Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara Volume Iii Part 22

At 6 P.M. accordingly we steamed out of the Bay of St. Thomas. On the present occasion the _Magdalena_ had 163 pa.s.sengers on board, the majority of whom were planters from the various West India islands, bound on a pleasure trip during the hot season. Not merely the black servants, but even their white and chocolate-coloured masters, broke out into the most marvellous English or French jargon, according as they came from Jamaica and Demerara, from Martinique, Guadaloupe, or Hayti. The presence of a great number of children, who, so long as they kept free of sea-sickness, evidently considered the whole of the quarter-deck as especially designed for them to play on, in which notion they were zealously upheld by their mothers and their nurses, made the pa.s.sage anything but agreeable.

Moreover, the impression made by the grown-up pa.s.sengers was such as to heighten one's aspirations for a speedy voyage. The intelligence which had been received from the seat of war in Italy gave rise to much excitement, and within the first twelve hours had made it apparent that it was vain to hope for a pleasant voyage. Nothing was heard on every side but politics, and it may be left to the reader to guess in what tone they would be discussed, when Frenchmen, heated with visions of _la gloire militaire_, were the princ.i.p.al spokesmen.

Early the next morning we were near the reef, which had disabled the largest and finest of the Company's s.h.i.+ps, that had just cost 140,000.

The unfortunate s.h.i.+p had struck the reef when running 11 knots an hour, and now lay on her starboard side on the reef, having careened so far over that her port paddle-wheel was quite clear of the water. A committee on the spot having decided that she must be entirely dismantled before even her bare hull could be got off the reef, it was resolved not to detain the _Magdalena_, it being thought desirable that she should as speedily as possible make her way to Southampton, so as to enable the directors at once to determine what course to adopt, before the sailing of the next steamer. Our captain was furnished with a general account of the accident, together with a sketch by the head engineer of the position of the _Paramatta_, and with these the _Magdalena_ was permitted to take her departure.

The voyage threatened to be long and tedious, though attempts were made to enliven the mornings and evenings by music, and an occasional dance on deck. The former might have been made very agreeable, had not the _chef d'orchestre_, who was second steward, ventured on playing his own compositions as often as possible. To please the susceptibilities of the two nationalities, _G.o.d save the Queen_ and _Partant pour la Syrie_ were regularly called for each night. A more serious cause of alarm was the fear lest we should have to put into some intermediate port to coal. When she left St. Thomas the _Magdalena_ had 1200 tons on board, but as, notwithstanding constant calms and a sea like a mill-pond, she never made above 190 to 220 miles in the early part of the voyage, at a consumption of 70 tons per day, there seemed every prospect of our exhausting our supply. As she consumed her stock, however, she lightened perceptibly, till she even got up to the for her unusual speed of 280 miles a day. How different from the same Company's s.h.i.+ps _Atrato_ and _La Plata_, which frequently make 340 miles a day, and in fact average only 13 days on the pa.s.sage home, while the average of the _Magdalena_ and her consorts is 18 days!

At last, on 18th July, we sighted the Lizard's. Although barely 200 miles from our destination, the captain thought it best to put into the nearest port for a supply of coal, and shortly after noon we anch.o.r.ed in Falmouth Harbour, where the first intelligence we got was that peace had been concluded. Singular to say, even this intelligence produced no accession of harmony between the two great political parties on board. As for myself, I had kept as much as possible by myself; and now stepping ash.o.r.e, I wandered through the narrow dirty streets of Falmouth, which presents the accurate type of the old-fas.h.i.+oned English provincial town. The meadows and sloping hills around shone forth in all the fresh verdure of spring. Even the traveller fresh from the voluptuous loveliness of the tropics, finds ever new beauties in the manifold variety of nature. The more the student of Nature walks with her and finds in her his chief pleasures, the more receptive does his soul become for all that is marvellous and beautiful, as from day to day they present themselves in new and unexpected phases.

The same evening the _Magdalena_ resumed her voyage, and about noon on the 19th we pa.s.sed the renowned "Needles," and in two hours afterwards reached Southampton. Dire was the confusion on board, each person wis.h.i.+ng to have his own trunk conveyed on sh.o.r.e the first. I found with my voluminous boxes the most courteous consideration. It sufficed to explain the object of my travels to have all my luggage pa.s.sed without examination. For down to the English Custom House officials, who are not, it must be confessed, p.r.o.ne to show much tenderness to travellers' baggage, extends that honourable feeling of respect for science which Englishmen of all grades seem to entertain. The same evening I reached London.

