90 



RECREATION. 



Being the only port of entry for rich and 

 prosperous Bolivia, behind her ; connected 

 with Tacna, 40 miles distant, by the only 

 railroad then in Peru, her inhabitants had 

 grown rich and cultured on the imports 

 and exports that crowded the large and 

 imposing custom house and the shipping 

 that thronged the open roadstead. 



THE MORRO AND 



CUSTOM HOUSE, ARICA, PERU, BEFORE 

 THE EARTHQUAKE. 



The town was picturesquely situated in a 

 cleft or valley running up into the sea coast 

 range of the Andes. Through the valley 

 ran a little stream that furnished water 

 for irrigation which caused the desert 

 coast to blossom 



never darkened by storm or rain, fevers 

 and epidemics unknown, it seemed at first 

 an Eden, until we found our crumpled 

 rose leaves in the form of myriads of the 

 most voracious and agile fleas that ever 

 drove one distracted; and further discov- 

 ered that a regular deluge would be neces- 

 sary to remove the cause of a lively series 



of smells, which 

 would have thrown 

 even the famed city 

 of Cologne into the 

 background. 



Behind these mi- 

 nor discomforts 

 lurked the ever 

 present fear in the 

 native mind of 

 another earthquake; 

 for Arica seemed a 

 sort of head center 

 for such seismic 

 disturbances, hav- 

 ing been twice 

 nearly destroyed, 

 with great loss of 

 life. In blissful ig- 

 norance of what a 

 terremote — earth 

 move — really was, 

 we could not sym- 

 pathize with their fears; and we had cele- 

 brated our national holiday and theirs, 

 the 4th and 10th of July, with zeal and 

 abundant burning of gunpowder. 



We were not alone in the roadstoad. 



the 

 the 

 cliff 

 500 



with a fertility that 

 never ceased to 

 surprise. It was 

 blocked in on 

 one hand by 

 perpendicular 

 of the Morro, 

 feet high, which, 

 without a single 

 break to mar its 

 imposing but cruel 

 front, was ever 

 lashed by the long 

 surges of the migh- 

 tiest of oceans, and 

 on the other by 

 sloping heights, 

 rising one above 

 the other till lost 

 in the clouds. The 

 town was of un- 

 known antiquity, 

 there having been a large city of the Incas 

 located there when the Spaniards overran 

 the country; and tradition asserted that 

 even the Incas found a people dwelling 

 there when they, in their turn, had been 

 conquerors. 



Blessed with a most charming climate, 

 with a temperature varying from 70 to 80 

 degrees, the cloudless blue of the sky 





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Hr* ""Si \ m 



OLD CATHEDRAL, ARICA, PERU. 

 View Looking Toward Slope of Andes. 



Our own store ship, the Fredonia; the 

 America, a large Peruvian man-of-war; 

 and several square rigsrers, together with 

 quite a fleet of smaller merchantmen, 

 were keeping us company when, August 

 8, 1868, a storm burst from the cloudless 

 sky, overwhelming us in one common 

 ruin. 

 I was sitting in the cabin with our com- 



