A F lan
of P
1 K l N G D C f
A. The Place where the Boats lanth
B . The Fort,with eight Guns mounte«
C . The Ccmdator's Houle.
C H A P . VI.
The taking of Paita, and our proceedings there.
THE town of Paita is fituated in the latitude o f 5°: 12
South, on a moll barren foil, compofed only o f fand and
{late: the extent o f it (as may be feen in the annexed
plan) is but fmall, containing in all lefs than two hundred families.
The houfes’ are only ground-floors; the walls built of fplit
cane and mud, and the roofs thatched with leaves : thefe edifices,
though extremely flight, are abundantly fufficient for a climate,
where rain is confidered as a prodigy, and is not feen m many
years: fo that, it is faid, a fmall quantity of rain, falling in this
country in the year 1728, ruined a great number of buildings,
which mouldered away, and, as it were, melted before it. The
inhabitants of Paita are principally Indians and black Haves, or, at
leaft, a mixed breed, the whites; being very few. The port of
Paita, though, in reality,' little more than a bay, is efteemed the
be ft onithat part of the -coaft; and is, indeed, a very fecure and
commodious anchorage.-'- It is greatly frequented by all veffels
coming from the North ; fince here only the Ihipsfrom Acapulco,
Sonfonnate, Realeijo, and Panama, cam touch and refire A in their
paffage to Callao : and the length of thefe Voyages (the wind, for
the-greateft .part of-the year, being full: againft them) renders it
impoffib'le to perform them, without calling upon the codft for a
recruit-of freth water; . It is true, Paita is fituated on fo parched
a {pot, that it does not itfelf furnifti a drop of frefh water, or any
kind of greens or provifions, except filh and a few goats : but there
is an Indian town called Golan, about two or three-leagues diftant
to the northward, from whence water, maize,- greens, fowls, &.c-
are conveyed to Paita on balfas, or floats,, fbrathe convenjfency of
the {hips that touch here; and cattle-are fometimes brought from
Piura,