AN EX-PRESIDENT OF PERU. 37 



president of Peru, who has purchased one of the 

 islands, and hopes to end his days peacefully as a 

 cattle-breeder. Nothing in his manner or conversa- 

 tion announced either energy or intelligence, but it is 

 impossible not to recognize some kind of ability in 

 a man who, having held such a post at such a time, 

 not only succeeded in escaping the ordinary fate of 

 a Peruvian president — his two immediate predecessors 

 having been assassinated — but also in snatching from 

 the ruin of his country the means of securing an 

 ample provision for himself at a safe distance from 

 home. 



In the almost cloudless weather that has prevailed 

 for some days, the apparent path of the sun could not 

 fail to attract attention. Being still so near the 

 vernal equinox, this could not be distinguished from 

 a straight line. Rising out of the horizon at six 

 o'clock, the sun passed exactly through the zenith, 

 and went down perpendicularly in the west into the 

 boundless ocean. Who can wonder that this daily 

 disappearance of the sun has had so large a share in 

 the poetry and the religion of our race ? In every 

 land, under every climate, it is the one spectacle which 

 is ever new and ever fascinating. Use cannot stale 

 it ; and knowledge, which is said to be driving the 

 imagination out of the field of our modern life, has 

 done nothing to weaken the spell. 



We awoke next day to find ourselves in the 

 southern hemisphere, having crossed the line about 

 three a.m. As the morning wore on we passed abreast 

 of the Cabo San Lorenzo, and towards evening, keep- 

 ing nearer to the coast, were within a few miles of 



