THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN. 361 



supply of water and vegetables, we were allowed liberty on 

 shore, We landed on a well-built pier, which also served as 

 a breakwater, surmounted on the sea-face by a neat iron rail- 

 ing. At the top of the landing-stairs and along the pier 

 were stationed armed sentries, dirty and shabby beyond 

 comparison with the most sea-stained whalemen. Could I 

 say more ? Near the pier we saw a small market, and soon 

 after, seated on an old gun, a couple of sailors might have 

 been seen munching apples, which we here first met with on 

 the west side of the Cape. And we stuck to the apples, al- 

 lowing the tempting oranges, bananas, etc., to rest in peace. 

 The houses we saw were one story high, flat-roofed, and from 

 the harbor looked like a mud town in ruins. I visited what 

 is called the lower fort, and was treated courteously, and 

 shown every thing of interest, by an oflBcer who could blend 

 sufficient of English with his Spanish to make himself intel- 

 ligible. He was a patriotic little fellow, and commented on 

 the ruinous, unarmed condition of the fort, which was the 

 more surprising as the people were at war with Chili, and 

 expecting an invasion. But my surprise w^s increased as 

 the same officer showed me through the castle, an enormous 

 fortification, built in massive masonry, and requiring ten 

 thousand men to garrison it. On its extended ramparts and 

 bastions not a single gun was mounted. A few were seen 

 barbed on the two enormous towers which centre the works, 

 and these, with a water battery, completed the armament of 

 perhaps the largest and strongest fort on the American con- 

 tinent. Many of the guns have been i-emoved to arm war- 

 vessels, three of which were in the harbor when we were 

 there, the largest being the St. Francisco. On board this 

 vessel we found Philip Hyde, our old-time cooper's^mate, who 

 ran away from us in Selango, over two years ago. For some 

 time he worked at his trade as carpenter in the city of Liiiia, 

 when he easily made from eighty to one hundred dollars per 



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