old and downright ugly building, where Spanish comedians play indifferent pieces. An Italian operatic company proved a failure owing to want of subscribers, even the highest talent barely succeeding in gaining sufficient to charter a ship to carry the troupe back to Europe. The sole amusement, which never fails to collect a delighted multitude, is a bull-fight. These come off at intervals during the summer in the Plaza del Acho, in an uncovered amphitheatre specially built for the purpose, and constructed of sun-dried brick. On these days all Lima is in a state of excitement, and an incalculable
crowd of curious sight-seers of both sexes are hastening through the Alameda Nueva to the arena, there to gloat over the bloody scene. Fully 12,000 to 15,000 human beings throng into the confined area; each hastily deposits his half dollar (2s.) of entrance-money, so as to get the chance of a better seat. One would think it must be to a splendid soul-elevating drama that they are flocking to listen to, whereas it is but the torture of a wretched herbivore that excites their depraved curiosity. The reader will excuse me for not reiterating the loathsome details of an often-told spectacle.
It is a fact of considerable historic interest that bull-fights are now confined to the Spaniards and to their coloured descendants, in the various regions of the globe whither her dominion has extended, and it seems but a fit pendent, that the laws of the same nation should, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, condemn to the galleys Roman Catholics who venture to embrace Protestantism.
We wish here to add one single remark of our own on a feature of the entertainment which we have not seen mentioned elsewhere, viz. what becomes of the flesh of the animals thus killed. It is forthwith cut up in quarters quite close to the arena, and sold at a reduced price to the populace, although it is a well-known physiological fact, that the meat of any animal killed in a state of rabid agony cannot be eaten without prejudice to the health. The negroes, however, erroneously maintain that meat thus killed is far more tender than that of cattle slaughtered in the ordinary
mode, and the Government of Republican Peru finds it best to leave each to decide the physiology of the question by his own digestive powers.
Of the state of society in Lima I have little to say. A stranger finds it difficult to obtain a footing among the better families, especially if his stay be as limited as mine necessarily was. The high-pressure existence of the capital has of late years obliterated much of its former originality and poetry. He who saw Lima twenty years ago would hardly recognize it now-a-days. The "Saya" and the "Manto," those singular but in Lima once indispensable articles of apparel of the Limañas, which enabled them like masks to attend church or market, to join processions, in short, never left their face in the street or at the promenade, have entirely disappeared, and with them have necessarily gone many other peculiar habits and customs. Formerly no lady durst venture into the street without a "Saya" or "Manto;" now, on the contrary, she would run the risk of being insulted, or at least stared at, should she appear in public in this peculiar mask-like disguise. The ancient usages peculiar to the country must give way to French manners; the Saya, the close-fitting, usually black or cinnamon-coloured upper garment, which once was the customary attire, and consequently rendered a more careful toilette unnecessary, has made way for the voluminous crinolined silk dress, while the Manto, that heavy veil of a thick black silken material, which was thrown over the back, shoulders,
and head, and drawn so close that there was only a small triangular space left through which peeped one eye, has been displaced by the long black head-dress which the Spanish women are accustomed to wear.
The ladies of Lima are usually of elegant, slight, graceful appearance, their chief attractions being brilliant complexion, large dark gleaming eyes, dazzling white teeth, rich black hair, and very neat little feet. They greatly reminded me of the Havana ladies, with whom they have much in common so far as regards the passion for personal adornment, while in figure and intelligent expression of face both lag far behind the ladies of Chile.
The gentlemen of Lima, by which term I allude chiefly to the white Creoles or pure descendants of the Spaniards, who constitute about one-third of the population,[139] do not leave that impression of a splendid future resulting from a prosperous development of the resources of the country, which might be reasonably expected if there were more intellectual movement, and more industrial and commercial activity apparent among their number. The state of affairs in Peru since its separation from Spain in 1822, the constant squabbles and civil wars, as also the fact that a mere mestizo, like Ramon Castilla, devoid of intellectual or moral pre-eminence,
should have succeeded in getting himself declared President for life of the Republic,[140] are the best proofs of the political and moral degradation of the Republic of Peru. All the splendid territories from Peru to Mexico have, after three centuries of Spanish rule, sunk into a state of demoralization and degeneracy, owing to the listless, labour-hating, sluggish mestizo races that inhabit it, such as only the immigration of one of the hardy northern races can ever adequately remedy. In a previous visit to Central America, I have wandered through its rich scenery, clad in the hues of perpetual summer, and smiling in exuberance of fertility, and everywhere the same impression was made upon me. Almost the only effect this wealth of nature seems to exercise upon the Indian or negro mestizo is to incapacitate him from mastering by any effort of his own the lethargy that preys upon him. Where a few rare exceptions occur, as, for instance, in Costa Rica,
in which a sounder policy is preserved, it is invariably found that they are of purer Spanish descent than their sister republics in tropical South America.[141]
Owing to their political organization, these various states can scarcely fail to be powerfully affected by the impulses of our time. They have no other prospect than that of becoming either an integral portion of the immense North American Federation, or of once more being consolidated into a monarchy under the sceptre of some scion of a European royal family. In all probability, whether they be North Americans, or English, or Germans, they will always be children of some of a more powerful race, who must ultimately subvert the races of the Southern type, awaken a new spirit of energy, and so carry out that which the lazy mixed races of the present time have neither the power nor the inclination to effect. An immigration of stilled Northerners can alone raise these countries politically and commercially, develope their natural resources, and restore them to the grade of civilized states.
One of the most important as well as useful plants of Peru, and with samples of which I provided myself on leaving Peru, for the purpose of future analysis, is the Coca (Erythroxylon Coca), the leaves of which mixed with chalk or ashes of plants, form so important an article of diet as well as a masticatory among some Indian races of Peru and Bolivia.
Before I left Europe one of our most celebrated German pharmacologists, M. Wöhler of Göttingen, expressed to me his wish to procure a considerable quantity of coca leaves, to enable him to analyze more completely than had as yet been done the chemical constituents of this remarkable plant, and I therefore made it a duty to take measures for procuring the requisite supply. Although the wonderful stimulant properties of the coca had for more than half a century been known to European travellers, the leaves of the plant, which flourishes best on the eastern slopes of the Cordilleras of Peru and Bolivia, at an elevation of about 8000 feet, and a temperature of from 64°.4 to 68° Fahr., have hitherto only reached Europe in very small quantities, having in fact been carried home simply as curiosities. It was reserved for one of the Novara expedition to bring over as much as 60 lbs. weight for the purpose of investigation of its properties by German men of science. Half of this quantity I took to Europe among my own effects; the remainder was forwarded somewhat later, through the kindness of two German gentlemen resident in Lima, Messrs. C. Eggert and N. Linnich.
So many, and in the main correct, accounts[142] have been published by travellers of the coca plant, its culture, its effect
upon the system, and the marvels that have been achieved by its use, that I may well be excused from dwelling at length upon the habit which prevails among the Indians of chewing coca, or on its importance as a chief article of subsistence for several millions of our fellow-creatures. I may, however, mention certain instances which came within my own personal knowledge, as also a few statistical data relating to the annual consumption of coca in Peru and Bolivia, and the economical importance of this cultivation.
