362 PERU. 



[chap. XVI. 



Port, distant eighteen leagues from the town. There is very- 

 little land cultivated down the valley ; its wide expanse supports 

 a wretched wiry grass, which even the donkeys can hardly eat. 

 This poorness of the vegetation is owing to the quantity of saline 

 matter with which the soil is impregnated. The Port consists of 

 an assemblage of miserable little hovels, situated at the foot of a 

 sterile plain. At present, as the river contains water enough to 

 reach the sea, the inhabitants enjoy the advantage of having fresh 

 water within a mile and a half. On the beach there were largre 

 piles of merchandise, and the little place had an air of activity. 

 In the evening I gave my aclios, with a hearty good-will, to my 

 companion Mariano Gonzales, with whom I had ridden so many 

 leagues in Chile. The next morning the Beagle sailed for 

 Iquique. 



July 12th. We anchored in the port of Iquique, in lat. 

 20 12', on the coast of Peru. The town contains about a thou- 

 sand inhabitants, and stands on a little plain of sand at the foot 

 of a great wall of rock, 2000 feet in height, here forming the 

 coast. The whole is utterly desert. A light shower of rain falls 

 only once in very many years ; and the ravines consequently are 

 filled with detritus, and the mountain -sides covered by piles of 

 fine white sand, even to a height of a thousand feet. During this 

 season of the year a heavy bank of clouds, stretched over the 

 ocean, seldom rises above the wall of rocks on the coast. The 

 aspect of the place was most gloomy ; the little port, with its few 

 vessels, and small group of wretched houses, seemed overwhelmed 

 and out of all proportion with the rest of the scene. 



The inhabitants live like persons on board a ship : every ne- 

 cessary comes from a distance : water is brought in boats from 

 Pisagua, about forty miles northward, and is sold at the rate of 

 nine reals (4s. 6d.) an eigh teen-gallon cask : I bought a wine- 

 bottle full for threepence. In like manner firewood, and of course 

 every article of food, is imported. Very few animals can be 

 maintained in such a place : on the ensuing morning I hired with 

 difficulty, at the price of four pounds sterling, two mules and a 

 .guide to take me to the nitrate of soda works. These are at 

 .present the support of Iquique. This salt was first exported in 

 1830: in one year an amount in value of one hundred thousand 



