This valuable production appears to be the excrement of sea birds, immense numbers of which frequent and breed on the islands; and the accumulation is doubtless owing to the total absence of rain. It is of a pale brown colour when dry, and easily reducible to powder; when fresh it has rather a reddish appearance; the surface stratum for a foot deep is whitish, and contains feathers, bones of birds, and shells of eggs. It is asserted, that the huano, the name by which this production is known, is certainly fossil earth; but the quality of the upper stratum, which although at first white, gradually inclines to yellow, being incontestibly the excrement of birds, and equal to the other, the subject seems to demand a stricter scrutiny.
A species of birds frequenting these islands in great abundance is called huanay: hence the original name of the matter now used as manure. The bird is of black plumage, is as large as the seagull, and breeds during the whole year, with this peculiarity, that each nest, being only a hole in the huano, contains a fledged bird, an unfledged one, and one egg; whence it appears, that there is a constant succession, without the old birds undergoing the confinement of brooding their eggs. The indians take many of the young birds, salt them, and consider them a great delicacy; however they have a strong fishy taste.
The principal produce of the neighbourhood of Pisco, including the valleys of Chincha and Cañete, is vines, from which about one hundred and fifty thousand gallons of brandy are annually made. The brandy is kept in earthen jars, each holding about eighteen gallons. The vessels are made in the neighbourhood; their shape is that of an inverted cone, and the inside is coated with a species of naptha. The brandy, generally called pisco, from the name of the place where it is made, is of a good flavour, and is not coloured, like the French brandy. One kind, made from the muscadine grape, and called aguardiente de Italia, is very delicate, possessing the flavour of Frontignac wine, and is much esteemed. Little wine is made, and that little is of a very inferior quality; it is generally thick and sweet, owing perhaps to the juice of the grape being boiled for a considerable time before it is fermented.
Near to Pisco is a vineyard called de las hoyas, of the pits, or holes; these are excavations made originally by the indians, or aborigines, who being well versed in agriculture, cleared away the sand, and opened a species of pits, in search of humidity. This immense labour was occasioned by the difficulty or impossibility of procuring water from the river Cañete for irrigation. The original use of the hoyas was perhaps the growth of maize or camotes; but vines are now planted in them, which produce most abundantly, requiring no other cultivation or care than merely pruning, for the branches are allowed to stretch along the sands.
The vine planters monopolized the making of spirituous liquors in Peru. They procured from the King of Spain, Carlos III., a royal order, prohibiting the manufacture of any ardent spirit in Peru, except from the grape; and the importation of spirits subjected the importers to very severe penalties; for having also represented to the pope, Clement XIV., the destructive qualities of any other spirituous liquors in Peru, the royal order was backed by a papal excommunication, fulminated against all contrafactors and contraventors.
Dates abound, and when properly dried are superior to those of the coasts of Barbary. Here are many prolific plantations of olives; the figs are also very good, and pine-apples prosper well.
In the valley of Chincha are several large sugar plantations; two belong to the Count de Montemar y Monteblanco, and one near the coast, called Caucato, to Don Fernando Maso, where there is an extensive manufactory of soap. The number of slaves on the plantations of Chincha, Pisco, and Cañete is estimated at about eight thousand.
Between Pisco and Lima there is an indian village, called Chilca; it is on a sandy plain, devoid of water as well as vegetation; the natives often procure water by digging pits in the sand, but these sometimes fail them, and they are then obliged to fetch this indispensably necessary article from the Cañete river, a distance of five leagues. The principal occupation of the inhabitants is fishing; they are very averse to the society of the whites, so much so that they allow none to reside in their village; even their parish priest is an indian cacique, a native of the village, whose education, and the expences of his ordination were paid by a subscription raised by them for the purpose.
Five leagues to the northward of Lima is the small port of Ancon, the residence of a few indian fishermen; the anchorage is good, and the landing is excellent. A few large fig trees grow on the sand, near the beach, the fruit of which is extremely delicate.
The road leading from Ancon to Chancay is over very deep sand; some parts of the road are level, while others lead over hills of sand, quite bare in summer or during the dry season: but scarcely do the garuas, fogs, make their appearance, when the whole is covered with the most luxuriant vegetation; at which time the cattle is driven on them from the neighbouring farms.