18 A VOYAGE TO Book VII. 



St. Pedro. We found its latitude to be 7" 46' 40" S. 

 ^Thc adjacent country being watered by the river 

 called Ciiicama, distributed to it by canals, pro- 

 duces the greatest plenty of sugar canes, grapes, 

 fruits of dirt'erent kinds, both European and Creole: 

 and particularly maize, which is the general grain 

 used in all Valles. From the banks of the river 

 Lambayeque to this place, sugar canes flourish near 

 all the other rivers, but none of them equal, either 

 iu goodness or quantity, those near the river Chi-*. 

 cama, 



Choc(1pe consists of betwixt SO and 90 bax- 

 a>reque houses, covered with earth. The inhabi- 

 tants, wlio are^between (30 and 70 families, are 

 chiefly Spaniards, with some of the other easts ; but 

 not above 20 or 25 of Indians. Its ehurch is 

 built of bricks, and both large and decent. They 

 report here, as something very remarkable, that ia 

 the year 1726, there was a eontinual rain of 40 

 nights, beginning constantly at four or five in the 

 evening, and ceasing at the same hour next morning, 

 the sky being clear all the rest of the day. This un- 

 expected event intirely ruined the houses, and 

 even the brick church, so that only some fragments 

 of its v.alls remained. What greatly astonished the 

 inhabitants was, that during the whole time the 

 southerly winds not only continued the same, but 

 blew with so much force, that they raised the sand, 

 though thoroughly wet. Two years after a like phaeno- 

 meuon v/asseen for about eleven or twelve days, but 

 v/as not attended with the same destructive violence 

 as the former. Since which time nothing of this kind 

 has happened, nor had any thing like it been remem- 

 bered for manv vears before. 



CHAP 



