Paita is a very commodious and well frequented port, in latitude 5° 5' S.; the anchorage is good, and the landing is excellent. The town of Paita was destroyed in 1741 by Anson; in the church of the Merced the friars shew an image of the Virgin Mary, which had its throat cut by one of the heretics who accompanied Anson, the blood yet remaining on her neck, and the wound unhealed. The present town is composed of about two hundred houses; the inhabitants are principally indians, many of them are employed in a seafaring life, and they are considered to be good sailors. The country around Paita is a complete barren sandy desert, not a drop of water nor a green leaf is any where to be seen, and the heat is remarkably oppressive. The water used here is brought from the river Colan, four leagues to the northward of Paita, in large calabashes, or earthen jars, on balsas or rafts, and it is consequently sold at a very high price to the ships in need of it, as well as to the inhabitants. Here is a Custom House, with the necessary revenue officers and a Governor. On the south side of the bay is a small fort, with four long brass cannons of eighteen pound calibre.
Owing to the constant clearness of the sky at Paita, perhaps no place in the world is better suited for an astronomical observatory; the stars are always visible at night, owing to the total absence of clouds; besides which the atmosphere is at all times of nearly the same density; no mists, dews or fogs, ever pervade it; it is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean on one side, and extensive sandy plains on the other; and, owing to the brilliancy with which the celestial bodies shine here, it is become proverbial to say, "as bright as the moon at Paita."
I embarked at Paita in a small brig belonging to an indian, who was the captain, and after a tedious coasting voyage of fifty-one days arrived at Callao.
CHAPTER VII.
Leave Lima for Guayaquil....Amortajado....Puná....Arrival of the Spaniards, and Conquest of....Village of....Inhabitant....Passage up the River Guayaquil....Punta de Arena....Guayaquil....Foundation and Description of....Buildings....Inhabitants....Amusements....Market....Fruit....Climate....Insects and Reptiles....Dock Yard....Project of Sawing Mills....Balsa, Description of....Navigation of....Canoes....Merchants of Guayaquil.
On my arrival at Lima, his Excellency the Count Ruis de Castilla solicited me as an attendant to accompany him to Quito, the King having appointed him the President, Captain-general, &c. I immediately embraced the proposals, and in June, 1808, we embarked at Callao for Guayaquil, where his Excellency being detained by an indisposition, I enjoyed a month's leisure to visit different parts of the province.
At the entrance of the river Guayaquil is an extraordinary rock, called el amortajado, the shrouded corpse, from the resemblance which it bears to a body shrouded in the Franciscan habit; the head, the body, the arms folded on the breast, and the rising of the feet, as the whole seems to lie on its back, are very correctly seen at the distance of from two to five miles.
Having arrived at the island of the Puná, we anchored for the purpose of waiting for the next tide, having had a pilot, practico, to bring us hither. The island stretches S.W. and N.E. about eight leagues, and is about four leagues broad in its widest part. In 1530 Don Francisco Pizarro landed here, at which time it was governed by a chief or Cacique; Pizarro was tempted to visit this island by the accounts he had received from the Indians at Tumpis, who were at war with those of the Puná, that these latter were in possession of immense quantities of gold. On the arrival of Pizarro, the natives opposed his landing; but having effected it, a sharp engagement ensued, in which a considerable number of Indians were slain; three Spanish soldiers also were killed, and several more were wounded, among whom was Don Hernando Pizarro. At the time of the first landing of the Spaniards on this island, in 1530, it was inhabited by upwards of twenty thousand Indians; but from the persecution which they suffered for having bravely opposed their invaders—when a census was taken in 1734, only ninety-six remained; and since that period those few have all retired to Machala.