ii6 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



appearances may be observed ; but I trust that they 

 may engage the attention of some future traveller 

 more competent than myself to thoroughly investigate 

 them. 



The morning of the 29th of April, my last day in 

 Peru, was fully employed in needful preparations. 

 As is usual in South America, I was troubled by the 

 dilatory habits of the natives. The passport, which 

 was promised in the morning, and without which, as 

 I was told, I should not be allowed to depart, was not 

 forthcoming until late in the afternoon ; and at length 

 I went, after bidding farewell to my travelling com- 

 panions and to some new friends, by the four-o'clock 

 train to Callao, too late to have any time for visit- 

 ing the surroundings of that curious place. The 

 Ayacucho steamer of the Pacific Steam Navigation 

 Company had already left her moorings, and lay in 

 the outer harbour. Having hurried on board rather 

 after the hour named for departure, I found that my 

 haste was quite superfluous, as we were not under 

 way till long after dark, about nine p.m. 



I quitted Lima full of the interest and enjoyment 

 of my brief visit, but full also of the sense of depres- 

 sion necessarily caused by the condition of a country 

 whose future prospects are so dark. The ruinous war, 

 and the occupation of the best part of Peru by a 

 foreign army, are far from being the heaviest of her 

 misfortunes. It may even be that they afford the 

 best chance for her recovery. The immediate prospect 

 is that of a feeble military despotism, tempered by 

 anarchy. It seems possible that amongst the classes 

 hitherto wealthy, and now reduced to comparative 



