CHAPTER V. HARBOR AND CITY OF CALLAO. THE harbor of Callao, in latitude 12° S., is about six miles in length and breadth, with ample depth of water, and entirely protected-no safer harbor being found. The city of Callao, and a prolonged beach, bound the harbor on the east; the island of San Lorenzo, four and a half miles long and one mile wide, rugged, barren, and from one thousand to twelve hundred feet high, stands on the west, with the small island of El Fronton and the Palminos rocks to the southwest, serving the purposes of superb breakwaters in these directions; on the south is a long, low, sandy peninsula-Callao Point-extending westwardly toward San Lorenzo, but leaving a strait called the Boqueron between its extreme point and that island; and on the north the harbor is open to the sea, this being the principal entrance to the port. The Boqueron, the southerly entrance, is about two miles wide; and although there is depth of water enough in its rather narrow channel for vessels of largest draught, and it is sometimes used by sailing vessels with a favorable wind, its navigation by such is not deemed safe, as there is not sufficient room for beating, and a strong current-always found-may carry a ship ashore. Hence marine insurance is made subject to avoiding the passage of the Boqueron. Steamers from and to the south use this channel in safety, and avoid the loss of time consequent on doubling San Lorenzo. In this harbor one hundred and fifty vessels are now riding at anchor. Among those flying the United States flag are three men-o'-war, the "Lancaster," "Wyoming," and "Narraganset," all carrying auxiliary steam power, and mounting metal enough to batter HARBOR AND CITY OF CALLAO. 73 down Callao and its defences, and take the Peruvian frigate "Apurimac," lying alongside, by way of reprisal for the seizure by the Peruvians of two American merchantmen. The controversy growing out of this act drags its vexatious length along, and is likely to hang fire indefinitely, false-hearted diplomacy and insolence of office being submitted to rather than risk the possible inconvenience that might result from a peremptory demand for redress of grievances. At this moment the "Lancaster" is absurdly pretending international courtesy and friendship not felt, by belching forth a salute, causing the sea to tremble. It is truly a magnificent cannonade, making the tall Andes to clap their hands in joy: "The glee Of the loud hills shakes with its mountain mirth, As if they did rejoice o'er a young earthquake's birth." Callao has a capacious mole for landing merchandise, and a smaller one for landing passengers in smooth water within that used for cargo. A sentinel stands at the head of the stairway. When we went ashore a large number of loafers of the darker tints, both sexes, and all degrees of impoverishment, were seen lounging about. Despite this, however, there was an appearance of business activity near the pier: fleteros, keeping their boats in perpetual motion, seeking employment; and cargadores, carrying their burdens, bags, boxes, and bundles to the railroad depot near by, and to which passengers were hurrying for the next train to Lima. A large quantity of miscellaneous merchandise was seen in a picket-fenced custom-house storage lot, designed for articles under temporary official restriction; no building being necessary for the protection of such from rain, where none ever falls to damage goods. Callao is cursed by a hotel. May those who come here be saved by friends from expiating their sins in such a purgatory! The population is twenty-five thousand, mostly of the mixed breeds, who from the frequent occurrence of earthquakes, and the destruction of life as well as property that has attended them, are not inclined to indulge extravagant fancies in building large and costly houses. It is considered safer to have them of but one story, and of the lightest and most yielding materials, that they may yield and accommodate themselves to shocks generally without being prostrated. The high, slender walls of burnt brick of our northern cities would soon be shaken to pieces here. Most of the houses are small and low, consisting of a light scantling frame about twelve feet high, resting usually on timbers lying on the ground-there being no cellar. The interspaces of the frame are latticed or lathed with cane, split reed, or cornstalks, plastered with mud, in which chaff or horse dung is made to answer the purpose of hair in mortar. Sometimes this rough coating is yellow or whitewashed. A large door and iron-grated window, often unglazed, with unplaned plank floor, one or two mud-daubed cane partitions, and a roof of thatch, or board, covered, when desired to protect the inmates from the sun's rays, with a considerable thickness of dried mud as a non-conductor, complete the edifice, which, however suitable and lasting it may prove here, would be left untenanted in the bleak and variable north, where well-grounded apprehensions would be entertained of its being blown or washed away by a specimen equinoctial storm of that region. The better class of houses-embracing but few-and especially those built for storage of merchandise, have a stronger foundation, usually of stone sunk several feet in the earth, on which is erected a frame of timber filled in with large sun-dried bricks-adobes-which are used in preference to fire-burnt brick, because cheaper, and also less apt to become cracked and overthrown by earthquakes. This wall, one story high and two feet thick, is plastered with mud. On it is built a second story, called the alto, of lighter materials, usually split reeds, and slender framework, slightly rough coated as before described. This attention to flexible and elastic materials is considered indispensable in the construction of the higher story, inasmuch as its greater distance from the centre of motion makes it more liable to sway to and fro in terrestrial undulations. With a very thick wall of porous substance to break the force of shocks, for the first story, and for the second, light and flexible building materials, falling houses from earthquakes are not as frequent as when the Spaniards first settled this country. The altos are HARBOR AND CITY OF CALLAO. 