A Scotchman named Campbell, who was settled as a merchant at Tacna in Bolivia, and with whom I travelled to Europe from Lima, informed me that a few years before, being engaged upon matters of urgent business, he had performed in one day a distance of 90 English miles on mule-back, and throughout that long distance had been accompanied by an Aymara Indian, who kept up easily with the mule, without other refreshment than a few grains of roasted maize and coca leaves, which, mingled with undissolved chalk, he chewed incessantly. On reaching the station where he was to pass the night, Mr. Campbell, though mounted on an excellent animal, found himself greatly fatigued; the guide, on the other hand, after he had stood on his head for a few minutes,[143] and had drank a glass of brandy, set off without further delay on his homeward journey!!
In April, 1859, Mr. Campbell despatched a native from La Paz to Tacna, a distance of 249 English miles, which the Indian accomplished in four days. He rested one day at Tacna, and set off the following morning on his return journey, in the course of which he had to cross a pass 13,000 feet in height. It would seem that throughout the whole of this immense journey on foot, he followed the Indian custom of taking no other sustenance than a little roasted maize and coca leaves, which he carried in a little pouch at his side, and chewed from time to time.[144]
Like other experienced travellers, Mr. Campbell, who has lived over 14 years in Bolivia, is of opinion that a moderate use of coca exercises no prejudicial influence upon the general health, but simply tends to make the Indian races of the higher regions of the Andes more capable of continued laborious work. Many coca-chewers attain a great age, and Mr. Campbell knew one such, who had taken part in the insurrection of Tupac-Amaru in 1781, and at the time of my visit, 1859, was still in full possession of all his faculties. In short, as in the case of opium and wine, it would seem that it is only the abuse of coca that is followed by evil consequences.
The coca is less cultivated in Peru than in Bolivia, and the leaves are not in such request among the Quichua as
among the Aymara Indians.[145] As the Government of Bolivia draws a very handsome revenue from coca cultivation, a tax of five reals, about one shilling, being levied on every cesto, or about 25 lbs. English, there is a better opportunity of getting at the correct amount of the entire production than in Peru, where the plant is grown free of duty. The coca tax realizes in all in Bolivia 300,000 pesos or dollars (about £75,000), so that the entire annual product is about 480,000 cestos or 1,200,000 lbs. The cesto is worth at La Paz from 7 to 9 pesos, but when employed in large quantities for export, it cost about 10 dollars, placed on board ship. Altogether the coca crop of Bolivia may reasonably be estimated at rather less than 700,000 cestos, equal to about 78,000 tons.
The analysis to which the coca leaves I brought home with me were subjected at Göttingen, was attended by most important results, though the experiments are far from being completed. It was reserved for one of the assistants of the chemical laboratory, named Albert Niemann, to discover
in the leaves a peculiar crystallized organic base, to which, following the usual custom in such cases, the name Cocain has been given.[146]
The lamented death of Dr. Albert Niemann in the flower of his youth, and in the midst of his promising labours, necessarily interrupted for a time the investigations into the nature and properties of cocain. M. Wöhler, however, in his capacity of Director of the Chemical Laboratory of the University, was so good as to assign to another able assistant, Mr. W. Lossen, the task of taking up the analysis at the point where its gifted discoverer had left it, when it was found that, when heated in chlorine, the cocain underwent a singular and
astonishing metamorphosis, being in fact resolved into Benzoic acid and a new organic base, for which M. Wöhler proposes the name of Ecgonin (from Εχγονος, an off-shoot). Further researches with the coca leaves lead to the discovery of a second organic base, which, it would appear, is contained in its primitive form in the coca, the composition of which will be treated of in a forthcoming paper by Mr. Lossen. This base is in a liquid form, for which the provisional name hygrin (from υγρος, fluid) has been adopted.[147]
Hitherto the experiments made to determine the physiological properties of cocain have been less important in their results, as it is only found in small quantities in the coca leaf, and an adequate quantity can only be obtained with great trouble and difficulty.[148] Consequently it is as yet impossible to decide the questions, whether one of these bases is stronger than the other, as also to which of the two are to be ascribed
the peculiar properties of the plant. Singular enough, the various experiments with an effusion of the coca leaves had not the least result, while it is well known that the use of this kind of tea in the Cordilleras wonderfully stimulates the breathing powers of the traveller, besides satisfying his appetite.[149] It would also appear that the coca leaves lose part of their virtue in transit, and that their most intense activity is only developed in their native regions. If, however, the ultimate results of the experiments of Mr. Lossen, instituted with as much sagacity as zeal, should incontestably prove the value and utility of the plant for pharmaceutical purposes, as well as in all cases where the human strength is exposed to unwonted strains upon its energies, the means will surely and easily be found for extracting on the spot the active principles of coca, as is being at present done by industrious Yankees in Ecuador, with the Cinchona or China bark.
