Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests

by Johann Jakob von Tschudi

CHAPTER III.

Juan Fernandez—​Robinson Crusoe—​Passage to Callao—​San Lorenzo—​Rise and fall of the coast—​Mr. Darwin's opinions on this subject—​Callao—​The Fortress—​Siege by the Spaniards—​General Rodil—​Siege by the Chilians—​The Colocolo—​Pirates—​Zoology—​Road to Lima.

With a favorable east wind we reached, in thirty-six hours, the island of Juan Fernandez, which lies in the latitude of Valparaiso. Ships from Europe, bound to Peru, which do not go into Chile, usually touch at Juan Fernandez to test their chronometers. It consists in fact of three islands, forming a small compact group. Two of them, in accordance with the Spanish names, may be called the Inward Island and the Outward Island, for the most easterly is called Mas a Tierra (more to the main land), that to the west is called Mas a Fuera (more towards the offing). That to the south, which is almost a naked rock, is the Isla de Lobos, which we may call Sea-dog Island. The two first are covered with grass and trees. Mas a Tierra is much longer, and better suited for cultivation than Mas a Fuera. In form the two islands have a striking resemblance to Flores and Cordua, islands of the group of the Azores. Until within these twenty years, Mas a Tierra was the place of exportation for convicts from Chile; but as it was found that the facility of escape is great, none are now sent there. In 1812 a number of prisoners of war were confined there, but the rats, which had increased in an extraordinary degree, consumed all the provisions sent from Chile. Several fruitless attempts have been made to populate the island, but that object is now given up, and it is only occasionally visited by sea-dog hunters. Ulloa speaks of the great number of sea-calves or dogs with which the island was frequented, and distinguishes kinds which belong to the short-eared species. Their skins are excellent, and they sell at a good price in England. Wild goats are numerous, and their propagation would be excessive were it not for the multitude of dogs, also wild, by which they are destroyed.

There is yet another kind of interest attached to Juan Fernandez. It was on Mas a Tierra that, in 1704, the celebrated English navigator, Dampier, landed his coxswain, Alexander Selkirk, with whom he had quarrelled, and left him there with a small quantity of provisions, and a few tools. Selkirk had lived four years and four months on this uninhabited island, when he was found there by the bucaneers Woods and Rogers, and brought back to Europe. From the notes which he made during his solitary residence, the celebrated Daniel Defoe composed his incomparable work, Robinson Crusoe.

The weather continued favorable, and in about a week we doubled the west point of San Lorenzo Island, where some Chilian cruizers were watching the coast. We soon entered the fine bay of Callao, and cast anchor in the harbor of the Ciudad de los Reyes. While rounding the island, an American corvette spoke us. She had left Valparaiso on the same day with us, and sailed also through the strait between San Lorenzo and the main land; yet, during the whole passage, we never saw each other.

No signals were exchanged between us and the shore, and no port-captain came on board. We were exceedingly anxious to know the issue of the Chilian expedition. Hostile ships of war lay off the port, but the Peruvian flag waved on the fort. At last a French naval cadet came on board, and informed us that the Chilians had landed successfully, and had taken Lima by storm two days previously. They were, at that moment, besieging the fortress. We immediately went on shore.

The town presented a melancholy aspect. The houses and streets were deserted. In all Callao we scarcely met a dozen persons, and the most of those we saw were negroes. Some of the inhabitants came gradually back, but in the course of a month scarcely a hundred had returned, and for safety they slept during the night on board merchant ships in the bay. At the village of Bella Vista, a quarter of a mile from Callao, the Chilians had erected their batteries for bombarding the fortress. As it was difficult to obtain provisions, the commanders of the foreign ships of war sent every morning a small detachment of sailors with a steward to Bella Vista, to purchase meat and vegetables. The merchant-ships joined in the practice, so that early every morning a long procession of boats with flags flying proceeded to the Chilian camp. But a stop was soon put to this, as an English butcher in Callao found means to go with the boats for the purpose of purchasing large quantities of meat, which he afterwards sold at an immense profit, to the fortress. Though the besieged did not suffer from want, they were far from having superfluity.

Having sufficient time to make myself acquainted with the country in the immediate vicinity of Callao, I took advantage of every opportunity for excursions; going from place to place by water, which was more safe than journeying by land.

The bay of Callao is one of the largest and calmest on the west coast of South America. On the south-west, it is bounded by the sterile island of San Lorenzo; on the north it flows into the creeks, which are terminated by the Punta Gorda, the Punta Pernal, the Punta de dos Playas, and the Punta de Doña Pancha. The beach is flat, for the most part shingly, and about the mouth of the Rimac, somewhat marshy. Between the mouth of the Rimac and that of the Rio de Chillon, which is a little southward of the Punta Gorda, there is a tract of rich marshy soil. A small boot-shaped tongue of land stretches from the fortress westward to San Lorenzo. On this spot are the ruins of old Callao.