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238 A P P E N D I X .
siderable trade, from the quantity of saltpetre, and the silver mines of
Huantaeayhua, in its neighbourhood: the latter are little worked, as
the saltjjetre is a surer profit, large cargoes of which are annually
taken in English vessels. There are no imports ; all the property
belongs to merchants in Lima, where vessels are chartered, and have
only to call here and take in their cargoes.
Vessels bound for this place should run in on the parallel of Point
Grande, until the white patches on that point are discerned, when a
course should be shaped for the northern of three large sand hills :
stand boldly in on this course till the church steeple appears, when
shortly after, the town and low island will be seen, under which is
the anchorage ; care must be taken in rounding this island to give it
a good berth, a reef extending off it to the westward, to the distance
of t^\-o cables' lengths.
Tlie anchorage is good in eleven fathoms, -n-ith Point Piedras
bearing N. 9°W. ; W. extreme of the island, W. 32° S . ; church
steeple S. 15° E.
^^essels have attempted the passage between the island and the
main by a mistake, and thereby got into danger, from which they
have been extricated mt h difficulty : it is only fit for boats or very
small vessels.
Landing is bad and the way hazardous, o-vving to the number of
bhnd breakers with which it abounds ; boats have been lost at the
full and change of the moon, when the heavy swell sets in. Balsas
are employed to bring cargoes to a launch at anchor outside the
danger, as is the case in most of the ports on this coast.
N. 12° W. , eighteen miles from Point Piedras (the north point of
Iquique Bay, which has a cluster of rocks round it), is the small bay
of MexiUones, appearing as a low black island with a white rock
lying ofl^ it, and may be known by the GuUy of Aurora a little to
the southward, and a road apparently weU trodden on the side of
the bills, -leading to the mines. And N. 20° W., thirty-three miles
from Point Piedras, is Point Pichalo, a projecting ridge at right
angles to the general trend of the coast, with a number of hummocks
on it. Rotmd to the northward of this point is the village and roadstead
of Guano Pisagua; this, as well as MexUlones, is connected
with Iquique in the saltpetre trade, and is resorted to by vessels for
that article. In rounding the point, a sunken rock hes about half a
cable's length off, and should be looked out for, as it is necessary to
A P P E N D I X .
hug the land close to ensure fetching the anchorage off the village at
the beginning of the ridge ; baffling winds are frequent, which may
tlirow you ncai- the shore, but do not signify, as the water is smooth
and the shore steep-to. The best anchorage is with the extreme of
Pisagua Point, N. 7° 30'W. ; and Pichalo Point, W. 19 S., two
cables' length ofl: the village, in eight fathoms, by wluch you waU
avoid a rock with four feet water on it, lying off the sandy cove at
the distance of tft'o cables. , „ • i,
North of this, at the distance of two miles and a half, is the guUy
and river of PISAGUA. the water of which supplies the neighboui-mg
inhabitants; it is not, when at its greatest strength, more them en
feet across, and then does not overflow, but merely filters tlirough he
beach into the sea. GeneraUy spealdng, it is dry nine months m the
year • wells are dug near it where water, such as it is, may always be
found: but no vessel should trust to watering at this place, as, besides
its unwholesomeness, the difficulty and expense attending it
, would be very great. .
From this to Point Gordo the coast is in low broken chffs, with a
few scattered rocks off it, and ranges of high hills near. Point Gordo
is a low jutting point, where a long line of cUff, several hundred feet
high commences; wUch continues, with only two breaks, to Arica
These breaks or gullies, as they are called, ai'e very remarkable,
and are useful in making Arica from the southward. The first is the
gully of Camarones, which hes seven miles north of Pomt Gordo,
and is about a mile in width, running at right angles to the coast
towards the mountains, with a stream of water runnmg down it. and
a quantity of brush-wood on its banks ; it forms a sHght sandy bay.
scarcely sufadent to shelter a vessel from the heavy sweU.
The Gully of Victor is the other; it lies N. 17° W. . twenty-nme
miles from that of Camarones. and fifteen miles from Arica; it is about
three quarters of a mile in width, and from a Kgh bold pomt. called
Point Lobo, jutting out to the southward, forms a tolerably good
anchorage for smiU vessek; it also runs toward the mountains m a
sunilar manner to that of Camarones, and Hke it has a smaU stream
running through, mt h verdure on its banks. Vessels bound to Anca
should endeavour to make tliis gully or ravine, and when within
three or four leagues of it they wiU see Arica Head, which appears
as a steep bluif, with a round hiU in shore, called Monte Gordo.
Upon nearer approach the island Huano %vill be observed, joined to
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