When the Novara was leaving Batavia, I cherished the hope that our stay in South America would be sufficiently prolonged to admit of my making an excursion to the Cinchona forests, so as to enable me to speak authoritatively and from personal knowledge upon certain questions discussed at Lembang with Dr. Junghuhn,[150] which had hitherto been left
unsettled or altogether unexamined, and which were of such deep import to the attempts being made in Java to cultivate
the Cinchona. Circumstances, however, had conspired to render this impracticable. Instead of the entire expedition, as originally projected, visiting that classic region, it was reserved
to myself, a solitary individual, to tread the scenes, where Humboldt once collected the first valuable contributions to science, and even then my time was so limited that my attention had to be confined to the capital of Peru, and the neighbouring country. Under these circumstances such a project as a regular scientific excursion deep into the heart of the Cinchona forests was entirely out of the question. I did not fail, however, to translate into Spanish and English, the disputed points which Dr. Junghuhn had requested me to ascertain for him, so that I might obtain such information upon these interesting questions from such of the friends I made in Peru or Chile as seemed likely, either in their own persons or by the opportunities for natural studies that might happen to characterize their place of residence, to
advance our knowledge of the Cinchona tree and its cultivation. My different efforts to obtain reliable information on the cultivation of the China bark tree in its mother country were especially promoted by my having met, while at Lima, with Mr. Campbell, who, during the many years he has been settled at Tacna, has paid especial attention to the China bark trade. For the chief export of this important medicament is in the hands of the Bolivians, and not of the Peruvians, as the uninitiated might imagine from the name it is usually known by in commerce, viz. Peruvian bark.[151]
The most important facts which I am here enabled to dwell upon relate to the correction of a widespread misconception, that owing to the thirst for plunder and the wilful neglect of the China tree in its own native regions, the supply of the valuable drug obtained from its bark, the well-known Countess'[152] or Jesuit bark, which to the practical physician is of
scarcely less importance than the potato to the labouring man, is daily diminishing. The Calisaya region (i. e. the limits within which the C. Calisaya, the species that furnishes the most valuable bark, is found in its finest and most abundant state) extends from about one degree north of Lake Titicaca, or from 14° 30′ to 20° S. In the forests of Cochabamba, between which place and La Paz is the principal district of the China tree, the tree is more frequently found than in those running parallel on either side with La Paz, in which it is usually met with at such a distance from the capital that it becomes valueless, owing to the cost of transport, which is as high as 17 dollars per 100 lbs. The more southerly forests are still quite virgin, and have never re-echoed the blows of the Cascarilleros' axe. The largest quantity is exported from Tacna through the port of Arica, only a small portion being smuggled northwards from Lake Titicaca, for shipment viâ Port d'Islay. According to statistics, from 8000 to 10,000 cwt. of bark may be thus exported for any lapse of time, without the slightest danger of the tree getting exterminated. Since 1845 the exportation of bark from Bolivia has been a Government monopoly, which has farmed out the privilege to a private company, that used to pay a certain annual premium based on an export of 4000 cwt. The company paid the Cascarilleros or other persons who collected the bark, 25 dollars to 30 dollars for every hundredweight of Calisaya delivered in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia. The enterprise, however, proved only partially successful, since
speculation, avarice and the continual political troubles and alterations of the Government, have each and all proved sore enemies to the peaceful development of the industry of the country. Each new President had only one thought, viz. how to make the largest profit by seizing on the natural wealth of the country, and only sought to increase the export of the bark for the sake of the monopoly. In 1850 a native commercial house in La Paz paid the bark-gatherers 60 pesos for every 100 lbs., besides a duty to Government of 25 pesos additional, at the same time paying on an estimated export of 7000 cwt. The exorbitant wage thus granted to the Cascarilleros resulted in an enormous quantity of Calisaya being brought to La Paz from all parts of Bolivia, In order to preserve the public tranquillity, and not glut the market, the Bolivian Government now prohibited entirely the cutting or collecting of bark. Within eighteen months about 1400 tons of bark were brought in, and this gave the monopolists a perfect dread lest they should have to declare themselves bankrupt, and it was indeed only through the intervention of Government that they escaped. The latter took the entire stock on their own hands, paid the speculators with Treasury bonds, redeemable within a given number of years, and made a fresh contract with a native firm, which stipulated that the price at La Paz should be 65 dollars per 100 lbs., without further export duty.
As soon as the stock in hand was exhausted, the prohibition against cutting Calisaya had of course to be rescinded,
and in the interim the most decided steps were taken to check the superfluous, indeed dangerous, zeal of the Cascarilleros in the collection of the bark.
While I was in Java chemical experiments had begun to be made with the bark of the young China trees, and from the fact that the valuable alkaloid was not found in these, it was hastily inferred that the bark of the trees grown in their adopted country had, owing to the change effected in climatic and other conditions, been deprived of the principle that made them most valuable in their native land. But researches made in South America have satisfied me, that even in the indigenous forests of Cinchona, the active principle quinine is only found in the bark of older trees, and that its quantity is perceptibly affected by the age of the tree, the finest quinine being obtained in largest quantities from trees upwards of fifty years old. To ignorance of this peculiarity must also be attributed in all probability the fact that, at the period of the Spanish rule, the China collectors or hunters (Cazadores de Quina) used to fell annually 800 or 900 young trees of from four to seven years old, to get at the 110 cwts. of fever-bark, which, intended exclusively for the use of the royal house, were shipped every year from Païta, and thence round the Horn to Cadiz.[153]
So, too, with respect to the quantities annually exported at present from Bolivia and Peru, and used in European stores, there remain serious errors to correct, prevalent even among
scientific circles. According to the latest estimates (which take cognizance of seven inferior sorts), there have been exported, between 1830 and 1860, not more than 10,000 tons, while of Calisaya, the specially valuable red bark (Cascarilla roja), not above 120,000 cwt. have been exported in all during the same period. While the annual export thus dwindles in dimensions from what had generally been supposed, there has lately been discovered in large quantities, in the forests between Tarija, Cochabamba, and La Paz, a species of Cinchona, whose bark is said to possess very much the same properties as the Calisaya. The curate of Tarija has offered for sale 3000 cwt. of this valuable bark (called by the Indians Sucupira). The position of the forests in which this species of Cinchona is found is so favourable for exportation, that the cost of transport from Tarija to Iquique, the nearest port, would only amount to from 8 to 10 dollars per quintal.
The departure of the mail steamer from Callao de Lima was fixed for the afternoon of 12th June, when several of my friends were so kind as to accompany me on board. In Callao I paid a short visit to H.M.S. Ganges, and then the U.S. frigate Merrimac (destined in less than three years to acquire a mournful renown in the horrors of civil war, as also imperishable celebrity as the pioneer of iron navies), one of the finest and most powerful screw-ships of the North American navy, armed at that time with 32 cannon, and of 960-horse power. I had had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with the officers of both ships, partly in Valparaiso, partly in Lima.
On board the Ganges I experienced a not less cordial and kind reception, and Admiral Baines, as commander-in-chief of the British fleet in the Pacific, did me the honour of granting me an official pass to all captains of British ships, setting forth my scientific pursuits, and recommending me to their particular attention.
On the morning of the 14th June, the good steamer Valparaiso, commanded by that courteous model of a British sailor, Captain Bloomfield, reached Huanchaco, the principal harbour of Truxillo, which is only six miles distant, and was once the capital of the northern portion of the empire of the Incas. The export of silver, wool, and cochineal from this port is pretty considerable. Here came on board a Scotchman named Blackwood, who for some years past had been cultivating cochineal in Truxillo, but was now, as he confessed, unable any longer to compete in its production with other countries, in consequence of the price of labour being so high, and the uncertain state of labour-supply. Mr. Blackwood intended proceeding viâ California to the East Indies, where he hoped to light upon a more suitable field for cochineal-growing, the cost of labour there being still low, and there existing a constantly-increasing demand for that substance[154].
On the 15th June we anchored in the roads of San José de Lambajeque in the department of Chola. The position of this village is so unsuitable, that it is only possible to effect a landing by means of what are called Balsas(rafts with sails), consisting of huge thick trunks of trees bound together. One of these curious contrivances conveyed on shore in safety 76 passengers at once, together with all their miscellaneous effects!
Fifteen miles north of Lambajeque lies the Indian village of Iting (Repose), with 5000 inhabitants, whose language is totally different from the Quichua dialect, usually spoken in the province. One Peruvian on his return from his travels even went so far as to say that the idiom of the Iting Indians strongly resembled that of the Chinese! In Monsefú, not quite two miles from Iting, lives an Indian population which speaks nothing but Spanish, and consequently can neither understand nor be understood by its neighbours! This singular state of things almost entitles us to conjecture that the Spanish conquerors have adopted here the same tactics as those they put in practice in Central America, where they repeatedly were at the pains to introduce among the subjugated tribes, colonies of another race frequently hostile to the aborigines, in order by difference of customs and language to render any united action against the common enemy almost impossible. I have myself frequently observed in the Central-American State of San Salvador, that, for instance, the Tlascaltecas, who speak the language of Montezuma, had been settled in the midst
of foreign races. Such colonizations have almost invariably been effected for political purposes, and were compulsory, instead of being undertaken voluntarily.