As the next steamer for Gibraltar was not to leave for eight days, I immediately started to London, and availed myself of this opportunity to renew old acquaintance, and make up my leeway as regarded the important strides and valuable discoveries made in the fields of science during my long absence from Europe. The warm interest and cordial reception I met with from such gentlemen as Sir Roderick Murchison, General Sabine, Sir Charles Lyell, Professor Owen, Dr. Gray, Mr. Henry Reeve, Mr. Crawford, Mr. John Murray, Mr. Ellis, and many others, was the most gratifying and conclusive evidence of the interest and high expectations which the _Novara_ Expedition had excited among scientific circles in England.

On 27th July I embarked on board the P. and O. Company's steamer _Behar_, Captain Black, _en route_ to Gibraltar, which I reached after a pa.s.sage of 4-1/2 days, and, what is still more curious, by a singular coincidence, at the very same moment when the _Novara_, with every st.i.tch of canvas set, was proudly careering through the famous Straits!! As the n.o.ble frigate shot past our steamer, Captain Black saluted, and was so thoughtfully kind as to signal the _Novara_ that I was among his pa.s.sengers. Very soon after, both s.h.i.+ps anch.o.r.ed in the roads of Gibraltar. In the course of my overland journey from Valparaiso to Gibraltar, I had travelled 8832 nautical miles, and had been but 29 days actually travelling.

I now felt pervaded by a sentiment of profoundest grat.i.tude to a benevolent fate, which had led me safely and pleasantly through so many dangers till I rejoined that Expedition with which not alone the best and happiest remembrances of my life are henceforth a.s.sociated, but which opened to me the unspeakably gratifying prospect of being better able to contribute, by extended knowledge and experience, to the advancement of science in my native land!

FOOTNOTES:

[120] The fares, first cla.s.s (including provisions and bedding, but without wine), are as follows:

Miles Dols. s. d.

Valparaiso to Callao de Lima 1467 95 or 19 19 0

Callao to Panama 1594 110 " 23 2 0

Aspinwall (E. coast of Isthmus } of Panama) to St. Thomas, and } 4572 360 " 75 12 0 thence to Southampton }

Total, exclusive of 49 miles of } rail from Colon to Panama } 7633 565 " 118 13 0

[121] Hitherto, the coal procured at Lota in the south of Chile has been neglected, in consequence of the freight being so heavy that it is cheaper to import coals from England and North America.

[122] See "On the Source and Supply of Cubic Saltpetre, or Nitrate of Soda, and its use in small quant.i.ties as a Restorative to Corn-crops, by Philip Pusey." London, W. Clowes and Sons, 1853.

[123] The proportion as found along the coast is 93 to 95 per cent. of saltpetre, to 7 to 5 per cent. of earth.

[124] The export, however, is constantly increasing. In 1858 it amounted to 61,000 tons, in 1859 to 78,000, of which 22,500 tons went to England, 15,200 to France, and the remainder to Germany.

[125] From Arica there are bridle-paths to Potosi, Oruru, Cochabamba, La Paz, Chuquisaca, and Calamaca, probably the highest inhabited point of the earth's surface, where a population of 800 souls live at an elevation of 13,800 feet above the level of the sea.

[126] The volcano of Arequipa is 10,500 feet above its base, but 18,000 above sea-level.

[127] "Peru; Sketches of Travel, 1839-42, by J. J. v. Tschudi." St. Gall, 1846: Vol. i. p. 335. Also, "Investigations on the Fauna of Peru." St.

Gall, 1844-46. The author from personal observation speaks as follows of these singular sand-columns, whirling along before the wind. "Driving before a strong wind, the _medanos_ speedily overleap all barriers, the lighter and more easily-propelled preceding the heavier like an advanced guard. Sometimes they are hurled against each other, when, so soon as they meet, they are dashed violently together, and break up simultaneously.

Frequently a flat _stretch_ of ground is covered within a few hours by a row of sand-hills, which within a day or two more resume their level monotonous appearance. The most experienced guides consequently become confused as to the way, and it is they who the soonest give way to despair as they wander blindly about among the sand-hills. The small mountain-spurs, by which the country is traversed from W. to E., afford some sort of clue, but these oases are few and far between in the sterile wilderness around."

[128] The ordinary mode of writing the word "Guano" is erroneous, as already remarked by Tschudi, as the Quichua language, to which the word belongs, is deficient in the consonant G, among others. The Spaniards first converted into a G the strongly aspirated H of the original, while the last syllable "nu," which so frequently terminates the words adopted from the Quichua, was changed by them into "no."

[129] Only the immense numbers of sea-fowl, their extraordinary voracity, and the bounteous provision for supplying them with food, can furnish any possible explanation of the enormous ma.s.s acc.u.mulated here, even allowing for such a lapse of time. Mr. Tschudi, in the course of his travels in Peru, once kept for several days a live _Sula variegata_, which he was continually feeding with fish. He carefully collected the excrement, when, notwithstanding these birds eat much less in captivity than in a state of nature, it voided in a day from 3 1/2 to 5 oz.! According to other investigations in natural history, it seems that the pelican eats 20 lbs.

a day of fish.

