S38 APPENDIX. 



siderable trade, from the quantity of saltpetre, and the silver mines of 

 Huantacayhua, in its neighbourhood : the latter are Uttle worked, as 

 the saltpetre is a surer profit, large cargoes of which are annually 

 taken in English vessels. There are no imports ; all the property 

 belongs to merchants in Lima, where vessels are chartered, and have 

 only to call here and take in their cargoes. 



Vessels bound for this place should run in on the parallel of Point 

 Grande, until the white patches on that point are discerned, when a 

 course should be shaped for the northern of three large sand hiUs : 

 stand boldly in on this course tUl the church steeple appears, when 

 shortly after, the tovra and low island will be seen, under which is 

 the anchorage ; care must be taken in rounding this island to give it 

 a good berth, a reef extending off it to the westward, to the distance 

 of two cables' lengths. 



The anchorage is good in eleven fathoms, with Point Piedras 

 bearing N. 9° W. ; W. extreme of the island, W. 32° S. ; church 

 steeple S. 15° E. 



Vessels have attempted the passage between the island and the 

 main by a mistake, and thereby got into danger, from which they 

 have been extricated with difficulty : it is only lit for boats or very 

 small vessels. 



Lcinding is bad and the way hazardous, owing to the number of 

 blind breakers with which it abounds ; boats have been lost at the 

 full and change of the moon, when the heavy swell sets in. Balsas 

 are employed to bring cargoes to a laimch at anchor outside the 

 danger, as is the case in most of the ports on this coast. 



N. 12° W., eighteen miles from Point Piedras (the north point of 

 Iquique Bay, which has a cluster of rocks round it), is the small bay 

 of MexiUones, appearing as a low black island vdth a white rock 

 lying off it, and may be known by the GuUy of Aurora a httle to 

 the southward, and a road apparently well trodden on the side of 

 the hUls, leading to the mines. And N. 20° W., thirty-three miles 

 from Point Piedras, is Point Pichalo, a projecting ridge at right 

 angles to the general trend of the coast, with a number of hummocks 

 on it. Round to the northward of this point is the village and road- 

 stead of Guano Pisagua ; this, as well as MexiUones, is connected 

 with Iquique in the saltpetre trade, and is resorted to by vessels for 

 that article. In rounding the point, a sunken rock lies about half a 

 cable's length off, and should be looked out for, as it is necessary to 



