28o BOUCUER's voyage to PERU. 



meafure our ufual ftate ; provided the re-eftablifliment is fufficiently fpeedy, and no 

 other caufes throw any hindrance in the way. 



But what will, no doubt, create furprife, is, that in thefe countries, where the heat 

 is always fo great, the humidity is always exceiTive ; and fo it is in all the pl;ices fitu- 

 ated between the two tropics, where there is much wood. Even upon the higheft emi- 

 nences, from whence it is natural to imagine the waters fliould run oiF, you fmk mid- 

 leg into the mud. I have already intimated, that the houfes were raifed upon piles ; 

 but this does not prevent the mifchief occafioned by the inceffant dampnefs excited by 

 the heat. At certain feafons, every poffible care is required to preferve paper, and 

 to prevent our faddle and portmanteau from rotting. To attempt to fire a gun after 

 being loaded for three or four hours, is an ufelefs effort ; and there is no means of 

 preferving powder, but drying it, from time to time, at fome diflance from a fire. 



This country, the length of which I fhall give by and by, is from forty to forty-five 

 leagues in breadth from eafl: to weft, being comprehended between the coaft and the 

 Cordelier, whofe direclion is nearly north and ibuth. Sometimes the coaft abruptly 

 changes its direction ; and the chain of mountains, as if affefted thereby, feems, al- 

 though at fo great a diftance, to confine itfelf to the alteration ; but it commonly takes 

 its courfe in a diretl: line; infomuch, that it is found at the leaft diftance from the fea, 

 when any gulph, like that of Guayaquil, for inftance, penetrates far into land. Going 

 beyond this gulph, fouthward towards Lima, the face of the country is altered ; the 

 foil is covered with fand feemingly depofited by the fea ; or it pofTibly may be attributed 

 to a contrary origin, this fand may have fallen from the Cordelier : the country is open j 

 and there is no wood, as on this fide the gulph. 



But what more particularly diftinguifhes this part of Peru, lying beyond the Guaya- 

 quil, Is, that, notwfthftanding the fky is often cloudy, there never falls any rain : a 

 iingularity this which gives rife to a problem in phyfics the more difficult to be refolved, 

 as it depends upon the moft perfect acquaintance with the nature of clouds. It is not 

 furprifing that Auguftin de Zarate, who was, I believe, the firft who ftarted this diffi- 

 culty, has not better explained it ; yet I am not acquainted with any perfon, though the 

 fubjed: has occupied the attention of many naturalifts, who has done better. 



We have now to fpeak of a phenomenon, . the regular and certain effeds of which is 

 not confined to a fmall extent of territory. The country fubjetl to the rains reach as far 

 as Panama, and is in length more than ihree hundred leagues ; and they are at the fame 

 time fo heavy and inceffant, particularly in Choco, the moft central province of this trad, 

 that the people the moft avaricious of gain have the greateft repugnance to refide there, 

 although this is, of every other country in the world, that in which nature has dif- 

 played the utmoft profufion, by making the bowels of the earth a depofitory of gold 

 duft, A fortune cannot fail to be made there in a little time ; but there is nothing more 

 certain than falling vidims to the pernicious qualities of the climate, the humidity of 

 which incelTantly applied, checks tranfpiration, and fufpends the fweat continually pro- 

 moted by an oppreffive heat. The other country in which rain never falls, and which 

 is to the fouth of the Gulph of Guayaquil, extends beyond Arica towards the deferts 

 of Atacama, or towards the confines of the torrid zone and the fouth temperate zone, a 

 fpace of more than four hundred leagues in length by between twenty and thirty in 

 breadtii. There thunder is never heard, nor are we ever expofed to any ftorm. The 

 foil there is always dry, or with more propriety we may obferve, that nothing is feen 

 but arid fands. No verdure meets the eye, excepting on the banks of the rivers, which, 

 falling from the mountains, traverfe thefe countries with unufual rapidity. So alTured 

 are they of having no rain, and fo little apprehenfive of it, that the houfes in Arica, as 



well 