On 16th June we anchored in the beautiful and sheltered harbour of Payta. The little town itself has about 4000 inhabitants, who carry on a pretty brisk trade with the interior and along the coast. The principal article of export is hides, especially goat-skins, chinchilla fur (Eriomys Chinchilla), cotton, fruit, oil, herb-archel (Roccella tinctoria—used occasionally as a medicine, but more commonly as a dye,—the well-known litmus, used for chemical test papers, being prepared from it), and straw hats. Forty-five miles distant from Payta, in a beautiful and fertile neighbourhood, lies the town of Piura with 10,000 inhabitants, which carries on an extensive trade in fruit and vegetables along the coast, and indeed supplies Lima with its excellent produce.
Payta harbour is visited annually by from fifty to sixty whalers, who take in fresh provisions here, do their repairs, and give their crews a little repose after long and heavy labours. The climate is very healthy and exceedingly dry. At the same time there is no lack of good water, which the Indians bring to the city from the river Chirar, 18 miles distant, in casks on mule-back. This mode of transport is so cheap, that the erection of a distilling apparatus in Payta would not pay. The cargo of one mule, about 12 gallons, would sell for about 2 reals (about 1s. 5 1⁄2d.). Ships take in their supplies of water at Tumbez, a little further north.
When I was at Payta, there were some twenty merchant ships in the harbour. The trade of the place was evidently increasing. This was indicated not alone by the energy of the inhabitants, but by a general well-to-do air. Large, round, broad-brimmed straw hats are annually exported to the value of 400,000 dollars. Of goat-skins, the annual stock is about 1200 cwt.; of herb-archel from 1500 to 2000 cwt. There are also at Payta some very remunerative manufactures of castor oil (from the Ricinus communis), and its cognate from the piñon bean (Jatropha curcas), both of which are found in large quantities in the interior. By an iron machine worked by steam some 85 gallons of the oil are made daily, part of which is used in the country for lamps and in the preparation of soap; but by far the largest portion is exported to the United States.
A few weeks before I reached Payta, there had been accidentally found in a cave among the bare sand-hills which form the naked desolate environs of the town, a quantity of maize, which was supposed to have formed part of a stock which had been placed here by the Incas. It was of a smaller kind than that grown at the present day. The grains, notwithstanding the centuries they had lain interred, were in very tolerable preservation. All along the coast nothing was spoken of but this incident, as though some great treasure had been discovered, whereas it was but some 60 lbs. of maize that were found. Moreover, the interest felt by the Indians in this trouvaille had nothing to do with its historic suggestiveness, but because their readily-inflamed imagination prefigured
boundless stores of maize yet to be lighted upon and made available, without their having to labour for them!
In the course of the afternoon we left Payta, and next day sighted the island of La Plata, distant about 10 miles from the mainland. A tradition, constantly in the mouth of the people, to the effect that the ancient Incas buried here a large amount of treasure, has led to many formal expeditions having been dispatched to this island at various times, every one of which, however, proved abortive. We now began to find the temperature perceptibly rising; for a few hours it rose from 65° to 76° Fahr.
At 6 P.M. of the 20th, we reached the Taboga Islands, a group of lovely islets, about 11 miles from Panama, where are the warehouses and wharves of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. Taboga Island, the most important of the group, is only one mile and a half long by half a mile broad, but with the adjacent islet of Taboquilla, forms a very convenient crescent-shaped harbour, which unites to a secure haven a tolerably healthy climate, so that during the unhealthy season, when the yellow fever sometimes commits fearful ravages in Panama, many of the inhabitants resort to this island, which, up to the year 1858, had remained entirely free of the scourge.
Late in the evening the English and American papers came on board, from which we got the first intelligence of the march of events at the seat of war in Italy, as also of another world-wide calamity,—the death of Alexander von
Humboldt. Even here on the shores of the far Pacific, the intelligence of the greatest naturalist of our age having departed from among us, made a deep and powerful impression, which not even the tempests which impended over the political horizon, and threatened to envelope the entire world, could allay. Although the outbreak of hostilities between two such powers as France and Austria must inevitably react severely upon the condition of the inhabitants of North and South America, yet little was discussed respecting events in Italy; while the obituary notice of Humboldt was read aloud in the cabin, and many a fellow-traveller inscribed on a slip of paper for preservation those beautiful words which the noble and venerable old savant is said to have spoken, when on a lovely sunny May-day his spirit winged its flight from our planet, whose physical constitution his mighty mind had more closely investigated and comprehended than any other mortal of our day. "How gloriously those sunbeams dart forth; they seem as though inviting the earth to the heavens!"
Thus it was forbidden to the members of the Expedition to find the great naturalist yet alive on their return to their common native land! How full of meaning did those touching words now prove, and how fall of mournful memories, with which Humboldt concluded his scientific suggestions to the Novara voyagers, when he prayed to Almighty God, "That His Holy Spirit would be with this great and splendid undertaking to the honour of the common Fatherland!"
The Novara staff above all must doubly regret the death of the "Nestor of Science." The warm and active interest he took in their expedition contributed in no small degree to advance its scientific efficiency, and if it be the privilege of the Novara to live in the memory of the scientific world, it will, as the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian himself expressed it in a letter to the venerable philosopher, "redound in its honour to the latest ages, that it was permitted to associate its name with that of Humboldt, who for three generations of men has been associated with every triumph that has been achieved in the domain of science."
On the 21st, at 7 A.M., we anchored in the roads of Panama. Large ships are obliged to lie to from two to three miles off shore, as the beach is nothing but "slike," and at ebb-tide presents an immense unsightly expanse.
The town of Panama (many fish), built on low green hills amid the most magnificent forms of tropical vegetation, presents when viewed from seaward a most lovely, enchanting aspect, especially to the traveller coming from the sterile sandy shores of the west coast of South America. As soon, however, as he sets foot on the shore, and has entered the precincts of the city, his first pleasing impressions are rudely dispelled. The streets are everywhere narrow and filthy, the houses low and poverty-stricken in appearance; even upon their roofs the luxuriance of tropical vegetation bursts forth! Moreover the chief square with its cathedral leaves an impression of decay. Only a few of the houses situate near the
beach, the property of strangers, and a few of the hotels, have anything of a respectable appearance. The whole population does not exceed 8000 to 9000 inhabitants, of whom about 500 are whites, the rest being negroes and mestizoes. At the time when the railroad was being made across the Isthmus, in the construction of which thousands of Irish and Chinese fell victims to the climate and the severity of the work, the experiment was made of introducing negroes from Jamaica, whose cosmopolitan nature asserted itself by their having increased and multiplied even here. At present there are upwards of 100,000 negroes on and near the Isthmus.
