The next town to Payta of any consequence is Piura, thirty miles from
Payta, seated in a valley on a river of the same name, which discharges
its waters into the bay of Chirapee [or Sechura.] in lat.
5 deg. 32' S.
This bay is seldom visited by ships of burden, being full of shoals; but
the harbour of Payta is one of the best on the coast of Peru, being
sheltered on the S.W. by a point of land, which renders the bay smooth
and the anchorage safe, in from six to twenty fathoms on clear sand.
Most ships navigating this coast, whether bound north or south, touch at
this port for fresh water, which is brought to them from Colon at a
reasonable rate.
Early in the morning of the 3d November, our men landed about four
miles south of Payta, where they took some prisoners who were set there
to watch. Though informed that the governor of Piura had come to the
defence of Payta with a reinforcement of an hundred men, they
immediately pushed to the fort on the hill, which they took with little
resistance, on which the governor and all the inhabitants evacuated
Payta, but which we found empty of money, goods, and provisions. That
same evening we brought our ships to anchor near the town, in ten
fathoms a mile from shore, and remained six days in hopes of getting a
ransom for the town; but seeing we were not likely to have any, we set
it on fire, and set sail at night with the land-breeze for the island of
Lobos. The 14th we came in sight of Lobos de Tierra, the inner or
northern island of Lobos, which is of moderate height, and appears at a
distance like Lobos del Mare, the southern island of the same name, at
which other island we arrived on the 19th. The evening of the 29th we
set sail for the bay of Guayaquil, which lies between Cape Blanco in
lat. 4 deg. 18', and the point of Chanday, or Carnera, in 2 deg. 18' both S.
In the bottom of this bay is a small isle, called Santa Clara,
extending E. and W. and having many shoals, which make ships that intend
for Guayaquil to pass on the south side of this island.
From the isles of Santa Clara to Punta arena, the N.W. point of the
island of Puna, is seven leagues [thirty statute miles] N.N.E. Here
ships bound for Guayaquil take in pilots, who live in a town in Puna of
the same name, at its N.E. extremity, seven leagues [twenty-five miles]
from Punta arena. The island of Puna is low, stretching fourteen leagues
E. and W. and five leagues from N. to S.[164] It has a strong tide
running along its shores, which are full of little creeks and harbours.
The interior of this island consists of good pasture land, intermixed
with some woodlands, producing various kinds of trees to us unknown.
Among these are abundance of Palmitoes, a tree about the thickness of
an ordinary ash, and thirty feet high, having a straight trunk without
branches or leaf, except at the very top, which spreads out into many
small branches three or four feet long.
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