[130] Beds of guano have also been discovered lately by Captain Ord at the Kooria-Mooria Islands, on the south coast of Arabia, in 18 N. 56 E., 850 miles E.N.E. of Aden. Here any s.h.i.+p can load this valuable cargo on paying a duty of 2 per ton to the English Government, which has recently established a colony at the bay and islands of that name, and has made it a coaling station. But the African guano is by no means so strong or so pungent a manure as that found on the rainless coasts of Peru, where certain peculiarities of climate combine to make it less liable to diminution of its saline virtues by dissolution or liquefaction.

[131] The day on which Lima was founded by Pizarro was the 6th January, 1534, which according to the Catholic calendar is that dedicated to the Three Kings of Cologne, whence, in conformity with the religious customs of the period, the city was named "Ciudad de los Reyes" (City of the Kings).

[132] I feel it a pleasant duty to express here publicly how much I am indebted to the representatives of this celebrated firm in the different ports of South America, and to the head of the house in London, for the kind and generous manner in which this gentleman endeavoured to facilitate and advance the objects I had in view.

[133] One of the most distinguished physicians of the capital, Dr.

Archibald Smith, has collected some interesting particulars, with the dates, respecting the outbreak of these fearful maladies, which we intend to publish elsewhere.

[134] This inst.i.tution is also in charge of the Sisters of Charity. There were only some ten or twelve children in course of education, who, however, seemed to be in excellent health and well fed. When I expressed to the lady superintendent my astonishment that the establishment was not more extensively patronized, she replied, "_Los ninos se crian en la Calle!_" (The children are here brought up in the streets.)

[135] There are in Lima 46 private lying-in establishments. The mothers are extremely loth to separate from their children, and if great difficulty be experienced in getting wet-nurses, this is to be attributed far more to the love of the mothers for their children than to strict morality among the ma.s.s of the population.

[136] A Peruvian author, Don J. A. Delavalle, gives in one of his works the following severe, yet faithful, portraiture of the state of letters in his native country:--"En un pais en el que el cultivo de las letras ni const.i.tuye una profesion, ni crea una posicion social, ni procura lo necesario--no decimos para lucrar con ella--para conseguir el sustento para la vida, nos admiraremos de que haya quien escriba en Lima, y reputaremos como extraordinario el numero de obras que han salido de sus prensas en 1860, por muy pequeno que este haya sido. Sin proteccion, pues, y sin estimulo, ni oficial, ni social, que se podra esperar de las letras Peruanas?" (_Translation of the foregoing._) "In a country where the cultivation of letters is not a profession by itself, where literature confers no social position, and barely procures the necessaries of life,--we do not speak of realizing competence and independence,--we marvel there should be any one in Lima who writes at all, and we consider little less than extraordinary the number of books which have issued from its press in 1860, insignificant as the sum total may be. Without protection, without influence, and without stimulus, official or social, who can suffer himself to hope for a better future for Peruvian literature?" (Compare Peru in 1860, in the National Annual Register, by Alfredo G. Leubel, Lima, 1861.)

[137] Pachacamac, the invisible G.o.d, i. e. "he who created the earth out of nothing."

[138] In Canete, an Indian village of 9000 inhabitants, 60 English miles from Lurin, there are also numerous Peruvian architectural memorials, as also an antique temple of idols, which have never been carefully examined.

On my return to Lima, I was shown the mummy of a very young child, which Don Juan Quiros, deputy from the province of Canete, had brought to the capital with him from his own home. The little corpse, quite mummified, lay in a beautiful, neatly-plaited little basket, and was swathed in layers of fine variegated cloth. On both sides lay toys of various kinds, attesting not alone the tenderness of the mother for her dead offspring, but also that a high degree of artistic taste and finish had been attained.

[139] According to the "Estadistica general de Lima" (1858) of M. Fuentes, Lima has a population of 94,195, all told; according to the "Anuario Nacional" of A. Leubel for 1861, only 85,116 souls, who inhabit a surface of 6523.597 square Varas (Spanish). The entire population of Peru can hardly exceed 1,900,000, but a reliable census has never yet been made.

