FROM LIMA TO VALPARAISO. 447 



Shortly before l<> oYloek awli"; \t\ in the Bay of Cobija, the only port possessed by 



Unli-, latitude ^ -- :;rs. Scattered for abont half a mile alon^r a l--a. -h at the base 



of a lol'tv !' hills, part t' its 1 ..... tot of rtonfl an<l ..th. -is of plunk*, the town presents the 



in... si neat an.l tidy ii|i|M-ai anee of any place yd vi.sit.-d on th< ause of its bold and 



almost overhl li't'< ^'"I tin-contract of white walls with the verdure of the valley, Arica is 



more picturesque from the sea: hut once landed. the superiority in cleanliness raust be awarded 

 t.i tin- r.nlivian t.iun. As then- is neither breakwater nor wharf, everything is necessarily 

 eai -i i. ! thnm^h the surf on the backs of caryadores. Some of these exhibit great strength and 

 skill in transhipments. 



( ohija has hut one street, a custom-house, a Hum -h, and 1,500 inhabitants, for whose protec- 

 tion there is a fortification mounting live guns. The last is on a rocky point forming the 

 .southern shore of the open bay, and there is a company of soldiers quartered in rude barracks 

 at the opposite extremity of the town. Forty officers were on duty, and indeed men in uniform 

 appeared more numerous than those in plain dresses. The revolutionary disposition which has 

 so lone; proved the curse of South American States, is doubtless fostered by such dispropor- 

 tioned military collections ; and the disaffection of a crafty junior or subordinate, who manages 

 to gain the confidence of the troops, is always sufficient cause to bring about a change of 

 rulers, generally of a summary and violent kind. Only four or five months before, a governor 

 was shot in his office here in broad daylight ; the only charge against him was, he desired a 

 change of the supreme government. 



Situated within the desert district of Atacama, and sixty miles from its northern limit, there 

 is no terrestrial vegetation, and it was a matter of no little interest to witness the avidity of the 

 population on landing the garden-stuff brought from Arica. Probably within ten minutes 

 after the first boat-load of bags had been landed, all over town Indians, including soldiers, 

 might have been seen stripping the rind from green sugar-cane, and grinding out its saccharine 

 juice with their teeth ; the housekeepers bearing away piles of ears of maize, sweet potatoes, 

 and other substantial productions ; whilst a few damsels, more fair-skinned than their neigh- 

 bors, were enjoying the odors of Peruvian bouquets. An hour later, the beach which had 

 served as the impromptu market-place was again bare ; the dealers had disposed of every 

 article ! Nor is the privation of provisions their only hardship. The supply of water is ex- 

 ceedingly scanty, and brackish besides; it is collected on the hills in the rear, and conveyed 

 through pipes to two places kept under lock and key by the town authorities, who daily deliver 

 its quota to each family. As soon as the distribution is completed, the little streams (not 

 larger than one's finger) are shut off. If more is wanted, it must be purchased from carriers, 

 who bring it from a lagoon in the interior. Cattle are driven from the pampas of Buenos 

 Ayres to the vicinity of Calama, forty leagues distant, and are subsisted until wanted on a 

 species of rushes found near the latter place. Sheep and goats may browse on a narrow belt of 

 verdure found where the cirro-stratus clouds hang, two thirds the distance up the sea range of 

 hills ; but so scarce are water and herbage, that burden-mules neither eat nor drink from the 

 time they leave Calama until returning to it. Neither are fish so abundant as at Iquique. As 

 I stood on the beach a fisherman landed from his balsa, having been out the whole preceding 

 night without taking any fish. It was the worst luck, he said, that he had ever had. 



There are valuable copper mines in the vicinity, whose products are shipped principally from. 

 Catica, six miles, and Algodones, 28 miles to the northward. The mines are owned by English 

 companies, who import every article of necessity, and ship the larger part of their ores to 

 Swansea. It is essential for government to have a port of entry, through which its silver, tin, 

 copper, and cotton may be exported when the ports of Iquique and Arica are closed to it; and 

 every effort has been made to attract trade by declaring Cobija a free port. But the country 

 between it and the populous portions of the republic affords too few resources, and the distances 

 are too great for competition with the routes through Tacna and Tarapaca. Nevertheless, its 

 exports in the preceding year amounted to about a million and a half of dollars ; and the 



