WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 519 



it and from the traffic in it. The fact is that in this country all the 

 wheat and corn and other crops are guano'd, i.e., fertilized with 

 guano, both before and after planting, in order to bear abundantly 

 and profitably. The explanation is that 40 leagues from this city, 

 near Tarapaca and within sight from shore, there is a small barren 

 island to which repair many frigates to load soil from this island ; 

 it is yellowish white, smelling like shellfish, and not very heavy ; 

 they call it guano and bring it in frigates to this city and all the 

 ports and valleys and sell it by the f anega ; it usually sells for 12 

 or 14 reals a fanega, and all the farmers buy it for their crops and 

 the Indians freight it on their llamas. In fact, they would rather 

 go without eating than without buying their guano, for with its use, 

 a fanega of grain usually yields 300, 400, or 500 fanegas, but without 

 it, yields no more than with us. So they put guano on all their plant- 

 ings and in this way a farmer gets more from 10 fanegas in those 

 valleys than from 100 with us; it happened that a certain Gonzalo 

 de Valencia sowed 8 almudes or celemines (pecks) of wheat in 

 clusters, as one plants beans ; he put guano on them and harvested 

 1,000 fanegas. And since so much has been taken from that barren 

 island, some say that it is soil that God put there for that purpose, 

 and others that it is the excrement of sea birds, which are so abundant 

 along that coast that they cover the heavens ; the Indians who cannot 

 get out there, go and hunt for it among the clififs along the shore ; 

 but it has enriched many who have made a business of it with their 

 frigates. 



1419. There is another mysterious and indispensable mine of wealth 

 in this country, as follows ; wherever you may be on these uninhabit- 

 able deserts, if you clear off four fingers of sand, or somewhat 

 more — and this applies to all this city's jurisdiction, together with 

 Locumba, Sama, and that whole country — you find salt mines and 

 slabs of salt, very white and good, and enough to supply the whole 

 world. 



1420. There is another mysterious mine in this country for the 

 relief of the poor, which is the following: in the months of February 

 and March, huge shoals of fish, small and large, come in from sea — 

 sardines, which they call anchovetas here, pejerreyes, tomollos, 

 mo j arras, and many other varieties of fish — and are pursued by 

 other larger fish, like young whales (ballenatos), of which there are 

 many along that coast, and other big fish, swordfish and seals. In 

 their flight from these large fish, the shoals come in toward the coast, 

 almost jumping along on top of the water, and under the water ; 

 that attracts quantities of sea birds, like gulls, tropic birds, fishing 