The expense of living in Panama is no longer so exorbitant as it was ten years ago, at the period of the first emigration to the newly-discovered gold-fields of California, when there was no railroad, and the journey across the Isthmus was made partly on mules, partly in small canoes. For from three to four dollars a day, one gets very fair board and lodging at the best hotels. The most expensive item is washing, the charge being 2 dollars (8s.) a dozen!! In a climate where European cleanliness necessitates frequent change of apparel, this item alone amounts to some 25 dollars to 30 dollars per month for a single person! Accordingly, it is found to be more economical to fling away several articles of the toilette as soon as they have been soiled, and purchase a fresh supply, rather than pay this heavy tax on the purification of the old garments.
The North American Company, which maintains direct
communication between California and New York, has made such excellent arrangements, that the passengers on their arrival in Panama by the train are conveyed in a small steamer from the station, which is close to the shore, out to the large steamer lying in the roads, which is to convey them to California. The entire time occupied in convoying 700 or 800 passengers with their usually rather heavy baggage from Colon across the Isthmus, and thence to their re-embarkation in the steamer upon the West Coast, does not exceed ten hours. The hotel-keepers of Panama, on the other hand, complain sorely of this arrangement, for whereas formerly no passenger ever crossed the Isthmus without spending one dollar at least, hundreds now pass through without ever setting a foot in the city.
When I was in Panama there existed an "Opposition Line" of steamers, a genuine American institution, of which we have occasional examples in Europe, but which is only to be seen in its fall bloom in the United States. Formerly, the fare for a deck-passage from New York to San Francisco was 160 dollars (£33 10s.). The "Opposition Line" lowered the fare to 35 dollars, and as out of this sum 25 dollars had to be paid to the railway, there remained only 10 dollars (£2 2s.) for the cost of transport and maintenance of passengers on board large handsome steamers from New York to San Francisco! For the public at large this was undoubtedly a vast benefit, and in consequence of the unexampled lowness of fares, an immense number of persons had
gone to California during the last preceding few months. Whereas formerly only adventurers, speculators, or persons of means, could turn their eyes on the land of gold, a poor but industrious labouring population now pressed eagerly thither. Of course, however, it was too good to last:—no enterprise could continue upon such ruinous principles. It was the war of large capital against small; whichever could longest stand the incessant drain, remained in possession of the field. Occasionally, however, a "compromise" is effected between the two parties, but in that case the public is usually the sufferer, since in order to make up for past extravagance, the two quondam foes combine to keep up exorbitant rates.
The salubrity of Panama, though still unhealthy enough during the wet season (May to September), is undoubtedly better than it ever was in former years. The doses of quinine pills with which people used to be presented in society, very much the same way as a pinch of snuff, have become infrequent, neither is it now the custom to drink sherry or brandy and water with quinine in it. Indeed, were foreign settlers to abstain from the practice of frequent meals, which even in more temperate climes cannot be continued in with impunity, the health of the inhabitants would benefit greatly. I repeatedly heard it maintained that the use of ice, which at present can be got in large quantities and at very low rates upon the whole Isthmus, and forms an ingredient of every beverage, and many dishes even, has materially improved the
hygienic conditions of Panama. About 360 tons of ice are imported into Panama annually, or about one ton per diem. The whole quantity is supplied from the North American lakes, chiefly from Boston, and is sold in gross at 7 dollars 50 cents (about £1 25s.) per 100 lbs., the retail price being a trifle over a shilling per pound. In order to avoid a glut which might make ice importation unremunerative, and endanger the steadiness of the supply, the Government has kept in its own hands the monopoly of the ice-trade.
By Dr. Lebreton, a French physician long settled in Panama, who, together with an Austrian gentleman, Dr. Kratochwil from Saaz in Bohemia, placed me under the deepest obligation for their cordial hospitality, I was furnished with a variety of most interesting details of the sanitary statistics of the Isthmus, and some curious and valuable particulars respecting the poison with which the Indians arm their arrow-tips. In Panama is published a most ably-edited daily paper in English, the "Panama Star and Herald," conducted by two Americans, Messrs. Power and Boyd, which so fully and impartially treats of the political, social, and commercial condition of the Isthmus and the South American Republics, as makes it indispensable for every one to subscribe to it who takes any interest in the development of this remarkable country. It is chiefly due to these two large-minded, far-seeing gentlemen that we possess a statistical detail of the very important commerce of the Isthmus, as well as along the west coast of South America. These
figures now lie before me, and give better than anything else a fair and complete estimate of its present activity, which, it may be remarked en passant, has owed nothing to the natives, but is entirely due to the energy of foreigners.
No fewer than 64 powerful mail steamers, of the united burthen of 96,000 tons, and representing a money value of at least £4,000,000, ply, part on the Atlantic side (Southampton viâ St. Thomas, and New York to Aspinwall), part on the Pacific side to the various harbours on the west coast of America, and keep up regular communication between Europe and that series of States, consisting of not less than 11,000,000 human beings. The value of the products and merchandise annually passing to and fro across the Isthmus amounts to about £15,000,000, while the amount of precious metals is not very much less.
The pearl-fishery in the Gulf of Panama has of late years notably fallen off from its former importance. At present it lags far behind that of the Persian Gulf, from which there are annually about £300,000 worth brought up, whereas here, notwithstanding the enormous extent of the pearl-oyster-banks, the yearly take of pearls does not exceed £24,000. Indeed the fishery is carried on less for its costly contents than for the sake of the mother-of-pearl itself, of which some 800 or 900 tons are shipped annually.
On 23rd June I went by rail from Panama to Aspinwall, on the Atlantic side. Except on the days when the steamers on either side bring their fortnightly quota of passengers,
the traffic of the line is very small. When, however, the passenger steamer at either end has disembarked her living freight, the Isthmus is all alive, and the coffers of the Company are amply replenished. The number of passengers both ways annually has been estimated at from 36,000 to 40,000, and the gross receipts of the Company at from £200,000 to £300,000.[155]
The fare for the somewhat short distance, 47 miles, is high. There is but one class of carriage, and the charge is £5 5s., besides 10 cents (5d.) for every pound of baggage above 30 lbs. But it must always be borne in mind that enormous difficulties had to be overcome in the construction of the line, and that the cost of maintaining the permanent way in anything like order is very great, in consequence of the climate and the rich tropical vegetation. Whoever has struggled through the almost impenetrable forests of the Isthmus, before the rail passed through it, and bears in mind the immense physical difficulties of that laborious operation, would thankfully pay double the sum now charged for performing within a few hours a journey which often occupied a whole week.
The construction of the Panama Railroad was commenced in 1850, the first sod being cut on the Atlantic side. On 27th January, 1855, the locomotive first performed the journey from ocean to ocean. The cost of construction amounted to about £1,100,000.[156] This capital was speedily subscribed by the eager speculative Yankees, and, as the result proved, insured from the very first to the shareholders a handsome constantly-increasing dividend.
