THE PERUVIAN SAXD-COAST 37 



their date-palm islands against the waves of the surrounding 

 sand-sea, thus also the inhabitant of the Peruvian coast can 

 only by perpetual irrigation protect his plantations and gardens 

 from the encroachments of the neighbouring desert ! But the 

 fruits which he reaps and garners are very different from those 

 which are produced by the African oasis ; for, while none of the 

 plants of the Peruvian sand-coast has ever found its way to the 

 Sahara, the sycamores and tamarinds of the latter are equally 

 unknown on the eastern shores of the Pacific. Cotton and 

 sugar, maize and batatas, manioc and bananas, here take the 

 place of the date-palm of the Arab, and thrive only so far as 

 the limits of irrigation extend. 



In the surrounding wastes, where for miles and miles the 

 traveller meets no traces of vegetation, and finds not one drop 

 of water, the mule performs the part of the African camel ; for, 

 satisfied with a scantier food than the horse, it more easily 

 supports the fatigues of a prolonged journey through the sand, 

 and in Peru is fully entitled to be called the ship of the 

 desert. The horse cannot support hunger and thirst longer 

 than forty-eight hours without becoming so weak as hardly to 

 be able to carry its rider ; and if the latter is imprudent enough 

 to urge it on to a more rapid pace, it falls a victim to his ob- 

 stinacy, as it will obey the spur until it sinks never to rise again. 

 Not so the mule, which, on feeling itself unable to advance, 

 stands still, and will not move an inch until it has rested for a 

 time ; after which it willingly continues its journey. Yet, in 

 spite of these excellent qualities, many mules succumb to the 

 fatigues and privations of the desert ; and as in the Sahara the 

 caravan-routes are marked by camel-skeletons, so here long 

 rows of mule-skulls and bones point out the road along the 

 Peruvian sand-coast. Woe to him whom a shipwreck casts on 

 these shores ; for he is almost inevitably doomed to destruction ! 



In the year 1823 a transport, with 320 dragoons on board, 

 under the command of Colonel Lavalle, was stranded in the 

 neighbourhood of Pisco. The soldiers saved themselves on the 

 land. They had only been thirty-six hours in the desert, when 

 they were found by a regiment of cavalry which had been sent 

 to their assistance from Pisco with provisions and water, yet in 

 this short space of time 11 6 of the poor wretches had expired 

 of fatigue and thirst, and above fifty more died on the following 



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