VIEW OF THE ANDES A HUNDRED MILES OFF. 



41 



romantic or picturesque sort of interest which 

 belongs to well-described misfortune, that has no 

 existence in the reality. In the one case, a multi- 

 tude of small circumstances, by giving force and 

 apparent truth of effect to the imaginary picture, 

 render it rather pleasing than otherwise ; but the 

 very same circumstances, when actually wit- 

 nessed, produce a totally opposite emotion in the 

 mind of the spectator. The universal look of 

 sorrow, for example, the total discomfort, the 

 pitiable makeshifts, the absence of ease and cheer- 

 fulness, the silence, the disordered aspect of every- 

 thing, the misplaced furniture, the neglected dress 

 and innumerable other details, produce, when 

 viewed on the spot, a painful degree of commise- 

 ration for the sufferers ; widely different, as we 

 experienced, from that pleasing sort of pity which 

 mere description can excite. 



After a long search we discovered the house of 

 the Spaniard we were in quest of. He was an 

 elderly man, who laughed and joked about the 

 recent disasters in a manner that at first surprised 

 us exceedingly ; but we soon discovered that this 

 was the wild mirth of despair, a sort of feverish 

 delirium ; for he, too, was utterly ruined and 

 broken-hearted by the calamities of the hour ; and 

 he soon relapsed, from the excitement our presence 

 had caused, into a gloomy despondency. Whilst 

 he and the gentleman who had brought him 

 letters were discussing their business, I made 

 acquaintance with a pretty brown damsel, upon 

 whom the distress of the times had fallen but 

 lightly : for she smiled through all, and seemed 

 very happy. She was a clever, well-informed, 

 and conversable little coquette, but resisted, with 

 great adroitness, all our attempts to make out in 

 what relation she stood to the master of the 

 house ; leaving us in doubt whether she were his 

 wife, his mistress, his daughter, or his maid- 

 servant. She showed us over the beautiful garden 

 and dressed grounds round the house : and we 

 were well pleased to have our thoughts taken off 

 the painful stretch, in which they had been kept 

 all day, by the contemplation of so much wretched- 

 ness and unmerited calamity. 



On returning to the town, we paid a visit to the 

 curate, who showed us the church, which had been 

 sacrilegiously broken open ; the whole picture, in 

 fact, excited such a feeling of horror, that we were 

 very glad to get on board again to a scene of order, 

 and peace, and comfort. 



Next day, the 8 th of June, a party being again 

 made to visit the valley, we rode several leagues 

 further than we did yesterday, the people every- 

 where receiving us with kindness and hospitality. 

 The more we receded from the town, where the 

 resistance had been made, the fewer symptoms of 

 the war were to be seen. The inhabitants of the 

 cottages entertained us with delicious figs and 

 other fruits, and a small clear white wine made on 

 the spot ; they also placed before us olives, some 

 fresh, and others salted, but both in their ripe 

 state, and full of oil ; these, which were eaten with 

 bread, and small slices of raw onions, were very 

 high-flavoured and coarse. At another house 

 they gave us water-melons of the richest and 

 juiciest kind, which it is their custom to eat along 

 with cheese and a sour kind of plum. The tables 

 were placed in a verandah, or in a covered court, 

 left open on all sides, and here and there we ob- 



served openings in the roofs also, to allow the 

 breeze to pass freely through. The houses were 

 built of sun-dried bricks, plastered with mud, and 

 thatched over with palm-leaves ; their external ap- 

 pearance was shabby and unpicturesque enough, 

 which we regretted the more from their being so 

 beautifully situated ; generally under the shade 

 of some great tree, and thickly begirt with bananas, 

 figs, and other tropical fruits, and guarded by 

 hedges of magnificent aloes, and nopals or prickly 

 pears. This slender belt of vegetation owed 

 all its fertility to the solitary stream of water, 

 and ten minutes' walk on either side of the rivulet 

 brought us to the edge of the sandy waste, con- 

 demned for want of moisture to perpetual 

 sterility ; and, indeed, along the whole coast 

 of Peru, no rain ever falls, though at a few 

 places the soil is occasionally refreshed by thick 

 mists and copious dews. 



The tract of country, which is an irremediable 

 desert, may be said to extend for more than six- 

 teen hundred miles along the shores washed by 

 the Pacific ; that is, from Coquimbo in Chili, nearly 

 to the entrance of the Guayaquil River, or from 4 C 

 to 30o south latitude. This vast and desolate region, 

 which lies between the great chain of the Andes 

 and the sea, varies in breadth from thirty to a 

 hundred miles, and is traversed by very few rivers, 

 and none of them of any magnitude. Wherever a 

 stream does occur, the adjacent soil of the valley 

 becomes capable of the highest cultivation ; but 

 except at these rare spots, no trees are found, and 

 the scenery is everywhere uninteresting. The 

 barren high country along the inner margin of 

 this uninterrupted desert is rich in mineral 

 treasures ; and there prevails, in consequence, an 

 idle notion in the country, that nature, in such 

 cases, capriciously withholds her treasures from 

 the surface : and conversely, when the country is 

 capable of high cultivation, denies to it the riches 

 of the mine. Such is the stubborn nature of pre- 

 judice and error once admitted, that although this 

 absurd notion is contradicted by a thousand well- 

 known facts, the multitude still go on repeating 

 the fallacy, and reasoning upon it with the same 

 confidence as if it were true. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Appearance of the Andes. — The Peruvian Balsa or Canoe 

 made of Seal-skins.^Volcano of Anequipa. 



On the 9th of June we sailed from Arica, and 

 steered along shore to the north-west. In the 

 evening of that day we had a fine view of the Cor- 

 dillera or highest ridge of the mountains, about a 

 hundred miles off. It was only, indeed, when the 

 ship was at a considerable distance from the shore 

 that the higher Andes came in sight ; for when 

 nearer, the lower ranges, themselves of great 

 height, intercepted the remote view. But when we 

 stretched off to the distance of thirty or forty 

 miles, these intermediate ridges sunk into insignifi- 

 cance, while the chain of snowy peaks rose in 

 great magnificence behind them. It sometimes 

 even happened that the lower ranges, which had 

 entirely obstructed the view of the Cordillera 

 when viewed at no great distance from the coast, 

 were actually sunk below the horizon, by the 