The concession enjoyed by the Company from the Government of New Granada only lasts for twenty years, from the day on which the entire line is opened; on the expiry of that period the New Granada Government must either pay down 5,000,000 dollars (the entire cost of construction), or extend the concession for ten years more. At the expiration of this second term, the Government may purchase for 4,000,000 dollars, or grant a third term of equal length, after which they are to be at liberty to purchase it for 2,000,000 dollars.
The traffic managers of the line, Messrs. Lewine and Dorsay, showed me the most polite attention. The resident director, Mr. Center, whose office is in Aspinwall, and to whom I had letters of introduction, invited me by telegraph to make free use of the line, as nothing would give him greater pleasure than to become of some service to a scientific traveller. I took with me fourteen goodly packages, chiefly
collections of natural history. Most of these required great care and attention, some on account of their fragile texture, others in consequence of being of a perishable nature. All these were transported with as much care as though they had been charged the very highest rate of freight. The treatment of scientific travellers is to some extent a measure of the degree of civilization of a people. Hence it is that the North American States and the British colonies are the points of the globe where the efforts of scientific travellers elicit the heartiest sympathy, where he may count upon the most friendly reception, and the most cordial co-operation in carrying out the objects he has in view. And speaking now after ten years of the most varied experiences of travel, I look back thankfully to the conspicuous evidences of good-will which I have universally received from all Americans, from the banks of the St. Lawrence to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and recall with gratitude how every class of the community bestirred itself to promote and facilitate the scientific researches of a solitary traveller,—how, more particularly, the press, that great power of the intellect, lent the utmost assistance of its influential position to forward my wishes, and how its columns, thanks to the interest its conductors themselves felt, were always open in the most remote districts to welcome the stranger. And now, when for a second time I received from the sons of that same mighty republic the same cordiality of welcome, I recalled with redoubled vivacity the happiness of those long-vanished but most pleasant days, as I
record this tribute with so much the more satisfaction, that I felt it was not the individual but his profession that was thus honoured, as is abundantly proved by the experience of many another scientific traveller.
The journey across the Isthmus, right through the heart of the primeval forest, which was decked out in its gayest attire, is one of the most exciting, soul-stirring scenes that the eye of the lover of nature ever rested upon. In no part of the world have I seen more luxuriant and abundant vegetation than is presented by the forests of Central America, and more especially upon the Isthmus. And, as if to heighten still further the sense of marvel and enchantment, one traverses this magnificent forest landscape behind a locomotive running on its iron track. What a contrast! The wild ravel of creepers and the green feathery branches of the palms almost penetrate into the waggons, and tell with unmistakeable emphasis that the traveller is indeed surrounded by all the beauties of Nature in her tropic garb. Trees of the most varied description and of colossal dimensions flourish in the foreign garment of a borrowed adornment. Between each solitary giant of a forest tree, parasites and Lianæ spread their delicate green coils, while many a gigantic stem, enveloped in thousands of beautiful shoots, or dead trunk choked in the embrace of a parasitic creeper, attracts the eye as the train speeds past. So quick and so strong is the process of vegetation here, that every section of this line has twice in each year to be freed from the encroachments of the forest-children; nay, were the
line to be left unused but for one twelvemonth, it would be difficult to discover any trace of its existence, so completely within that time would the whole district become once more a wilderness!
The physico-geographical conditions of the Isthmus have only latterly been made the subject of profound and exhaustive study by a German naturalist, who has published the result of his researches. The justly-dreaded climate was the main cause of its having been so long left unexamined. To that keen indefatigable savant, Dr. Moritz Wagner, my whilom faithful travelling companion through Northern and Central America, is due the praise of having first accurately and analytically investigated the territory of the Isthmus,—that dam which separates two ocean worlds as it may be considered from one point of view,—that bridge which unites two immense continents as it may be regarded from another,—and who, in so doing, has contributed many new and important facts to our previous stock of statistics respecting the hypsometrical and geognostic features of the Isthmus, as well as to the geographical distribution of the forms of organic life which are found there.
In the course of constructing the railroad, the geological profile of the country was laid open through a length of 47 miles. This fortunate circumstance the German naturalist availed himself of as an excellent opportunity for carrying out his design, but his labours were none the less beset with difficulties, and only his indomitable perseverance could have
carried him through the tropical intermittent fevers and mental anxiety, which at one time threatened to prostrate his physical strength, or even to lay him in his grave. Wagner had been first struck by the very remarkable evidence of an entire alteration in the form of the hills between Veragua and Obispo. This change in the vertical configuration, the decided depression of the Cordilleras, which is most apparent between Limon Bay (at the mouth of the Chagres river) and the Gulf of Panama, is just as much an important geological fact for physical geography, and for solving the important questions of the present and future commerce so intimately connected with the artificially cutting through of this neck of land, as the change in the horizontal configuration or the sudden compression of this part of the world in the north-west of the province of Choco, or the rugged steepness that characterizes the range of hills which forms the contour of the coast-line. The geological and botanical specimens, those most reliable of all data for physical generalization, with which Wagner illustrates his interesting exposition of the natural character, the prevailing formations, and the most prominent representations of the vegetation of the Isthmus, form at present a valuable part of the collections of natural history in the Museum of Munich.
The journey across is not made at the speed one would expect on a line where the locomotive is in charge of a Yankee. It takes four hours to do the 47 1⁄2 English miles. The stations are very numerous, often situate in the heart of the forest,
where there are only a few labourers' huts. Moreover, halts are frequent at spots where there are no passengers visible, either to take up or set down. One of the most beautiful of the stations is that at the little village of Paraiso, about nine miles distant from Panama, which lies in a kettle-shaped glade. At this point large clearings have been made, and the eye ranges over a rather more extended landscape, only bounded in fact by the contour of the neighbouring hills. The only inhabitants are negroes, mulattoes, and mestizoes, who for the most part are employed as labourers on the line. A few miles after leaving Paraiso, the train reaches the station of Culebra, or, as it is more generally called by the inhabitants, "the Summit," the narrow steep rise of which marks the water-shed between the Rio Grande, falling into the Pacific, and the Rio Chagres, which debouches into the Caribbean Sea. This is the highest point of the line. The actual height of the pass is 287 English feet, but it has been lowered by about 25 feet, so that Summit station is only 262 feet above the mean level of the ocean.
The most important village along the line is Matachin, a large straggling village, which, however, seems to be inhabited exclusively by negroes, mulattoes, and Zamboes. As I have previously remarked, the majority of the labourers on the line emigrated hither from the West Indies, especially Jamaica, attracted by the high wages of labour, and after it was completed, settled along its course in neat, clean, but small cottages. And whereas the baleful tropical climate
decimated every other class of labourer employed during the construction of the lines, these latter have flourished here better than any other description of settler. They seem to be universally healthy and well fed, and their oceans of children, who impart life to the landscape, attest that the women have not lost their fertility. They all seemed to be well and were neatly clothed. However, when I crossed, it happened to be a holiday, and consequently every one wore his Sunday dress, clean white trowsers, white shirt, and a narrow-brimmed hat of fine straw.
