356 



THREE YEARS IN THE PACIFIC. 



^^chancaca/' which is used in the manufacture of syrups and 

 sweetmeats. The sugar of Peru is generally put up in large 

 loaves of from fifty to a hundred and fifty pounds, and wrap- 

 ped in flag mats covered with coarse bagging. Chile is its only 

 foreign market ; and since the heavy duty of three dollars the 

 arroba, or twelve dollars the hundred, has been imposed, that 

 is destroyed, and many of the sugar estates of Peru are conse- 

 quently fast going to decay. On this estate there is also a soap 

 apparatus, with copper vats, one of which is so large as to 

 give 800 quintals, equal to 80,000 pounds, of hard soap, at a 

 boiling ! It has not been in operation since the revolution. 



The chief exports from Pisco are sugar, olives, dates, aguar- 

 diente, and Italia, a very pure brandy, of a peculiar odor and 

 flavor, resembling that of peach leaves. It takes its name from 

 the grape from which it is made. The aguardiente is put up in 

 jars containing from ten to twenty gallons ; of these about 

 18,000 are annually exported and consumed along the coast. 

 The country about Ica, the capital of the province, yields 

 some wine, but of a very indifferent flavor. A duty of three 

 reales in paper* is paid on every arroba of spirits exported, and 

 three reales in silver on wine. 



During our stay here, we found the captain of the port, and 

 indeed all those we became acquainted with, very courteous 

 and hospitable. The captain was inclined to be intelligent on 

 some points, but prejudiced and opinionated on others. His 

 family was amiable, and his daughters, though living in a one 

 story building, with a ground floor, and with no other furni- 

 ture than a rough table and a half dozen high backed chairs 

 with leather seats, always received us kindly, and presented 

 us with flowers, the odor of which they were careful to en- 

 hance by sprinkling them with Cologne water ! 



At the captain's house we met an <^ old Spaniard," who had 

 resided a number of years in different parts of Peru, and who 

 was very intelligent and agreeable in conversation. Speaking 

 of the Peruvian ladies one day, he said, <<that during sixteen 

 years he had not heard of a single happy marriage with fo- 



* Custom house bonds. 