75 usually furnished with balconies of lattice or venetian, and sometimes close woodwork with curtained windows, which look tasteful, airy, and convenient for the bright black eyes that peer from them on the outer world in mischievous security; but they would not suit the utilitarian architecture and incendiarism of our large cities. Even the best built of these houses could not withstand the severities of a northern climate, although well adapted to the moderate temperature and absence of rain of this. Heavy rains, and severe and quickly alternating frost and thaw, would speedily disintegrate them. The flat roofs of the better houses, formed of rafters, rough boards, and covered in most cases thickly with dried mud, are paved in some few others with brick. Two or three dormer-window looking skylights, always presenting a large funnel-like mouth toward the south, like the expanded upper part of a windsail, stand on the roof for the purpose of ventilating and lighting the rooms below, when, as is often the case, there are no side windows. This ventilator is called a teatina, and was the invention of the San Cayetano order of friars, for the purpose of catching the south wind invariably blowing here, and directing it below: it has shutters within, which may be closed or opened by cords suspended within reach. To a North American eye it has a clumsy and awkward appearance. The style and structure of the houses are certainly unattractive, and housewifery is equally untidy. Negligence, disorder, and dirt prevail, whether from want of servants, where most persons in Callao look like such, or from indifference and laziness, I know not; but certainly brooms, brushes, and dusters are at a discount. If such household implements be dutiable, the impost cannot be ad valorem, for that would involve a defeat of revenue where value is not recognized. It is probably owing in part to the want of use of these insect exterminators, that a traveller landing at this commercial gate of Peru, must become familiar with fleas, and submit to terrestrial torture. My constant experience is a pungent reminder of early professional duties—of minor surgical operations, phlebotomy and acupuncturation. It may be safely assumed that Peru is remarkable for insect "industrial exhibitions," and the señoras and señoritas will testify that crinoline is the great am phitheatre in which these are held. My first night here subjected me to the onslaught of a legion of fleas that preoccupied the bed, and revelled in a sanguinary saturnalia through the dark hours; some of them even ambushing themselves in shirt, drawers, and socks, to assail their victim mercilessly the next day. The streets of Callao rarely exceed fifteen or twenty feet in width, and are paved with cobble stone, with narrow sidewalks of slab. A few of the streets in the neighborhood of the fortress are wider. A promenade the Alameda-at the north end of a principal street, is well laid off, and when finished will be a handsome improvement. At one end of it a singular mound is seen, four or five hundred feet in diameter at its base, and gradually rising to a height of thirty feet. It is composed entirely of shingly deposit, oval-shaped, somewhat flattened, smooth, polished, unmixed with either sand or earth, and merely with the dust of human bones. From the great number of these in every stage of disintegration, it may be supposed that it was probably used by the Indians for burial purposes, and is one of the many huacas found in this vicinity, unless, indeed, it was the place of interment of the defenders of the castle during the long siege, when famine and pestilence did what the patriot army of Peru was unable by direct assault to accomplish―reduce a stronghold defended by an equally indomitable Castilian courage and tenacity. This shingle furnishes an inexhaustible supply of excellent paving material. It may have been rolled up by the sea, which perhaps formed an eddy here, in its ebb and flow, at some remote period, when the land had not its present relative elevation. In regard to this subject of the comparative height of the land, my observations forbid the adoption of Dr. Darwin's opinion, that the western coast of this continent is gradually rising and encroaching on the sea, or the opposite view of other geologists, as being invariably applicable to the question at issue. For although shells of the conchyliæ, native to this sea-coast, have been found at an elevation of eighty to one hundred feet on the island of San Lorenzo, thus showing a lifting of the land, yet it is well known that the Camotal, now an extensive shallow |