[140] Once during my stay in Lima I had an opportunity of conversing with Don Ramon. He had come up from his country-seat, or rather from the roulette-table of Chorillos, to the capital, and was courteous enough to accord me a reception at his house. After pa.s.sing a couple of sentinels, I was ushered through a large bare room into a small ill-lighted apartment on the ground-floor, when I found myself suddenly face to face with the President of the Peruvian Republic. I was presented by a friend settled in Lima. The General is a mestizo with a strongly-marked brown Indian visage, projecting cheek-bones, and an arched nose, wiry grey hair kept close cropped, and energetic, but withal coa.r.s.e features. He is so far ent.i.tled to grat.i.tude, that during the few years he has swayed the destinies of the Republic, he has maintained internal tranquillity. But there still remains the saddening feeling, borne out by the actual state of matters, that a territory over which Spanish grandees and viceroys once held sway, is at present ruled by an Indian half-breed, who can scarcely read and write. In manners and general appearance, Don Ramon Castilla strongly reminded me of his dusky confrere, General Rafael Carrera, President of Guatemala, with whose despotic tendencies he may be said fully to sympathize.

[141] Thus too it is the predominance of the pure Spanish type and the extent of foreign immigration, which render the future of Chile so hopeful.

[142] Vide E. Poppig, Travels in Chile, Peru, and down the Amazon, vol.

ii. p. 248.--Von Tschudi, Sketches of Peruvian Travel, vol. ii. p.

290.--Weddell, Travels in Northern Bolivia in 1853, p. 514.--Von Bibra, Narcotics and their Influence on Man.--History of the Expedition of M.

Castelnau in the Central Territories of South America. Paris, 1850, vol.

iii. p. 349.--Dr. Paul Montegazza, "Researches into the Hygienic and Medicinal Properties of Coca. Annali de Medicina, March, 1859."

[143] This custom of the Aymara Indians, not less universal than extraordinary, of standing on their heads after long and fatiguing marches, seems to be the result of an instinct which teaches them how best to mitigate the severe pressure of the blood.

[144] The mail goes four times a month from La Paz to Tacna, and usually weighs 25 lbs., which the courier carries on his back and delivers within some five or six days, without other nourishment than that already specified!

[145] The Aymara Indian rarely uses animal food, as to do so he would require to kill one of his beloved Llamas. His chief food consists of roasted _Chuno_, a small bitter species of potato, which flourishes only on the barren, rugged plateau of the Andes inhabited by the Aymara, where neither the common potato nor the maize continue to grow; even barley, which the Spaniards introduced, ceases to thrive. Their only other food is a species of moss, which grows in the swamps, and is called by the natives "_Lanta_." Under such alimentary conditions, it is readily intelligible why the Aymara have a predilection for coca b.a.l.l.s (_acullica_), which (as sailors and others do with us, with tobacco) they keep continually rolling about in their mouths, and which, as soon as the whole of the juice has been sucked out, is thrown away and replaced by a fresh "quid." The juice of the green leaves diluted with oceans of saliva is usually swallowed. An Indian chews on the average an ounce to an ounce and a half per diem, but on feast-days double that quant.i.ty.

[146] Cocain is precipitated in colourless inodorous prismatic crystals.

It is with difficulty soluble in water, but melts readily in alcohol, and with still more facility in ether. When dissolved in alcohol, the solution becomes a strong alkaline reagent, and has a peculiar slightly bitter taste. When brought in contact with the nerves of the tongue, it possesses the singular property of deadening sensation after a few seconds have elapsed, in the part to which it has been applied, which for a time becomes almost void of feeling. It fuses at a temperature of 208.4 Fahr., and in cooling resumes its former prismatic crystalline form. When heated beyond this temperature, it changes to a reddish hue, and volatilizes with a strong ammoniacal odour. Only a small portion seems to get liberated by the destructive process. When heated on a platinum disc, it burns away with a bright flame, leaving no residuum. Cocain completely neutralizes acids, although most of the resulting salts seem to crystallize with difficulty, and to remain for a considerable time in an amorphous state.

The resultant chloride seemed the most readily formed as well as delicately shaped of the crystals. Cocain exposed in chlorine is followed by such a development of heat that the former is fused. (Compare "Cocain, an Organic Base in the Coca," letter of Professor F. Wohler to W.

Haidinger, acting Fellow of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, presented at the meeting of the Cla.s.s of Mathematics and Physical Science, 8th March, 1860. See also "On a New Organic Base in the Coca-leaves," Inaugural dissertation on attaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Gottingen, by Albert Niemann of Goslar. Printed at the Gottingen Press, 1860.)

[147] According to Wohler, this fluid substance admits of being distilled even along with water; its odour strongly recalls Trimethylamin; it is a strong alkaline reagent, but is not bitter to the taste, and forms a white cloud when acids are poured upon it. Its chloride crystallizes readily, but is very volatile. With chloride of platina it forms a flocculent uncrystallized precipitate, which decomposes on the liquid being heated.

With chloride of quicksilver, it a.s.sumes a dim milky appearance, which is caused by the formation of a substance resembling drops of oil. Hygrin is not poisonous; a few drops given to a rabbit were followed by no perceptible symptoms.