Near Barbacoa station the eye of the traveller, that has hitherto revelled in the voluptuous beauties of nature, rests with pleasure on a splendid trophy of human industry, an iron bridge, 600 feet long, which spans the River Chagres at this point. It was on one of the Cerros, a little west of Barbacoa, that Vasco Nuñez de Balboa first beheld both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans at once, and, regarding his stand-point in the Isthmus as a mere handful of earth, may have imagined himself a conqueror, whose glance comprehended both worlds.
The last portion of the line, as we near the Atlantic side, passes over vast swamps, which rendered the construction of this portion of the road exceedingly difficult and very expensive. Aspinwall itself moreover, the terminus of the Inter-oceanic Railway, lies on a small island, two-thirds of the surface of which is morass, and covered with tropical marsh vegetation. This station was selected, notwithstanding its
very unwholesome climate, chiefly because the roadstead of Limon Bay furnishes a safe anchorage in all weathers for vessels of even the largest size.
This small island, only 7000 feet long by 5800 wide, which was first named from the immense quantity of Hippomane mancinella, a tree with a very powerful poison, that is found on it, and is now called "Isla de Manzanilla," was formally made over by the New Granada Government to the American Company at the beginning of the works in the year 1852, and was used by it for the new city, as also for the erection of warehouses, &c.
Aspinwall, or Colon, as it is sometimes called, numbers at present some 1500 inhabitants, of whom 150 are North Americans and English, the rest negroes and mulattoes. The little town, with its neat frame-houses and clean cottages, involuntarily reminds one of the new settlements in the North American States. Here, besides the residences of the officials, are the warehouses and workshops of the Company. In the latter about 700 workmen are employed, while four schooners maintain uninterrupted communication between Aspinwall and New York, for the purpose of providing for the various wants of the crowded establishment. Even the very provisions are imported from North America. The resident director, Mr. A. J. Center, received me with the most hearty welcome, and during my entire stay continued to display the same kindness and interest, which he manifested from the moment he received my letter of introduction.
In Aspinwall the climate has within the last few years become more salubrious than at the period of the first colonization, when "Chagres fever" acquired a gruesome reputation, and no resident who stayed above two months in the place escaped the attack of the fever. Even mules and dogs could not escape the universal malaria. However, to this day a lengthened residence on this marshy soil is not unattended with danger, although the miasmatic poison has undoubtedly lost much of its virulence. The negroes longest resist its dangerous effect, after whom come the coolies, then the Europeans, while the Chinese are invariably the earliest attacked.[157]
On 23rd June, about midnight, I left Limon Bay in the steamer Medway. Having been committed to the charge of her captain by the kind attention of Mr. B. Cowan, the English Consul in Aspinwall, I found myself more comfortable and better attended to on board this small filthy old tub than I could possibly have expected. The Company avowedly employ in the Intercolonial lines the worst and most uncomfortable of their vessels, and the traveller who has to make any short passage, for instance, among the West India
islands, is exposed to the doubly disagreeable feeling of paying a very much higher rate of fare, for very inferior accommodation. The Medway was an old acquaintance of mine in my previous West Indian rambles, as in former years she performed the mail service between Belize, Jamaica, Hayti, Porto Rico, St. Thomas, and Havanna, and this opportunity of renewing my acquaintance with her I hailed with anything but a sentiment of satisfaction.
Early on the 25th June we ran into the extensive and beautiful bay of Carthagena, which now-a-days is only accessible on one side, the second entrance having been destroyed by the Spaniards during their supremacy, and never reopened. This seaport contains about 11,000 inhabitants, many churches and monasteries, as also large fortifications, but of trade and commerce there is next to nothing. In the roads there lay but three small coasting crafts. For the naturalist, and especially for the zoologist, Carthagena is on the other hand classic soil.
Our steamer was fairly beleaguered by shoals of small canoes with natives on board, who offered for sale any quantity of the most various and beautiful little denizens of the surrounding country. Any naturalist who should spend a short time here, might, with the assistance of the Indians, who seem to be both zealous and apt collectors, get together an extensive and most valuable zoological and botanical collection. Carthagena indeed presents in particular great advantages for the shipment to Europe alive of the more interesting
animals. These steamers do not take much above a fortnight hence to England, and if dispatched about May or June, the animals would sustain but little detriment from the change to a European climate at that season. Thus on the present voyage of the Medway there were numbers of animals and chests of plants in full bloom, consigned to various museums and private collections in England.
On 30th June we anchored in the small but delightful harbour of St. Thomas, with bright green hills forming a picturesque back-ground, relieved by the white houses of the inhabitants picturesquely grouped along their slopes.
St. Thomas had changed little from what I remembered it at my previous visit in 1855. At the last census it had 15,000 inhabitants, and its trade is visibly increasing. It is, however, extremely difficult to get at the statistics of the annual amount of shipping here, as there is no toll-house, and the Danish Government publishes no official information as to the general trade. According to a German merchant long resident here, the number of foreign ships of all nations entering and leaving the port amounts to 860 annually, of coasters about 3500, while the annual value of merchandise so transshipped is about 6,000,000 dollars. One very remarkable trade is that in ice, which reaches the enormous amount of 1000 tons annually, chiefly for distribution among the adjoining islands, by far the largest proportion of which comes from Boston, where it is worth 20 dollars per ton, and at St. Thomas 80 dollars per ton, or 3 1⁄2 cents per lb. One may
conceive that the entire ice-trade to the West Indies, South America, China, the Malay Archipelago, and the East Indies is in the hands of the keen North Americans, who evince a capacity for making a genial use of a natural phenomenon, which a less speculative race of men associate with the idea of cold, discomfort, and stagnation of intercourse.
M. A. Rüse, a wealthy chemist and zealous naturalist, by whom as by other German residents I was most kindly received, has acquired much distinction from his profound acquaintance with the lower animals of the West Indies, of which he possesses a small but valuable collection, chiefly of the Fauna of the islands of St. Thomas, Ste. Croix and Trinidad, and was so exceedingly courteous as to present me with duplicates of several of the most interesting. M. Krebs, merchant, and M. Kjaer harbour-master, also in their hours of relaxation gave me much valuable information on kindred topics, the latter gentleman farther presenting me with specimens from an excellent collection he had formed of petrifactions.
What, however, afforded me the sincerest satisfaction on the occasion of my present visit to St. Thomas, was the striking examples of industry, intelligence, and social comfort of the negro population. Of all nations among whom this curse of slavery has been implanted, the Danes have best comprehended how practically to solve the difficult problem of emancipation. The number of slaves in Danish colonies was at all times very small, and their manumission consequently more easy.
