Captains Davis And Swan Now Joined Company; And Harris Was
Placed In Command Of A Small Bark.
Our bark, which had been sent to
cruise three days before the arrival of the Cygnet, now returned with
A
prize laden with timber, which they had taken in the Gulf of Guayaquil.
The commander of this prize informed us, that it was reported at
Guayaquil, that the viceroy was fitting out ten frigates to chase us
from these seas. This intelligence made us wish for Captain Eaton, and
we resolved to send out a small bark towards Lima, to invite him to
rejoin us. We also fitted up another small bark for a fire-ship, and set
sail for the island of Lobos on the 20th October.
Being about six leagues off Payta on the 2d of November, we sent 110 men
in several canoes to attack that place. Payta is a small sea-port town
belonging to the Spaniards, in lat. 5 deg. 15' S. built on a sandy rock near
the sea-side, under a high hill. Although not containing more than
seventy-five or eighty low mean houses, like most of the other buildings
along the coast of Peru, it has two churches. The walls of these houses
are chiefly built of a kind of bricks, made of earth and straw, only
dried in the sun. These bricks are three feet long, two broad, and a
foot and a half thick. In some places, instead of roofs, they only lay a
few poles across the tops of the walls, covered with mats, though in
other places they have regularly-constructed roofs. The cause of this
mean kind of building is partly from the want of stones and timber, and
partly because it never rains on this coast, so that they are only
solicitious to keep out the sun; and these walls, notwithstanding the
slight nature of their materials, continue good a long time, as they are
never injured by rain. The timber used by the better sort of people has
to be brought by sea from other places. The walls of the churches and of
the best houses are neatly whitened, both within and without, and the
beams, posts, and doors are all adorned with carved work. Within they
are ornamented with good pictures, and rich hangings of tapestry or
painted calico, brought from Spain. The houses of Payta, however, were
not of this description, though their two churches were large and
handsome. Close by the sea there was a small fort, armed only with
muskets, to command the harbour, as also another fort on the top of a
hill, which commanded both the harbour and lower fort. The inhabitants
of Payta are obliged to bring their fresh-water from Colon, a town two
leagues to the N.N.E. where a fresh-water river falls into the sea; and
have also to procure fowls, hogs, plantains, maize, and other provisions
from that and other places, owing to the barrenness of the soil in its
own neighbourhood. The dry and barren tract of this western coast of
America begins at Cape Blanco in the north, and reaches to Coquimbo in
30 deg. S. in all of which vast extent of coast I never saw or heard of any
rain falling, nor of any thing growing whatever either in the mountains
or vallies, except in such places as are constantly watered, in
consequence of being on the banks of rivers and streams.
The inhabitants of Colon are much given to fishing, for which purpose
they venture out to sea in bark-logs.[162] These are constructed of
several round logs of wood, forming a raft, but different according to
the uses they are intended for, or the customs of those that make them.
Those meant for fishing consist only of three or five logs of wood about
eight feet long, the middle one longer than the rest, especially
forewards, and the others gradually shorter, forming a kind of stem or
prow to cut the waves. The logs are joined to each other's sides by
wooden pegs and withes, or twisted branches of trees. Such as are
intended for carrying merchandise are made in the same manner and shape,
but the raft consists of twenty or thirty great trunks of trees, thirty
or forty feet long, joined together as before. On these another row of
shorter trees are laid across, and fastened down by wooden pegs. From,
this double raft or bottom they raise a raft of ten feet high, by means
of upright posts, which support two layers of thick trees laid across
each other, like our piles of wood, but not so close as in the bottom of
the float; these being formed only at the ends and sides, the inner part
being left hollow. In this hollow, at the height of four feet from the
floor of the raft, they lay a deck or floor of small poles close
together, serving as the floor or deck of another room; and above this,
at the same height, they lay just such another sparred deck. The lower
room serves for the hold, in which they stow ballast, and water casks or
jars. The second room serves for the seamen and what belongs to them.
Above all the goods are stowed, as high as they deem fit, but seldom
exceeding the height of ten feet. Some space is left vacant behind for
the steersman, and before for the kitchen, especially in long voyages,
for in these strange vessels they will venture to make voyages of five
or six hundred leagues.
[Footnote 162: I suspect this to be a mistaken translation of
barco-longo, long barks, or rafts rather, as the subsequent
description indicates. - E]
In navigating these vessels, they use a very large rudder, with one mast
in the middle of the machine, on which they have a large sail, like our
west country barges on the river Thames. As these machines can only sail
before the wind, they are only fit for these seas, where the wind blows
constantly one way, seldom varying above a point or two in the whole
voyage from Lima to Panama.
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