CALLAO. 



121 



whom I had now identified as officers of my 

 ship. 



There is some reason to think that the peace- 

 able reception I met with at Callao was owing to 

 a mere accident. All commercial intercourse be- 

 tween Chili and Peru having been cut off from 

 the moment the expedition sailed, the only mode 

 of communication between Valparaiso and Cal- 

 lao was by means of the neutral men-of-war ; and 

 as, in former times, there had been a constant in- 

 tercourse between these two ports, and numerous 

 connections had been formed between their respec- 

 tive inhabitants, the effects of the war were now 

 severely felt in the interruption of correspondence. 

 I have stated, that, at Valparaiso, I sometimes 

 amused myself by going into the cottages to ob- 

 serve the habits of the lower classes ; and as it 

 happened that most of those people had some re- 

 lative or connection settled at Callao, I was charg- 

 ed, on sailing, with many messages and letters, 

 all of which, it may be mentioned as characteris- 

 tic of the times, they insisted on my first reading 

 in their presence, lest they should accidentally con- 

 tain political matter likely to prove prejudicial to 



