416 



"THREE YEARS IN THE PACIFIC. 



spoken of by the old inhabitants as Jorge Anson." He 

 landed so few of his people, that the Paitanians carried off 

 quantities of their treasure, and buried it in the sand, yet the 

 admiral found wealth enough left to surprise him. Don Nico- 

 las de Salazar, who was at that time Contador of Piura, aided 

 by a negro, fired two small guns from a fort that had been 

 abandoned, but ammunition was so scarce that he loaded them 

 with hard dollars !* 



This port is a rendezvous throughout the year for American 

 whalers, who resort to it to refresh their crews, to cooper their 

 oil, and to fill up their supplies of vegetables and provisions. 

 For this purpose, they are allowed to sell goods to an amount 

 not exceeding two hundred dollars, duty free, but they gene- 

 rally exceed the law, and dispose of certain ventures" at the 

 risk of seizure and confiscation. I asked a captain of a whaler 

 in port, whether he was not afraid of being detected in these 

 transactions. He replied, Why you see I never know how 

 things gets ashore — they will have ^em, and I am mostly asleep 

 when they takes ^em away ! But there is no trade now. 

 When I first came to the south sea, in 1805, we used to get 

 just as much as we chose to ask for any thing. Our captain 

 had a barrel of gin fixed in the bulk head, so one half of it was 

 in the cabin, and the other in the mate's room. When the 

 people knew we had this liquor, they flocked aboard with bot- 

 tles and gourds; and while the captain drew ofi'gin in the ca- 

 bin, the mate was in his room pouring in water, so that i guess 

 the barrel was sold three times full for about six dollars a 

 gallon !" 



Whalers form a distinct class. When several vessels are 

 assembled at any of the places of rendezvous, the oldest cap- 

 tain in company is styled the admiral. They have suppers on 

 board one of the ships every night, to which all present are 

 invited by hoisting a flag before sunset. I attended on one of 

 these occasions, and was much amused with the peculiar slang 

 of these people. "Come," said the captain, take a cigar, 

 you'll find 'em pretty much half Spanish, I guess." 



Noticiaa Secretas. p. 180. 



