1835.] AT igUIQUE. ^59 



I had ridden so many leagues in Chile. The next morning 

 the Beagle sailed for Iquique. 



July 12th. — We anchored in the port of Iquique, in lat. 

 20° 12', on the coast of Peru. The town contains about a 

 thousand inhabitants, and stands on a little plain of sand at 

 the foot of a great wall of rock, 2000 feet in height, here form- 

 ing the coast. The whole is utterly desert. A light shower of 

 rain falls only once in very many years ; and the ravines 

 consequently are filled with detritus, and the mountain-sides 

 covered by piles of fine white sand, even to a height of a 

 thousand feet. During this season of the year a heavy 

 bank of clouds, stretched over the ocean, seldom rises 

 above the wall of rocks on the coast. The aspect of the 

 place was most gloomy ; the little port, with its few vessels, 

 and small group of wretched houses, seemed overwhelmed 

 and out of all proportion with the rest of the scene. 



The inhabitants live like persons on board a ship : every 

 necessary comes from a distance : water is brought in 

 Doats from Pisagua, about forty miles northward, and is 

 sold at the rate of nine reals (45-. 6d.) an eighteen-gallon 

 cask : I bought a wine-bottle full for threepence. In like 

 manner firewood, and of course every article of food, is 

 imported. Very few animals can be maintained in such a 

 place : on the ensuing morning I hired with difficulty, at 

 the price of four pounds sterling, two mules and a guide to 

 take me to the nitrate of soda works. These are at present 

 the support of Iquique. This salt was first exported in 

 1830 : in one year an amount in value of one hundred 

 thousand pounds sterling was sent to France and England. 

 It is principally used as a manure and in the manufacture 

 of nitric acid : owing to its deliquescent property it will 

 not serve for gunpowder. Formerly there were two exceed- 

 ingly rich silver-mines in this neighbourhood, but their 

 produce is now very small. 



Our arrival in the offing caused some little apprehensioii 

 Peru was in a state of anarchy ; and each party haviii- 

 demanded a contribution, the poor town of Iquique was in 

 tribulation, thinking the evil hour was come. The people 

 had also their domestic troubles ; a short time before, three 

 French carpenters had broken open, during the same 

 night, the two churches, and stolen all the plate : one of the 

 robbers, however, consequently confessed, and the plate 

 was recovered. The convicts were sent to Arequipa, which, 



