310 JEALOUSY OF STRANGERS. 



information may be given of any vessel appear- 

 ing. " I had again occasion to repeat these cau- 

 tions,^ says the Viceroy, " in consequence of hav- 

 ing received intelligence from a Spanish vessel, 

 lately arrived at Callao, that an English ship had 

 been seen in lat. 50^ south, giving herself out to 

 be in search of whales."' 



Had Spain been engaged in the hottest war 

 with America and England, measures more hos- 

 tile could not have been taken. And it gives not 

 a bad picture of the feverish jealousy with which 

 the colonies were guarded, when we see the single 

 arrival of a dismasted American ship, producing 

 a commotion along the whole coast of New Spain, 

 Peru, and Chili ; and when the accidental ren- 

 contre of a Spanish ship with an English whaler, 

 at the distance of thirty-eight degrees of latitude, 

 is considered sufficient cause of alarm by the Vice- 

 roy of Peru, to induce him to send orders to 

 the authorities on the coast from Guayaquil to 

 Iquique, to redouble their vigilance in watching 

 for strangers. 



This curious and characteristic example, though 

 it be not one which shows the immediate interfe- 



