OP ATACAMA AND COQUTKBO. 245 



ih. 10 was ample time to reach one of tin >.- int. 'rest in^.-.. logical localities; and the gratifica- 

 tion of u speeimeri ! t\v<>, added to his good company to an<l fn.ni t lie beach, would have fully 

 repaid the pull to the sliorc. But sin h was not destined to bo the rebuilt. He had been unre- 

 mitti n!i\r.iii.| kin. I from the moment of embarking at Valparaiso, courtesies he appa- 



reiitlv considered essential here also; ami then-tore would play the guide on shore, an well an the 

 ihh- host on hoard. Before we were fairly clear of the little town, earnest and repeated 

 h",|;> to\\anls the steamer satisfied me that he cousiilered us at the end of the walk it was possible 

 to accomplish in tin time lie intended to remain in the port, and he was not a little pleased when it 

 was proposed that we should return towards the ship. Nearly all of our passengers with their 

 luggage had been landed meanwhile, $300,000 in silver bars shipped on board for England, and 

 we left the harbor still early in the afternoon. 



The next port at which we stopped was Caldera, in latitude 2*7 04' 8. and some eight leagues 

 to the northward of the last. Less than two years previously it was known only as a pretty 

 little bay, of rather more than a mile in diameter, but whose only attraction for ships was an 

 old well of brackish water. As it is easy of access, has good anchoring ground, is protected 

 from winds, except between N. and W.N.W., and its waters contain an abundant supply of 

 excellent fish, it is preferable to every one of the anchorages in the sterile region extending 

 from Arica to Coquimbo. Its distance from the city of Copiapo being nearly the same, we may 

 well be amazed that it was not selected as the port, instead of the dangerous and exposed road- 

 stead which was chosen. 



When Mr. Wheelwright first landed, at the period referred to, there was neither house nor 

 hut of any description ; a fisherman or two, dwelling under sea-worn rocks, being the only 

 inhabitants of its barren sand-hills. Yet skeletons recently disinterred in cutting for the rail- 

 road, and not far from the beach, prove that there once existed a settlement here. Nor if all 

 parts of the body were duly proportioned did the people belong to the small race now in 

 Chile; the crania being of unusual size and thickness, and the femur bones of extraordinary 

 length. Nearly all were found in an erect position, with implements of bone and copper buried 

 beside them. Whether they were Changes, a class of Indian fishermen who dwelt along the 

 coast at the time of its discovery, may be questioned ; for these did not and do not congregate 

 in numbers, and some thirty skeletons have been found here. On the other baud, it is sug- 

 gested that the skulls were too perfect to have been buried more than half a century ; though 

 it is well known that nitre is an admirable preservative. This is proved by the mummies at 

 Arica and Iquique, both towns on the coast of Peru; and the soil here also abounds with it. 

 Of the only two skulls remaining at my arrival, the sagittal suture of one was entirely closed, 

 and the teeth, though much worn, were still quite perfect; the other was porous and spongy, 

 as if the system had been penetrated by venereal disease. They were in possession of the medi- 

 cal officer of the railroad company, who intended taking them to the United States. But what 

 of the colony? there remains not even a tradition respecting them! 



Unprovided with a tent or other shelter, Mr. Wheelwright was forced to take refuge in one 

 of the water-worn caves of a cliff, now some thirty feet above the bay. This would have been 

 comfortable enough had it not been tenanted by myriads of fleas, who pounced on the invader 

 of their dominions with the thirst of vampires. Nor was it in the cave only that the guide and 

 himself were subjected to their attacks ; even the sand was literally alive with them, and from 

 each handful indiscriminately picked up an admirer of saltatory feats could behold multitudes 

 springing in all directions. These were not the only nuisances. Flies in numbers, if possible, 

 yet greater, disputed every mouthful and every breath of air, whilst they claimed each particle 

 that evaporated from the hands and face, compelling constant efforts for their dislodgment. 

 Looking abroad upon the dominions occupied only by these pests, there was not a shrub to re- 

 lieve the monotony or to protect the eye from the glare of the sand ; nothing but sand-hills, 

 through which nature, in some terrific throe, had here and there thrust out blackened rocks, 

 leaving them on end, apparently to serve as stumbling-blocks for man in his efforts to unravel 



