168 
THE DESERTS OE PERU, AND THEIR WEALTH. 
[Nature and Art. June 1, 1867. 
manuring with guano, was carried to great per- 
fection, and the population in these desert places 
was more considerable than at present. Between 
the streams are the Travesias or real deserts, where 
neither bird, beast, nor reptile are seen ; where, in 
all probability, a blade of vegetation never grew, 
and where the only indication that the desert has 
been trodden before, is an occasional cluster of 
human bones, and the remains of beasts of burden 
which have perished. When the traveller becomes 
fatigued, or his animal jaded, he dismounts, and if 
the sun shines, he spreads his poncho between the 
fore and hind legs of his mule, and lies down under- 
neath the only shade to be obtained in the shrubless 
waste. 
In some places the deserts are thickly studded 
with Medanos ; these are mounds of sand raised by 
eddying winds, that extend their influence several 
leagues from the mountain ridges. The Medano is 
in the shape of a crescent ; the interior face is at 
times very many feet in height and nearly perpen- 
dicular, the outer front sloping like a glacis, and the 
horns diminishing to a fine point. Whatever may 
be its dimensions, it always assumes this form, 
until, upon approaching nearer the line of mountains, 
it gradually loses its symmetry. The Me, demos 
from their repeated shiftings create a labyrinth ex- 
tremely irksome even to vaqueanos or guides, who 
have no clue by which to direct their course, and 
it is not an uncommon occurrence for the most ex- 
perienced to lose their way. 
My old and esteemed friend, the late Col. C. Wood, 
of the Chilian army, on the occasion of the retreat 
of the patriot forces from before the Spaniards, in 
1823, became separated from his party, and was 
lost for two days and a night amongst the Medanos. 
He had neither food nor water for himself or horses. 
He informed me that he did not suffer much for 
want of food, but the want of water to quench his 
burning thirst was intolerable, producing at last a 
dying-like torpor. The first day he pushed on 
rather rapidly in and out of the sand-hills, ofttimes 
dismounting, and climbing to the summit of one ; 
when at the top, there were higher ones in advance 
and all around. Night came on, when he took up 
his quarters. He travelled about slowly the 
second day, leaving to the sagacity of his horse his 
extrication from this dilemma, until, fortunately, 
about night-fall, he arrived at lea. 
In my journals for November, 1826, I find it 
noted that a sailor about twenty-two years of age, 
calling himself “ William,” arrived at the silver 
mines of Huantajaya, in the province of Tarapaca, 
where I was then stationed. He had run away from 
his ship, an English whaler, the Mary, or the 
Warrens of London, which had put into the 
port of Iquique. His ship had sailed without him, 
so we took him into our employ, when he informed 
us that before he went to sea, lie had been a waiter 
at the “ Green Man and Still,” in Oxford Street. 
On the 30th November he went with two mules 
from Huantajaya to the mines of Santa Rosa, 
situated in a high mountain in sight of the former 
place, returning safely. On the 4th December, 
1827, he was sent with a note from my companion, 
Mr. Geo. Smith, to Santa Rosa. He did not return 
as was expected, and on the 6th we received 
information, that it was supposed he had run off 
into the interior. Nothing more was heard of him, 
until 1845, when his skeleton was discovered at 
some distance from the track between Huantajaya 
and Santa Rosa, and in the pocket of his waistcoat 
a reply to Mr. Smith’s note. I have been somewhat 
particular in giving these details, which have but 
lately come to my knowledge, as it is possible this 
may be the first information the friends of 
“ William” may have of his untimely fate. 
Two persons employed at the nitrate of soda 
works were lost in the neighbouring desert, one a 
Mr. Blackadder, going from the port of Pisagua to 
Iquique, a distance of about forty-five geographical 
miles, the other a Herr Wagen, going from 
Mejillones to Camilla. 
I am obliged to my friend, Mr. George Smith, for 
the following extracts from his journal of January, 
1863. He had left Iquique for Mejillones in search 
of a new port, between that place and Pisagua, for 
the embarkation of nitrate of soda produced at his 
refineries in the interior. 
The dangers and difficulties encountered by 
Cateadores, or mine-hunters, or other explorers and 
travellers in the countries under consideration, 
will be understood by the incidents detailed : — 
“ 15th January. — Mariano Oviedo and my son William 
came down the cuesta, or mountain track, leaving the animals 
halfway ; I, in the mean time, had arrived at the bottom, on 
the very rocky shore, before them, and had examined the 
locality, appearances of the anchorage, and landing, both of 
which were very bad. On an elevation some hundred feet 
above the water there was room for only one establishment. 
“On returning to our pascana (resting-place), we heard 
the cry of ‘ Mi ahago’ (I am drowning) ; and on looking 
around, we saw our guide, Antolin Barreda, some hundred 
or more yards out at sea. At the moment, we knew not 
what to do, and the only chance of saving the poor fellow’s 
life was to try to carry out to him the end of a number of 
sogas, or woollen ropes, tied together, taken by force from 
an Indian we found amongst the rocks loading some donkeys 
with guano. 
“El valiente Guillermo* (William Smith), volunteered to 
swim out to him, dragging the sogas along the surface 
of the water. He did his task in masterly style, and 
reached the man within a few feet, when we found to 
our horror that the sogas were at full stretch. I had the 
end on shore, which I held over the sea beneath as far as I 
could reach, without falling over the cliff into the sea. 
Guillermo, finding the man so completely bewildered as not 
even to hold out his hand, which might have been reached, 
called to me to let go the soga, which I did with heart- 
rending reluctance. Guillermo then put the end of the soga 
* Shortly afterwards, Guillermo Smith entered the Peru- 
vian army, in which he is at present a major of Artillery. 
He commanded one of the Blakeley guns, carrying a shot of 
450 lb., in the Ayacucho battery at Callao, when the 
Spanish fleet attacked that place on the 2nd of May, last 
year (1866). He was fortunate enough to inflict most 
serious damage on two of the Spanish men-of-war ; one 
shot went through the steam-chest of the Villa de Madrid, 
killing, wounding, and scalding some thirty of the enemy. 
The Spanish fleet was beaten, and had to sheer off. The 
badly-damaged portion went off in the direction of the 
Philippines to refit, but had first to make the Sandwich 
Islands in their way for temporary repairs ; the other portion 
took the route round Cape Horn. 
