SANDWICH ISLANDS. 
89 
earthquake, to which the coast is subject, better than firmer 
buildings. Mean as the place is, it is the fashion for the 
best families in Lima to take lodgings in it for a month or 
two every year for the benefit of sea-bathing, which is con¬ 
sidered as peculiarly wholesome just at the end of the hot 
season; and large parties may be seen riding together to 
bathe or rather play in the water, into which they go with 
all, or almost all, their usual dresses on. The Peruvian 
ladies have not yet adopted the side-saddle, and few use 
even the guarded pillion on which the Chilians ride; so 
that, besides the acknowledged beauty of the Peruvian 
women, there was the attraction of novelty in the customs 
of the fair equestrians to engage us. On walking through 
the miserable streets of the village we saw little but clouds 
of sand and the vultures*, which here perform the work 
of scavengers. These birds are of the size of a large turkey, 
and have otherwise very much the appearance of that bird; 
like it, too, they are generally seen in considerable flocks. 
March 16 .—Having left Chorillos, in company with 
the Cambridge, last night, we arrived at Callao this morning, 
and anchored off* the forts in time to witness a pretty smart 
skirmish between the royalists and independents both by 
land and sea; the troops ashore, and the gun-boats afloat, 
* Vultur aura, or Turkey buzzard. 
N 
