195 A VOYAGE TO Book VIII, 



is daily brought with great fatigue from Colan, a 

 town on the fame bay, four leagues N. of Paita, and 

 near which runs the river Chera, the fam^ ftream 

 which waters Amotape. The Indians of the town of 

 Colan are under an obligation of daily fending to 

 Paita, one or tv/o balzas loaded with water, which is 

 diftributed among the inhabitants by flared propor- 

 tions. From the fame town Paita has alfo the greatefh 

 part of its provifions. The nature of the foil, and 

 the fituation of the place render it extremely hot. Its 

 inhabitants, who are about thirty-five or forty families, 

 and confiil of Spaniards, Mulattoes, and Meftizos, 

 live chiefly by pafTengers going or returning from Pa- 

 nama to Lima. So that the town owes its whole fup« 

 port to the harbour, which, as I have before obferved, 

 is the place where the cargoes of goods fent from 

 Panama are landed, together with thole coming from 

 Callao to the jurifdi^tions of Piura and Loja. 



Iisr the bay of Paita, and that of Sechura, which 

 lies a little farther to the fouthern, fuch large quanti- 

 ties of tollo are taken as to anfwer the demands of 

 the provinces of the mountains, and part of thofe of 

 Quito and Lima. The feafon for this fifhery begins 

 in October, when great numbers of barks go from 

 Callao, returning when the feafon is over. Fiihing is 

 alfo the conflant employment of the Indians of Colan, 

 Sechura, and the fmall hamlets near the coafl ; thefe 

 feas abounding in feveral kinds of filh, befides the 

 tollo, all palatable, and fome delicious. 



C H A P. 



