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seen. Of these and otiier ports along the coasts of Northern
Chile and Peru, nautical information will be found in the Appendix.
I will only delay the general reader with one or two
observations.
From near Iqnique to Arica the precipitous coast is so lofty,
and approaches so much to the character of enormous cliffs,
about a thousand feet high, that it is really sublime. Near
Islay, the land is in several places covered with a whitish
powder, or dust, which lies many inches thick in hollows or
sheltered places, but is not found abundantly in localities
exposed to wind. Much difference of opinion has arisen about
this powder. People who live there say it was thrown out of a
volcano near Arequipa a great many years ago : other persons
assert that it is not a volcanic production, and appertains to,
or had its origin, where it is found. My own idea was, before
I lieard any thing of the controversy, that there could be no
doubt of its having fallen upon the ground within some
hundred years, for it was drifted like snow, and where any
quantity lay together, had become consolidated about as much
as flour which has got damp in a damaged barrel.
In one of the old voyages there is a passage which seems to
throw some light upon this subject: “ As they (of Van
Noort’s ship) sailed near Arequipa, they had a dry fog, or
rather the air was obscured by a white sandy dust, with which
their clothes and the ship’s rigging became entirely covered.
These fogs the Spaniards called ‘ arenales.’”—Voyage of Van
Noort, in 1660, from Burney, vol. ii. p. 223.
On the 9th of August, the Blonde anchored in Callao Bay,
and I enjoyed the satisfaction of finding all well on board the
Beagle. She had touched at Copiapo and Iquique, for Mr.
Darwin, in her Way to Callao, where she arrived on the 19th of
July. Lieutenant Sulivan brought his little vessel safely to
an anchor near the Beagle on the SOth, having accomplished
his survey in a very satisfactory manner. So well did he speak
of the Constitución, as a handy craft and good sea boat, and
so correctly did his own work in her appear to have been
executed, that after some days’ consideration I decided to buy
her, and at once set on foot an examination of the coast of
Peru, similar to that which Mr. Sulivan had completed of the
coast of Chile. Don Francisco Vascuñan had authorized the
sale of his vessel at Callao : she was purchased by me for £400,
and immediately fitted out afresh.
I could not spare Lieutenant Sulivan to remain on the coast
of Peru, while the Beagle would be crossing the Pacific, on
her return to England by way of the Cape of Good Hope; but
there was Mr. Usborne, able and willing to undertake the task,
who, from his station, could be spared without prejudice to
the duties yet remaining to be executed on board the Beagle,
and a better man for the purpose I could not have desired.
With him Mr. Forsyth volunteered to go, and Commodore
Mason was prevailed upon to allow Mr. E. Davis, a master’s
assistant of the Blonde, to join the little expedition ; who, with
seven good seamen, and a boy, volunteers from the Beagle,
completed Mr. Usborne’s party.
A stranger might well smile at the idea of such a boat affair
being started to survey, in eight or at most ten months, the
whole coast of Peru, from Paposo, near Atacama, to the Biver
Guayaquil; but the task was completed; the charts are now engraved;
and very soon seamen will be able to test their accuracy.
Most people are aware that the coast of Peru is free from
storms; that the wind blows moderately along the land or from
i t ; and that there is little or no rain. Consequently, as the
sea is seldom much disturbed (except by a south-west swell),
and there are neither ‘ races’ nor dangerous streams of tide, an
open boat might undertake such a task, if safety alone were to
be considered, provided that she did not try to land in a surf.
The real impediments to surveying that coast are—the surf
caused on those steep rocky shores by an occasional heavy
swell, almost amounting to rollers, from the south-westward;
the delays and doubts created by prevalent fogs ; and the loss
of positions, as well as time, consequent upon being drifted hy
currents during a calm. Mr. Usborne had also to prepare for,
and provide against, as much as possible, difficulties of a
very different nature—those arising out of the disturbed state
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