When I left Lambayeque I was obliged to prepare myself with a guide, and a spare mule, for water and provisions, as well for ourselves as for the animals, because we had now to traverse the desert of Sechura, the largest on the Peruvian coast. We left Lambayeque, and halted the first night at a small village called Morope, four leagues distant from that place. The road between these towns is often frequented by robbers, who are generally runaway slaves, simarones, who lurk among the low brushwood on the road sides, and attack the passengers; they seldom molest a person if they observe that he is armed, but they plunder the indians and mountaineers, serranos, of their money and goods, and murders are more frequently committed here than in any part of Peru. A short time before I passed this way, the police officers and the militia had apprehended five of these simarones; to effect this they set the brushwood on fire in several places, and in a short time the whole was in flames, so that the robbers were actually burnt out of their hiding places.
Morope contains about ninety houses or huts, ranchos, built of cane covered with clay, and a thousand inhabitants, all indians. The parish church is a large neat building, extremely clean, and tastefully ornamented within. We here filled our calabashes with water, and my indian guide purchased some maize for the mules; as the chicha here is mascada, I preferred putting water into my two small calabashes, which I carried in my saddle bags, alforjas.
We left Morope at four o'clock in the afternoon, and arrived before it was dark at the Medanos; these are hills of sand in the form of a crescent, the convex side being always opposed to the wind, for as it shifts, the sand is blown up the one side and falls down on the other; thus these hills are continually changing their size and situation, flitting from one place to another, to the imminent danger of a traveller, should his guide be ignorant of the road, for all traces disappear, by the sand continually drifting along with the wind. If a guide have any reason to suspect that he is out of the track, he will alight, take up a handful of the sand and smell to it, because the dung and urine of the mules that traverse the desert communicate an odour to the sand along the road, which in other parts it does not possess. About midnight we met a troop of laden mules, and halted to converse with the muleteers; we drank some of their chicha, and I invited them to partake of ours; I had brought some brandy, aguardiente, and had no chicha, but they did not appear to relish it less than they would have done their countrymen's liquor, for they emptied my bottle. I drank some of theirs, and ate some sweet cakes, which they called alfajor; they were very good. At parting I told them I was glad I had met them, because it was a proof that we were not bewildered: that could not happen, said my guide, for the Cross is our director, pointing to the constellation behind us in the heavens; and it is not midnight yet, said he, for the cross leans to yesterday; the two stars at the top and the foot of this beautiful constellation were not erect in the south.
After travelling about two leagues more, we met a traveller with his guide, who saluted us with buen viage, a good journey to you; morning is coming, the cross bends to the sea, and I must arrive early at Morope. This was an excuse for not halting; and we continued our route. When the first rays of morning began to appear, the air became suddenly chill, and I put on my poncho; my guide did the same, and said to me, "the light drives the frosty air from the mountains, serros, before it; it is always cold in the morning in the desert, but this refreshes us before the sun comes to burn us in the rest of our journey." Whether this chilly sensation felt at sunrise be merely the result of the absence of the sun, for it is then the longest period since it set; or whether it be partly apprehension at beholding the sun again without feeling the heat which it afterwards communicates, I cannot determine; but I have universally experienced the effect in tropical climates. During the whole of this day, we saw nothing save sand and sky; and although I was accustomed to travel on the coasts of this country, I now experienced an indescribable dulness and languor; at length, before night closed, the two steeples of the church at Sechura became visible; but they had more the appearance of a vessel at sea than of church steeples. At nine o'clock on the following morning we arrived at the town of Sechura; I went to the house of the alcalde, and immediately laid myself down and slept very soundly, being excessively fatigued by a journey of forty leagues over the most dreary country I had ever witnessed.
