1856.] WJiere and How Guano is Obtained. 441 



kept in irons and confined below in the ship. The Peruvian Govern- 

 ment purchase the cargo of living Coolies, paying the Yankee or Eng- 

 lish captain a round sum for his care, diligence, and labor in stealing 

 Chinamen from their homes, to be sent into the guano mines of Peru 

 for life, or for from five to seven years, and to be held in bondage or 

 peonage to pay their passage to the glorious land of the Meas. 



The guano is hard, and can only be broken up with the pick-axe. It 

 is then broken and shoveled into the wagons, and rolled from the 

 shutters into the vessels. 



No person can go upon or come away from the islands without a 

 pass, as they are guarded by more than one hundred armed soldiers 

 belonging to Peru. 



The Peruvians send all their prisoners of State into the guano 

 mines — say from about two to three hundred — where they are let out to 

 work by day, and at night are shut up in their cells, with only two 

 meals per day. These prisoners are generally provided with wives, 

 or female companions, who have been permitted to go to the islands, 

 and hire themselves out for work and prostitution. They are mostly 

 Indians — natives of the country. There is no fresh water on the 

 islands, and each vessel is compelled by law to carry a ton of fresh 

 water there for every hundred tons burden of the ship. The oldest 

 captain in the fleet from each nation is appointed commodore, and 

 hoists his flag as such on his ship, where all disputes are settled. 

 Indeed, the municipal laws of the islands and the fleet are decidedly 

 of Yankee origin. 



The islands are about ten miles from the main land, and are com- 

 posed of new red sandstone. The guano is not all bird-dung, but is 

 largely composed of the mud of the ocean ; that brought from Peru is 

 so, at least. When anchors are hoisted into the ship from the holding- 

 grounds of vessels along the Peruvian coast, large quantities of mud, 

 of a greenish-white color, are brought up, and this mul, when dried, 

 makes guano equally good with the guano taken from the islands. 



The birds and seals come upon the island when the people are not 

 at work; but it does not appear that their dung or decayed bodies is 

 more than a foot deep on any of the islands. Fish are taken in great 

 abundance about these islands, as are also seals, which come there in 

 large schools. Sea-lions also abound. The composition taken from 

 the islands, called guano, is stratified, and lies in the same form it did 

 before it was lifted up from the bottom of the ocean. 



Our informant says that a geographical examination of the islands 

 will satisfy any man that the guano ships are bringing away from these 