Nevertheless the mode adopted in getting rid of the evil is deserving of attention and imitation. The duty of labouring does not cease with the means of compelling it. Slaves emancipated by the Danish Government may spend the wages they receive for their labour at their own discretion, and are permitted to change masters at pleasure, but they cannot quit their former employer till they have found a fresh one. The rate of wages at St. Thomas is pretty high, and the black population, who form the largest contingent of the labouring population, not only finds constant occupation, but is remarkably well paid besides. The negroes on this island are, however, very handy and quick, thanks to the constant intercourse with foreign nations. Many of them speak several languages fluently, and a German traveller who visits the island for the first time is apt to be not a little surprised at finding himself addressed in his mother-tongue by a swarthy son of Africa.
Our departure was fixed for 1st July. The various mail steamers which had been expected from the different ports of the West Indies and the eastern coast of Central America, had all arrived. The fine and comfortable but old and slow steamer Magdalena was to leave for Europe at noon. Suddenly a sailing vessel came in like a Job's comforter, with the intelligence that the splendid new steamer Paramatta, which was about due with the mails from England, had on her first voyage gone ashore on the Anegada shoal near the island of Virgin Gorda, 60 nautical miles from St. Thomas, and with her
40 passengers, and a valuable cargo, was in need of instant relief. This intelligence again delayed our departure. It was at first determined to send off every disposable steamer to the scene of the disaster, and to detain the Magdalena, till full particulars of the mischance had been obtained, for transmission to the directors in London. Afterwards it was arranged that the Magdalena should proceed to the spot where the Paramatta was lying nearly high and dry, to assist if possible in floating the ship off the reef.
At 6 P.M. accordingly we steamed out of the Bay of St. Thomas. On the present occasion the Magdalena had 163 passengers on board, the majority of whom were planters from the various West India islands, bound on a pleasure trip during the hot season. Not merely the black servants, but even their white and chocolate-coloured masters, broke out into the most marvellous English or French jargon, according as they came from Jamaica and Demerara, from Martinique, Guadaloupe, or Hayti. The presence of a great number of children, who, so long as they kept free of sea-sickness, evidently considered the whole of the quarter-deck as especially designed for them to play on, in which notion they were zealously upheld by their mothers and their nurses, made the passage anything but agreeable. Moreover, the impression made by the grown-up passengers was such as to heighten one's aspirations for a speedy voyage. The intelligence which had been received from the seat of war in Italy gave rise to much excitement, and within the first twelve hours had made it apparent
that it was vain to hope for a pleasant voyage. Nothing was heard on every side but politics, and it may be left to the reader to guess in what tone they would be discussed, when Frenchmen, heated with visions of la gloire militaire, were the principal spokesmen.
Early the next morning we were near the reef, which had disabled the largest and finest of the Company's ships, that had just cost £140,000. The unfortunate ship had struck the reef when running 11 knots an hour, and now lay on her starboard side on the reef, having careened so far over that her port paddle-wheel was quite clear of the water. A committee on the spot having decided that she must be entirely dismantled before even her bare hull could be got off the reef, it was resolved not to detain the Magdalena, it being thought desirable that she should as speedily as possible make her way to Southampton, so as to enable the directors at once to determine what course to adopt, before the sailing of the next steamer. Our captain was furnished with a general account of the accident, together with a sketch by the head engineer of the position of the Paramatta, and with these the Magdalena was permitted to take her departure.
The voyage threatened to be long and tedious, though attempts were made to enliven the mornings and evenings by music, and an occasional dance on deck. The former might have been made very agreeable, had not the chef d'orchestre, who was second steward, ventured on playing his own compositions as often as possible. To please the susceptibilities of
the two nationalities, God save the Queen and Partant pour la Syrie were regularly called for each night. A more serious cause of alarm was the fear lest we should have to put into some intermediate port to coal. When she left St. Thomas the Magdalena had 1200 tons on board, but as, notwithstanding constant calms and a sea like a mill-pond, she never made above 190 to 220 miles in the early part of the voyage, at a consumption of 70 tons per day, there seemed every prospect of our exhausting our supply. As she consumed her stock, however, she lightened perceptibly, till she even got up to the for her unusual speed of 280 miles a day. How different from the same Company's ships Atrato and La Plata, which frequently make 340 miles a day, and in fact average only 13 days on the passage home, while the average of the Magdalena and her consorts is 18 days!
At last, on 18th July, we sighted the Lizard's. Although barely 200 miles from our destination, the captain thought it best to put into the nearest port for a supply of coal, and shortly after noon we anchored in Falmouth Harbour, where the first intelligence we got was that peace had been concluded. Singular to say, even this intelligence produced no accession of harmony between the two great political parties on board. As for myself, I had kept as much as possible by myself; and now stepping ashore, I wandered through the narrow dirty streets of Falmouth, which presents the accurate type of the old-fashioned English provincial town. The meadows and sloping hills around shone forth in all the fresh
verdure of spring. Even the traveller fresh from the voluptuous loveliness of the tropics, finds ever new beauties in the manifold variety of nature. The more the student of Nature walks with her and finds in her his chief pleasures, the more receptive does his soul become for all that is marvellous and beautiful, as from day to day they present themselves in new and unexpected phases.
The same evening the Magdalena resumed her voyage, and about noon on the 19th we passed the renowned "Needles," and in two hours afterwards reached Southampton. Dire was the confusion on board, each person wishing to have his own trunk conveyed on shore the first. I found with my voluminous boxes the most courteous consideration. It sufficed to explain the object of my travels to have all my luggage passed without examination. For down to the English Custom House officials, who are not, it must be confessed, prone to show much tenderness to travellers' baggage, extends that honourable feeling of respect for science which Englishmen of all grades seem to entertain. The same evening I reached London.
As the next steamer for Gibraltar was not to leave for eight days, I immediately started to London, and availed myself of this opportunity to renew old acquaintance, and make up my leeway as regarded the important strides and valuable discoveries made in the fields of science during my long absence from Europe. The warm interest and cordial reception I met with from such gentlemen as Sir Roderick
Murchison, General Sabine, Sir Charles Lyell, Professor Owen, Dr. Gray, Mr. Henry Reeve, Mr. Crawford, Mr. John Murray, Mr. Ellis, and many others, was the most gratifying and conclusive evidence of the interest and high expectations which the Novara Expedition had excited among scientific circles in England.
On 27th July I embarked on board the P. and O. Company's steamer Behar, Captain Black, en route to Gibraltar, which I reached after a passage of 4 1⁄2 days, and, what is still more curious, by a singular coincidence, at the very same moment when the Novara, with every stitch of canvas set, was proudly careering through the famous Straits!! As the noble frigate shot past our steamer, Captain Black saluted, and was so thoughtfully kind as to signal the Novara that I was among his passengers. Very soon after, both ships anchored in the roads of Gibraltar. In the course of my overland journey from Valparaiso to Gibraltar, I had travelled 8832 nautical miles, and had been but 29 days actually travelling.
I now felt pervaded by a sentiment of profoundest gratitude to a benevolent fate, which had led me safely and pleasantly through so many dangers till I rejoined that Expedition with which not alone the best and happiest remembrances of my life are henceforth associated, but which opened to me the unspeakably gratifying prospect of being better able to contribute, by extended knowledge and experience, to the advancement of science in my native land!