m * A VOYAGE TO Book VIL 



ing; all kinds of dishes whether of fiesli or fish, oil 

 being only used i.i salads and the like. This method 

 of cookery is said to have I'ad its riseAvhen the coun- 

 try afforded no oil, and has been contiiuied to the 

 present time, notwithstanding it is now produced in 

 great quantities. Antonia de Rivero, an inhabitant 

 of Lima in the year 1660, planted the first olive-tree 

 ever seen in Peru. 



From the mountains are often sent by way of 

 present, frozen calves ; being killed there, and left 

 two or three days on the heaths to freeze; after 

 •which they arc carried to Lima, where they may be 

 kept any time required^, without the least tendency 

 to putiefaction. 



Of fish there is still a greater variety daily 

 brought from the neighbouring parts of Ch orillos. 

 Callao, and Ancón, the Indian inhabitants of which 

 make fishing their whole business. The most palat- 

 able are the corbinas, and the pege reyes, or 

 king's fish ; but those in the greatest plenty, and at 

 the same time very palatable, are the anchovies. 

 The corbinas, and the king's fish, infinitely excel 

 those of Spain; the latter is also remarkable for its 

 size, being generally six or seven Paris inches in 

 length; yet even these are thought to be surpassed 

 by those caught in Buenos Ayres river. It is a salt- 

 water fish, but very little diííerent from that caught 

 in the rivers of Spain. The river of Lima affords a 

 sort of prawns, two or three inches in length, but 

 those should rather be called cray-fish. 



The whole coasts abound with such shoals of an- 

 chovies, as exceed all comparison ; and besides the 

 vast quantities caught by fishermen, they are the 

 chief food of innumerable flights of birds, with 

 which all those islands abound, and commonly called 

 guanoes, possibly from the guano or dung men- 

 tioned in the preceding chapter; many of them are 

 indeed alcatraces^ a kind of gull^ though all com- i 



prehended 



