The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-11

chose what was believed to be better locality for their sea-gate, where stands the modern Callao, and defended II by a castle in the form of pentagon, with two round towers and a"curtain' on the ocean face. Though so careful ly built to resist human invasion, and mounted with cannon, it would be but a plaything for the invisible, but all potent forces of earth. air and sea; and the people tremble in their shoes when ever terrimote gives them never so slight shaking. Again in 1895 Callao had a narrow escape from total de- struction, and many lesser shocks have done more or less damage.
 If Callao looks tumble-dOWn and shabby when viewed through a veil of mist at miles distance. how much more disappointed is a closer inspec- tion in the full glare of the sun! Somebody has well described it as built generally of canes,s plastered over with mud and painted a dirty yellow, it's flimsy houses standing askew, with scarcely a perpendicular or horizontal line among them, and looking as if they were trying to straighten them selves up after grand debauch, in vain endeaVor to toe the line of the street. As there is considerable swell even in the mildest weather, long mole, or break-water, has been eX- tended toward the anchorage, having stairs behind, where all small boats and lighters receive and discharge their passengers and cargo. The stairs are thronged with a motley and jostling crowd, mostly ragged loafers who have no business on hand but vasrant curi- osity, who stare at the ladies and ob- struct the landing so that we have some difficulty in forcing a path through their dirty ranks. The little plaza at the end of the mole presents a strange and busy escene, it being crowded with wharf bummers and idle gentlemen in dilapidated sombreros and ragged ponchos. We are astonished to see great piles of grain and other mer- chandise lying uncovered ill the open air-until we remember that it never rains here, and there is no more mois- ture to be feared than that from the frogs. Here are heaps of wheat from Chila waiting to be carried to the mills on the Rimac-the river from which Lima took it's name; there are blocks of stalks, white and rose-colored. re- sembling onyx, brought from the salt mines near Huacho; gigantic pisces, or red clar jars, shaded like the Roman amphorae, and filled with Italia" wine from the valley of Pisco; bales of chin coma bark from forests in the far inte- rior; pyramids of chancaca leaves, the coarse, unrefined sugar of the country, wrapped in dried banana leaves, through which sticky sweetness oozes, to the delectation Of swarms of flies and nearly naked children; and other products del pias, mixed cOnfusedly with familiar looking bags, bales and boxes from the United States and Flu rope.
 Collao has population of about thir- ty thousand, but it's glory as a great commercial shipping center has depart ed. There are several modern build ings of considerable architectural pre- tensions, sandwiched among the mud plastered canes, conspicuous among them being the branch house of the 4SGW DdlhGLSy NCsSLo. SldG N Company, and the new railway station, which is also close to the mole. The heat is intense. vile smells assail ones olfactories at every turn; and as there is no drainage except such as nature provides in the natural slope of the soil to 'seaward. and smart showers never fail to wash things clean, the place is proverbially dirty and unheal- thy. The poverty of Peru since it's first war with Chill and the conse- quent depression of her trade, as well as the enormous traiffs imposed by the government, and the exorbitana port duties charged, have conspired to drive away from Callao to the corresponding benefit of Valparaiso, the port of Chili. A few years ago, when the Peruvian government was in dire need of funds, and willing to sell anything 1t could lay hands on for enough cash down to keep things going, it practically sold this harbor of Callao to a French com pany, who leased its docks and anchor age for term of years, for the sum of two hundred thousand dollars per an- mum. The money was a godsend to Peru, but almost death to Callao, for the company has a right to tax ship ping to any extent, and has established a system of rates and rules which no seaman who can help themselves will submit to.
 As before mentioned, the distance be- tween Callao and Lima is six miles, but as the latter lies little more than five hundred feet above sea. level, the short journey occupies nearly an hour There are two lines of road, both start ing from the same point, but arriving at different depots in the capital city. The one we chose takes a sweep along the shore of the harbor and around the old yellow castle of San Felipe, which since republican days has been rechris- tened La Fortaleza de la Independent cia. Then we meander slowly through a cane-built suburb and strike off in a straight line past the Aldea and the Campo Santa Bella Vista. A good deal of the way runs parallel with the cam ino real, or royal road of the Span iards, once we'll paved and lined with trees, but now covered with loose stones and sand, through which the big-wheeled carts of the carreters are dragged with difficulty by struggling mules. So slow is the ascent that the traveller has ample opportunity to view the country, which is mainly a parched walls, with here and there a fiat-roofed