94 NIMROD OF THE SEA; OK, 



them that in no other Christian port on the west coast of 

 America was there a door to welcome or a roof to shelter the 

 sixteen thousand souls engaged in whaling, other than that of 

 a gaming-house, a grog-shop, or a brothel. The influence of 

 this good shepherd was remarkable, and gave me an oppor- 

 tunity to contrast the partial decency and good behavior of 

 men in this port with their reckless abandonment to the ex- 

 tremes of wickedness in other Pacific ports. I believe he 

 labored, nevertheless, under discouragement, caused by the 

 wrong-doing surrounding him. He has gone to his sure 

 reward, gratefully remembered by many a sailor, on whose 

 path he shed a ray of genial light. 



The whale stowed us eighty-five barrels of oil ; and when 

 the first part of our work was complete, we scoured down 

 the decks with sand from America and the alkaline cinders 

 remaining from the burned scraps of the try-works. "We 

 rubbed and scrubbed, and drenched decks, stanchions, and 

 bits, until there was not a suspicion of grease to tell the 

 story of the pandemonium of last week. We now proceed- 

 ed on our cruise down the coast of Chili and Peru, keeping 

 quite close in. Standing off shore during the day, we head- 

 ed in during the night, a course which afforded us several 

 magnificent views of the mountain chain of the Andes. In 

 the early morning this lofty range, rising to sixteen or 

 eighteen thousand feet, .intercepted the rays of the sun, and 

 its broken, rugged outline stood in bold relief against the 

 luminous sky. As the sun climbed higher, the cloud colors 

 softened the sharpness of the mountain summits ; and a mo- 

 ment later, when the sun appeared above the heights, the 

 whole magnificent scene, volcanic peak and snow-clad cliff, 

 seemed to melt into thin air, and was lost to us until the 

 following morning. The first view of the varied sandy and 

 rocky shore of Peru was a bitter disappointment to me. 

 Ignorantly I had clothed all parts of the tropical world 



