226 
SOUTH SEA 
CHAPTER IIL 
Still continuing our course along the coast of Peru, we, 
on the 6th of March 1831, arrived at Paita, at which we 
cast anchor for a short time. As a town it is scarcely 
worthy of remark ; a few straggling houses, or more 
properly huts, are built upon an arid sand, and such is 
the dearth of water at this place, that the inhabitants 
are obliged to have it brought from a place which is six 
leagues^ or eighteen miles distant; besides which, they 
never have any rain, or very rarely, for some of the 
people informed me that they had not seen any for three 
years. The place, in consequence, appears an arid 
desert ; everything around is as dry as tinder, and the 
bright glare of the sun at mid-day is intense, with the 
atmosphere as clear as crystal. Not a shrub nor a tree, 
nor even a morsel of herbage, can be seen in any direc- 
tion— everything appears burnt up by the intolerable 
heat of the sun. 
From some masses of broken rock which projected 
into the bay, I saw a few persons angling, while the fish 
they were endeavouring to catch could easily be seen 
gliding in and out of the various crannies of the rock, 
appearing to know their enemies exceedingly well, from 
the cautious manner with which they observed the bait, 
and the few victims which immolated themselves at the 
