Life on the Chlncha Islands — Statistics. 357 



guano beds. A handsome, comfortable hotel has latterly been 

 added. All the necessaries of life, even drinking water, have 

 to be brought from the mainland, 14 miles distant. Living, 

 consequently, is very expensive on the island, though there 

 is anything but privation, or even lack of enjoyment. One 

 of the inhabitants, a Swede, wlio has a small store on the 

 island, observed to me, '' We live as well and comfortably on 

 the Chincha Islands as anywhere on the globe, and have occa- 

 sionally even music and a dance ! " 



In May, 1859, the population consisted of 50 Europeans, 

 50 Chinese, and 250 Peruanos and Negroes. The majority 

 were labourers, who were in great request as '■'' Mangueros^'' 

 or '^ Aharrotadores^'' and were busily engaged in excavating the 

 indm-ated excrement, and transporting it to the various points 

 for lading. The daily wages of the free labourers was 

 1 dollar 50 cents (about 65. 3f/.) per diem ; the Chinese, on 

 the other hand, received only 5 dollars per month, and a daily 

 ration of rice. One Peruvian planter, Domingo Elias, had 

 imported at his own cost several hundred Chinese coolies, 

 who, like those in the West Indies, were to pay in labour for 

 the expense of their voyage. The remuneration given to 

 these hardy sons of the Middle Empire was of the scantiest. 

 While tliey had to work alongside of convicts, longer and 

 harder than any other class of labourers, they only received 

 one-tenth of the pay of the latter. 



The sanitary condition of the settlement was described to 

 me as exceedingly favourable. The guano-getters contribute 



