JOH\ HARRISON BLAKE. 



ing the country between the Pacific Ocean and the And. stitutius 



the extreme southern part of Peru, the western part of Bolivia, and 

 northern part of Chili, and all the knowledge that could In- obtaiued was 

 that it was, for the most part, uninhabited and uninhabitabl tute 



of vegetation, and known as the Desert of Atacama ; it was on the sh 

 of the northern part of this desert that the shipment ports referred to 

 were situated. 



The winter of 183-J and 1836 was very old. New York harbor was 

 frozen over, and it was not until the 10th of February, 1836, nearly a 

 month after the time proposed for her departure, that the ship " Factor," 

 in which Mr. Blake was a passenger, made her way through a channel 

 cut in the ice and sailed Eor Valparaiso, where she arrived June !>, 

 sailing again on the 9th of duly for Arica and Tacna, whence Mr. Blake 

 prOc :e led by land to Pisaqua and Iquique, arriving at the latter p] 

 on the 6th of August. The next three months were devoted to surveys 

 in the province of Tarapaca, and on the 7th of November Mr. Blake left 

 Iquique with a pack train, two Indians, and dogs to make the first re- 

 corded exploration of the Desert of Atacama from north to south, arriving 

 at Valparaiso on the 10th of March, having occupied four months and 

 three days in a trying passage over an arid and waterless region, in which 

 all of the animals were lost and the men nearly perished from thirst. 



On March 15 Mr. Blake left Valparaiso for Buenos Ayres by San- 

 tiago, the pass of Uspalato and Mendoza, crossing the Andes and the 

 Pampas de la Plata, arriving on the 28th of April and making prepara- 

 tions for immediate departure for the United States.* 



At this time Rosas, the then Dictator of the Argentine Republic, was 

 engaged in strengthening his position by military activity and the pro- 

 j cted subjection of the Indian tribes to the westward. Mr. Blake \ 

 lined as consulting engineer on fortifications, and was not relea 

 until the autumn of 1837/j" when he returned to the United St t< - to find 



* The only record of this interesting and perilous journey is to be found in 

 family letters, in the collection of mummies and other objects oi archaeological 

 value now in the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, ami in the description oi I 

 collection published from .Mr. Blake's notes in the reports of the Museum, i 

 carefully kept notebook, containing not only the daily incidents ol travel, but 

 especially the memoranda of geologic observations, of barometric m< 

 ami surveys, was stolen after Mr. Blake's return to this country, and m 

 recovered. 



Information to he derived from a traveller who had just crossed the continent 

 was of value, ami Mr. Blake received a courteous not. that a house adjoin- 



ing that of the British Embassy bad been placed at his disposal, and req liim 



