Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-01-29

two enclosures and two shutes one much small
Ter than the other, being used only for loading
boats
After making ourselves fully acquainted with
all the economy of the island we retrace our
painful path to the boat and pull off to the ship,
where, the day before Sunday, there is no work
going on, and we can amuse ourselves with the
scenery around us. Every little hollow in the
islands has been gradually filled up, until the
surface is nearly levelled; the general dark brown
hue singularly broken by scattered projecting
crags, white with huanu 6tonco-newly- deposited
guano. Round the base of the islands little rocky
peninsulas jut out, bored through in many places
by the constant washing of the Pacific, whose
gentle waves have insinuated themselves many
yards into the solid rock, and have formed caverns
which are the resort of numerous sea-lions. The
time of these hermts seems to be divided between
doing in their gloomy bookings cells, and making
hungry irruptions on the shoals of little fish which
frequently pass through the channels. | have
often watched these little fellows-packed in such
dense masses that they seem to have scarcely room
to swim in-moving rapidly aloDg,a spray of them
every moment leaping from the water and glitter
ing for an instant in the sun; all evidently igno-
rant of the neighborhood Of an enemy. Suddenly,
in the very middle of the party, rises black,
ugly head, and instantly all is confusion--a
dozen unfortunates are swallowed in mouth
full. Other heads, equally ugly, pop up in IN
expected places, and you can distinctly hear the
through the flying shoal, and finishes dinner
worthy of a cardinal in Lent. 1t is not, how
ever, all small fry; whales often come gambolling
between the islands, rolling and playing in the
sun, and sometimes leaping clean out of the
water, into which their huge bodies descend
again with crash that seems to shake the Sc a
itself, and turns the surface into one great
frothy washng-tub, amidst the suds of which
the giant slowly sinks, throwing up his
broad black ukes if in derision of the lockers
on. t.4,t
But now our work begins in earnest. Ballast
is hoisted up and thrown over the side, and the
long boat is busily employed in bringing guano
to replace it. Most unpleasant work that is.
was one of the boats crew, and, since of course
much rivalry exists between the ships, that all
desire priority IN loading, we were at work night
and day, leaving our ship at night and remaining
under the shute until morning, so as to obtain
the first load for our boat. shall not soon for
get the dismal hours we passed there. Close to
us-every surge of the boat sending her into its
mouth-was dark ravine, into which the sea
poured with one continuous roar. A few faith
oms distant stood gan isolated rock, every wave
dashing boldly up it, and then falling back in
sheets of foam, and scattering all around it show
ers of heavy spray. On our right, moored to the
rocks, lay loading ship, her wraps and cables
Stacked for the night, leaving some twenty feet
of dark water between her and the huge black
cliff the base of the cliff marked by the bright
line OF light which ever glitters on the broken
wave of the Pacific. CHANGING aoft, we saw,
rising and falling with the ships motion, the
long white shute, like fairy footpath up the
rock; whilst, drawn upon the clear blue sky.
were lifts, and braces, bowlines, stays, and all
the maze of rigging familiar to the sailor. And
there, beyond, lay the dark sister island; her
shores, too, lighted by the white ocean-fire,
which, in a long dim surf-line, marked the more
distant coast of the great continent itself, from
which rose in the moonlight the stupendous mas
ses of the Cordilleras. Before morning, the
heavy dew and heavier sprays had thoroughly
diluted the romance of our position, and when
day dawned, we were glad to get the shute into
the boat, and cheer ourselves by shouting, in hor-
rible Spanish, to its Indian guardian to let go the
guano In a few minutes down came the show
er, and eyes, mouth, and nose were filled with
the pungent dust, which continued to pour in un-
til the boat was loaded to the waters edge, and
its occupants looked like portion of the cargo.
One old salt, whose bushy black whiskers and
long hair contained enough manure to satisfy q
small farmer, very theoretically cursed all the
farmers in the world for employing sailors to do
their dirty work, instead of coming themselves
and carting home the guano in their own broad
wheeled wagons The boat being loaded, we
pulled her slowly off to the ship, where our car
60, having been filled into bags, took the place
of the discharged ballast This sort of work
continued for about three weeks, before our turn
to haul under the larger shute arrived. fv4
Our bill of fare aboard would have attractions
for some people. Turtle was our commonest
dish, as the skipper found it cheaper to give q
dollar for turtle weighing fifty or sixty pounds,
than to supply us constantly with the contrac-
tors beef from Pisco. Our turtle soup how
ever, would not have passed muster at Guildhall,
though thick enough for sailors. Then we had
| camotes, a sort Of sweet potato, which attains q
very large size and is generally liked by English.
men; yucca, root resembling rarsnip; frijoles;
fish, mutton birds; plenty of seasoning, such as
tomatoes, Chill grapes, bananas, chirimoyrs, al
ligator pears, &C.; the meat boat being always
well supplied with articles of this kind. It
| brought also occasionally, few bladders of pis-
co, which, being contraband, were Struggled with
| the due formalties.
| At length, one of the English sailors living on
the island came off and took us alongside, seeing
| that we were moored in proper position for re-
| ceving cargo. With him came half dozen In
dians Cholos, we call them-that is, name ap-
piled by sailors to all the different colored races
| in Peru, though it is the especial property of
one tribe only. The duty of these men is to trim
the guano in the ships hold, as it pours out of
the shuto. The nature of their work may be
| imagined. The hatchways are quickly choked
up, and the atmosphere becomes mere mass of
| floating guano, in the midst of which the trim
| mers work in state of nudity; the only article
of dress with some of them being bunch Of
oakuih Cieu HrIniy over tne mouth ana noStrllS,
so as to admit air and exclude the dust. They
divide themselves into two parties, one relieving
the other every twenty minutes. When at
work, they toll very hard, handling their sharp
pointed shovels in style that would astonsh
even an English navigator, and coming on deck,
when relieved, thoroughly exhausted and streams
ing with perspiration. But in this state they
swallow quart of cold water, Qualifying it az
forwards with large dose of raw rum or pisco,
| and then, throwing themselves down in the cool
est part of the ship, they remain there till their