The town of Sechura contains about two hundred and fifty houses, and two thousand inhabitants, all of whom are indians, equally industrious and temperate as those of Eten; the men are principally muleteers and fishermen, the women employ themselves in spinning and weaving cotton. The church in this town is a surprising edifice; it has two very high steeples, and a handsome cupola built of brick; it is roofed with cane, which is covered with clay, and the whole evinces enormous labour, both in procuring the materials of which it is built, as well as in the erection of the edifice; it is, indeed, one of those monuments of industry and labour which must ever attract the attention of travellers. This is the first town in the jurisdiction of Piura, and all passengers must present to the alcalde their passports, without which they cannot obtain either mules or a guide.
I left Sechura immediately after I awoke, and had taken some refreshment, feeling anxious to arrive at Piura, it being the first town founded by the Spaniards in South America. After travelling over ten leagues, all of which is a sandy plain, I arrived at Piura, and immediately went to the house of a gentleman for whom I had letters; and although it was near midnight I received a hearty welcome from all the family, who left their beds to see the stranger.
Although Piura is always accounted the first Spanish settlement in South America, it is not exactly the same place which Pizarro founded in 1531; that town stood on the plain of Targasola, at a short distance from the site of the present city, and from whence it was removed on account of the insalubrity of the climate. The present city, which is the capital of the province, was founded by Don Francisco Pizarro, who also built here the first Christian church in Peru. It contains at present a parish church, a convent of San Francisco and one of La Merced, and a hospital under the management of the Bethlemite Friars. The houses are built either of canes covered with clay, or of sun-dried bricks; and very few have an upper story. The streets are not paved, and consequently, like those of Truxillo, they are almost ankle deep in sand and dirt. The enormous quantity of bugs in the houses is quite a nuisance. The inhabitants of Piura amount to about nine thousand; they are Spaniards, white creoles, indians, negroes, and mixed breeds.
Piura is noted for the finest breed of mules in Peru; many are taken to Truxillo, Lima and other places, both on the coast and in the interior, for sale; some of them fetch the amazing high price of two hundred and fifty dollars each. The breed of goats is also very extensive in this district; in the capital large quantities of soap and leather, cordovanes, are prepared and carried for sale to Guayaquil, Quito, Cuenca, Panama, and Lima. Some cotton goods are manufactured here, but not to the same extent as at Lambayeque. The principal occupation of the men is to attend to their mules, for the services of which there is great demand, because all the goods landed at Piura are carried by mules to Lima, a distance of three hundred and eighty leagues, besides which their own productions are thus transported to that and other places. The manufacture of cordage from the maguey employs many persons in the interior of the province, and considerable quantities of this cordage is consumed by the merchants in Peru in cording bales of merchandize and other similar purposes; but it has never yet been applied to naval equipments, except in the canoes and balsas.
As part of this province is mountainous, it contains a variety of climates; but that of the capital is hot and dry to such a degree, that if a sheet of paper be placed on the ground in the evening, it may be taken up at any hour of the night or morning, and written on without any inconvenience, for it will be found perfectly dry. Many persons afflicted with syphilis resort to Piura for the purpose of being cured, which is effected by merely residing here, without the aid of any medicine. It is believed that the water which is usually drunk contributes more to the re-establishment of their health than the climate; for, in its course, it runs over very extensive beds of sarsaparilla, and the fallen trees of palo santo, the guiaco trees; and as the bed of the river is completely dry during the summer months, the inhabitants are obliged to dig wells in the bed of the river, at which time the water being more strongly impregnated with the virtues of these two vegetables, it is considered more efficacious in removing that disease. Some patients are buried to the neck in the sand for one or two hours, and drink copiously of the water, by which means a most profuse perspiration is produced, and their cure is very much facilitated. The poor people here make use of pieces of dry palo santo as a substitute for candles; they merely light the end of the stick, and a flame of a reddish colour is produced, which continues to burn till the whole stick is consumed, communicating an agreeable scent to the house.
Piura is not well situated for mercantile business; it commands none of the interior provinces, and its own population can never render it a place of importance. Fourteen leagues from Piura is the sea-port of Paita, and to the goods landed here from Panama, destined to be carried to different parts of Peru, the inhabitants of Piura owe their principal occupation.