Z78 Haunts of the Condor in Peru. 



HAUNTS OF THE CONDOR IN PEPU. 



BY WM. BOLLAEET, F.E.G.S. 



Theee are three routes by which Iquique, the scene of the 

 following adventures, may be reached. The first, and most 

 general, at the period adverted to (1826), was by " doubling" 

 Cape Horn, and then pursuing a north course in the Pacific ; the 

 second, by the Biver Plata, braving its fierce pamperos, taking 

 a gallop of a thousand miles over the pampas to the once smiling 

 Mendoza — lately destroyed, with nearly all its inhabitants, by 

 a fearful earthquake — making the passage of the mighty Andes, 

 descending to Chile, and embarking at Valparaiso for the 

 coast of Peru ; the thud, which is the one now usually followed, 

 is by steamer from Southampton to the West Indies, and across 

 the Caribbean Sea to Colon (a distance of about 4800 miles) the 

 Atlantic port of the Isthmus of Darien ; here we find a railroad 

 forty- eight miles in length, over which one is whisked, through 

 one of the most beautiful, natural, and tropical gardens in the 

 world to the city of Panama. Off you go again, by steamer, 

 towards the south, crossing the equator, and if not cloudy you 

 may get a peep at Chimborazo, and remain a couple of days at 

 Lima, founded by Pizarro, and where he was assassinated, and 

 long celebrated as the " heaven of women, purgatory of men, 

 and ' other place' of jackasses" — the meaning of which is that 

 the Limefias are beautiful, the men are enslaved by them, and 

 the donkeys cruelly cudgelled by their negro drivers. 



Leaving Callao, the port of Lima, you pass the considerable 

 ruins — more ancient than Manco Capac and his dynasty — of the 

 city and temple of Pachacamac, built by rulers called Curysman- 

 cus, the last of whom were conquered by the later Incas ; you 

 look in at the Chincha Islands, from which so much guano is ex- 

 tracted, and may get a peep at the volcano of Arequipa. You 

 continue along a high arid coast, seldom or never watered by 

 the slightest shower of rain, and steam through a most pacific 

 sea, which, during the hot summer months, looks like a saline, 

 half seething, cauldron. 



In latitude 20° 12' south and 70° 14' west, you arrive at 

 Iquique, now well known as being the principal port for the 

 shipment of nitrate of soda, which is found in very great 

 quantities a few leagues up the country, on a table-land 3000 

 feet above the level of the sea. It is the principal harbour of 

 the province of Tarapaca. In 1820 it contained only a few 

 fishermen and their families : it now shelters a population of 

 5000 souls, and according to recent accounts could boast of an 

 Italian opera, although it is situated on a complete saline, 



