388 



THREE YEARS IN THE PACIFIC. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



Lambayeque Roads — Derivation of the name of the Pacific — Landing — San 

 Jose — Balsa — Ride to Lambayeque— Plaza— The Capus, a dress worn pre- 

 vious to the Conquest — A curious currency — The Church — morning 

 visit — Chicharias — Huacas — Chicha — Gourds — Indians— Town —Products 

 — Visit Chiclayo — Factoria de Tobacos — Soap making- — Tanning — Palm 

 Sunday — Return to Lambayeque — Passion week — Scenes at the Chicharia 

 and Billiard room — Mode of embarking. 



On the 22d of March 1833, we arrived in the roadstead of 

 Lambayeque, situated in 6° 47' of south latitude, and anchored 

 about six miles from the beach. The anchorage is unprotected 

 by either point or headland, so that it is much like anchoring 

 in the open ocean, particularly when a fog covers the distant 

 shore. In any other part of the world it would be dangerous ; 

 but here, where storms are unknown, and the breezes blow 

 steadily from one direction nearly throughout the year, it is 

 done with impunity. '^This south sea," says the worthy 

 Fray Calancha, *^is called the Pacific, because, in comparison 

 with the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the 

 Persian Gulf, its storms are less violent and fewer, and its 

 calm is more tranquil. It is also called the sea of drunkards, 

 because a drunken man might navigate in it, and if a vessel be 

 ever lost, it is entirely owing to the ignorance of the pilot, for 

 the navigation is safe, unless he go where he should not. Both 

 ocean and ships are ruled over by five beautiful stars in the 

 form of a cross — a happy prognostic of a holy domination over 

 sea and land — at the sight of which the devil, even when most 

 enraged, retreats, and leaves all in tranquillity !" But the poet 

 Peralta, more gallantly at least, even if less devoutly, attri- 

 butes the tranquillity of the Pacific to the mild spirit of its em- 

 press, Amphitrite, who, according to him, rules this ocean. 



** Pacifica Amphitrite magestuosa 

 Domina en Throne rara vez turbado ; 



