Ch. i. south AMERICA. Í95 



ship is very fortiinaie to perform it in forty or fiftjr 

 days ; and if even after spending- that time in conti- 

 nual labour, she be not obliged to return again to 

 Paita: such accidents being very common; and it is 

 nothing extraordinary to meet with two or three mis- 

 fortunes of the same kind successively, especially if 

 the ships make a great deal of lee-way, when it is 

 often a twelvemonth's task. I'hey relate here a story 

 to this purpose, that the master of a merchant ship, 

 who had been lately married at Paita, took his wife 

 on board with him, in order to carry her to Callao. 

 In the vessel she was delivered of a son, and before 

 the ship reached Callao, the boy could read distinctly. 

 For after turning to windward, tsvo or three months, 

 provisions growing short, the master put into some 

 port, where several months were spent in procuring 

 a fresh supply; and after anotlier course of tacking, 

 the same ill fortune still pursued him ; and thus four 

 or five years were spent in tacking ani victualling to 

 the ruin of the owner, before the ship reached Callao. 

 This misfortune was in a great measure owing td the 

 ill construction of the ship, and every other circum- 

 stance tending to obstruct her passage, the transaction 

 has nothing very wonderftd in it. 



According to observations made by Don George 

 Juan at Paita, in the year 1737, its latitude is 5" ct 

 S. It is a small place, having only one street, and 

 about 172 houses; and these only of quinchas and 

 canes covered with leaves; the only house built of 

 stone being that of the governor. It has a parish 

 church and a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Mercy, 

 and served by a religious of that order, A little to 

 the southward of the town is a mountain, called from 

 its figure Silla de Paita, or the saddle of Paita. The 

 soil round Paita is wholly of sand, and extremely 

 barren ; for besides the total want of rain, it has not 

 a !>iiigle river for the conveyance of water ; «o that it 

 is entirely destitute of that necessary fluid, unless what 

 O í¿ is 



