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.