Notwithstanding ample supplies of guano have been discovered besides all along the west coast of South America, on uninhabited islands and promontories, and upwards of 7,000,000 tons of this valuable commodity been found on the islands south of Callao alone,[130] yet, even should this statement turn out correct, it would only supply the existing demand for other 10 or 15 years, while the formation of beds of guano must year after year become more and more confined to solitary, inaccessible islands of the Southern Ocean. For so soon as such beds of guano begin to be explored, they are quickly abandoned by the birds, which are gradually retreating from the islands along the coast and the usual channels of commerce.
The Peruvian Government does not seem to realize the calamity impending over the country on the exhaustion of the guano beds, which would dry up one of its principal sources of revenue. Certainly it seems impossible to make a more unwise use of the immense sums which are flowing
into the State treasury. Nothing is done for making roads or railways so as to furnish intercourse with the fertile provinces of the interior, or to raise and encourage agriculture or commerce. Just as this revenue does not result from the energy or industrial activity of the people, it is expended without any object of utility to show for it. The Government pockets the dues as a monopoly, and expends the sums thus obtained in avaricious schemes of aggrandizement, or warlike expeditions against Ecuador and Bolivia, which keep the country in perpetual hot water, and only add to its burthens. The guano duties go in gunpowder! Lightly won, as lightly gone!
During the nine days of our voyage between Valparaiso and Callao de Lima there were some musicians on board, who gave us a concert on deck every evening. As we left the Chincha Islands some frolicsome young Peruvians, disregarding the discord of the flute and violin, and unmindful of the timeless tuneless twanging of the two harps, got up a dance.
In the course of the night we ran into Callao harbour, and when I came on deck, in the cool of the morning, I found we were already lying at anchor in this spacious and secure port. The tradition that with a calm sea and a clear sky it is possible to perceive the ruins of the old town, with its houses and church-towers, which sank here suddenly in 1746 by the shock of an earthquake, has survived to the present day, and is told to every new-comer, who greedily swallows it down, though not one of the narrators has ever beheld the
marvel with his own eyes! Earthquakes, indeed, are by no means so frequent as at the beginning of the present century, when it was rare for a fortnight to elapse without at least one temblore or horizontal oscillation. The vertical shocks (terra-motos), the most dangerous kind of earthquake, have not occurred here since 1828. The season at which earthquakes most frequently occur are the months of March, April, and September, whence the latter month has received from the people the jocular name of "Se tiembla!" (it trembles!) One Peruvian who has long occupied himself with scientific observations has repeatedly witnessed that a magnet, freely suspended, regularly lost its attractive powers a few minutes before each shock, and that a piece of steel held by the magnetic force fell to the ground. If this be confirmed by a series of observations the magnet might ultimately become a sort of earthquake-monitor.
The Callao of the present day is a dirty, ugly hole, with narrow streets, and low houses built principally of mud and cane, with flat roofs. Only a few of the houses of foreigners, erected out of hearing of the hubbub of the port, form a grateful exception. The entire population will be about 20,000 souls.
The most interesting building of the port is undoubtedly the new Custom House with 31 colossal magazines, each capable of containing six to eight entire ships' freights. I repeatedly heard complaints made of the slovenliness of the attendants, in consequence of which it frequently happened
that days elapsed ere goods, paid for, were delivered out of bond. The warehouse charge is very small, and consists chiefly of stamp-duties, which are imposed on the money paid for goods. The trade of Callao is apparently on the increase, and, considering the productiveness of the country, would be even greater, were internal order restored, when peace and confidence would follow in its train.
As I had to prosecute my journey northwards by the next steamer, I hastened on to Lima, so as to satisfy my curiosity as to this the most important city of Peru in modern days. A few hours after my arrival in Callao, I found myself on the road to the "City of the Kings."[131] Only a few years back the journey from Callao to Lima, though only six English miles, was an exceedingly arduous and even dangerous undertaking. The road lay through a shadeless desert of deep sand, between uncultivated fields and low scrubs, and was absolutely unsafe owing to attacks of robbers. Now it is a frequent excursion, a tolerably good railroad performing the distance in about half an hour.