many leagues in Chile. The next morning the Beagle sailed for Iquique.
July 12th.--We anchored in the port of Iquique, in lat. 20 degs. 12',
on the coast of Peru. The town contains about a thousand inhabitants,
and stands on a little plain of sand at the foot of a great wall of
rock, 2000 feet in height, here forming the coast. The whole is
utterly desert. A light shower of rain falls only once in very many
years; and the ravines consequently are filled with detritus, and the
mountain-sides covered by piles of fine white sand, even to a height of
a thousand feet. During this season of the year a heavy bank of
clouds, stretched over the ocean, seldom rises above the wall of rocks
on the coast. The aspect of the place was most gloomy; the little
port, with its few vessels, and small group of wretched houses, seemed
overwhelmed and out of all proportion with the rest of the scene.
The inhabitants live like persons on board a ship: every necessary
comes from a distance: water is brought in boats from Pisagua, about
forty miles northward, and is sold at the rate of nine reals (4s. 6d.)
an eighteen-gallon cask: I bought a wine-bottle full for threepence. In
like manner firewood, and of course every article of food, is imported.
Very few animals can be maintained in such a place: on the ensuing
morning I hired with difficulty, at the price of four pounds sterling,
two mules and a guide to take me to the nitrate of soda works. These
are at present the support of Iquique. This salt was first exported in
1830: in one year an amount in value of one hundred thousand pounds
sterling, was sent to France and England. It is principally used as a
manure and in the manufacture of nitric acid: owing to its deliquescent
property it will not serve for gunpowder. Formerly there were two
exceedingly rich silver-mines in this neighbourhood, but their produce
is now very small.
Our arrival in the offing caused some little apprehension. Peru was in
a state of anarchy; and each party having demanded a contribution, the
poor town of Iquique was in tribulation, thinking the evil hour was
come. The people had also their domestic troubles; a short time
before, three French carpenters had broken open, during the same night,
the two churches, and stolen all the plate: one of the robbers,
however, subsequently confessed, and the plate was recovered. The
convicts were sent to Arequipa, which though the capital of this
province, is two hundred leagues distant, the government there thought
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