Leave Talcahuano in the Dolores....Passage to Callao....Arrival
....Taken to the Castle....Leave Callao....Road to Lima....Conveyed
to Prison.
My present situation was very disagreeable. The government of Conception
had placed me on board a Spanish vessel, and had given orders to the
captain to deliver me up, the moment he should arrive at Callao, to the
governor of the fortress. At the same time he had been charged with
letters, containing perhaps an account of my having landed on the
Araucanian coast; of having visited part of that almost unknown
territory, as also part of the province of Conception. Such it was
reasonable to expect would be the information conveyed, if either the
reports prevailing at that time respecting the cruel system of Spanish
jealousy in their colonies were to be credited; or those which have been
more recently circulated, that all foreigners would be incarcerated,
sent to the mines or to places of exile, for having merely dared to
tread the shores of this prohibited country. I should have desponded,
had not practice taught me to regard those reports as exaggerated
tales, the fictions or dreams of the biassed, and not worthy of the
least belief. I was, at the time I landed, ignorant of the existence of
any prohibitory laws; but I now reflected, that no doubt foreigners were
not allowed to settle in a Spanish colony without having obtained those
permissions and passports which are considered equally as indispensable
here as in the British colonies; documents which are as essentially
necessary to Englishmen as to foreigners; but I also recollected the
kind treatment which I had received at Conception, as much a Spanish
colony as the place of my destination; I had learned, too, that
foreigners resided in this part of the country, some of whom were in the
actual employ of the government; it had come to my knowledge that an
Irishman, Don Ambrose Higgins, had filled the offices of Captain-General
of Chile, and of Viceroy of Peru.--These reflections contributed to make
me comparatively happy, and by adhering to a maxim which I had
established, never to allow the shadow of future adversity to cloud the
existence of present comfort, my life was always free from fear and
disquietude. My stay among the pastoral indians of Arauco, for barbarous
I cannot call them, had been one continued scene of enjoyment,
unalloyed with any apprehension of approaching evils, and this conduct
had not contributed a little to make me so welcome a guest. I had
followed the same principles whilst at Conception with equal success.
The ship in which I embarked had on board eight thousand fanegas of
wheat, with some other Chilean produce, and an abundance of poultry, for
the Lima market; she was built at Ferrol in the year 1632, of Spanish
oak, and was the oldest vessel in the Pacific; her high poop and clumsy
shape forming a great contrast with some of the recently-built ships at
Guayaquil, or those from Spain. The conduct of the captain, the officers
and passengers, was marked with every kindness. I had a small cabin to
myself, but I messed with the captain and passengers, and the eleven
days which we were at sea were spent in mirth and gaiety, not a little
heightened by the female part of a family going to settle in Lima. The
father kindly invited me, should an opportunity present itself, to
reside at his house during my stay in that city, an invitation of which
I should certainly have availed myself had not circumstances prevented
it. We were all anxiety to arrive at Callao, the sea-port of Lima, and
although I had fewer reasons to wish it than others, still the idea of
seeing something new is always pleasing, particularly to a traveller in
a foreign country; besides, I had been informed on my passage that war
had not been declared between England and Spain, and that the conduct of
the government was to be attributed to their wish to prevent any English
spies from residing at liberty in the country.
On the eleventh day after our leaving Talcahuano we made the island of
San Lorenzo, which forms one side of the bay of Callao. It exhibits a
dreary spectacle, not a tree, a shrub, nor even a blade of grass
presents itself; it is one continued heap of sand and rock. Having
passed the head land, (where a signal post was erected and a look-out
kept, which communicated with Callao, through other signals stationed on
the island) the vessels in the offing, the town and batteries at once
opened on our view. The principal fortress, called the Royal Philip,
_Real Felipe_, has a majestic appearance, although disadvantageously
situated; it is on a level with the sea, and behind it the different
ranges of hills rise in successive gradations until crowned with the
distant prospect of the Andes, which in some parts tower above the
clouds. These clouds, resting on the tops of the lower ranges seemed to
have yielded their places in the atmosphere to those enormous masses,
and to have prostrated themselves at their feet. As we approached the
anchorage the spires and domes of Lima appeared to the left of the town
of Callao. At the moment of landing, which is the most pleasing to
travellers by sea, the passengers were all in high spirits, expecting to
embrace ere long those objects of tender affection, from whom they had
been separated by chance, interest, or necessity.
Previous to our coming to an anchorage, the custom-house boat with some
others visited our ship, and I was sent ashore in that from the captain
of the port. I was immediately conveyed to the castle, and delivered to
the Governor. On my landing at Callao, I observed a considerable bustle
on what may be called the pier. This pier was made in 1779, during the
Viceroyalty of Don Antonio Amat, by running an old king's ship on shore,
filling her with stones, sand, and rubbish, and afterwards driving round
the parts where the sea washes piles of mangroves, brought from
Guayaquil, and which appear to be almost imperishable in sea water. At
the landing place I saw several boats employed in watering their ships,
for which purpose pipes have been laid down, three feet under ground, to
convey the water from a spring; hoses being attached to the spouts, the
casks are filled either floating on the sea or in the boats.
The houses make a very sorry appearance; they are generally about twenty
feet high, with mud walls, flat roof, and divided into two stories; the
under one forms a row of small shops open in front, and the upper one an
uncouth corridor. About a quarter of a mile from the landing place is
the draw-bridge, over a dry foss, and an entrance under an arched
gateway to the castle, the Real Felipe. I was presented to the Governor,
a Spanish colonel, who immediately ordered me to the _caloboso_, one of
the prisoners' cells: this was a room about one hundred feet long and
twenty wide, formed of stone, with a vaulted roof of the same materials,
having two wooden benches, raised about three feet from the ground, for
the prisoners to sleep on. A long chain ran along the bench for the
purpose of being passed through the shackles of the unhappy occupants,
whose miserable beds, formed of rush mats, were rolled up, and laid near
the walls. I had an opportunity to make a survey of this place before
the prisoners entered; until then I was left quite alone, pondering over
my future lot, for this was the first time I could consider myself a
prisoner; however, I consoled myself with the hope of release, or if
not, a removal to some more comfortable situation. In this hope I was
not mistaken, for before the prisoners, who were malefactors employed at
the public works, arrived, a soldier came and ordered me to follow him.
He took up my bed, while I took care of my trunk, and in this manner I
left the abode of crime and misery in which I had been placed. I was
conducted to the guard-house, where that part of the garrison on duty
are usually stationed. I now found myself among such a curious mixture
of soldiers as eyes never witnessed in any other part of the world; but
I reconciled myself to my lot, especially as it was not the worst place
in the castle. In a short time I was sent for to the officers' room. I
there found several agreeable and some well-informed young men, with two
very obstinate and testy old ones, who, though of superior rank, were
heartily quizzed by their subalterns. Such is the ease and frankness of
the South Americans in general, that before I had been an hour in the
room, one of the officers, a young lieutenant, and his brother, a cadet,
had become as familiar with me as if we had been old acquaintance. They
were natives of Lima, both had been educated at San Carlos, the
principal college, and both lamented that the most useful branches of
science were not taught in the Spanish colleges to that extent, and
with that precision which they are in England. The lieutenant also
observed, that as the rectors and heads of their colleges were
churchmen, the studies were confined principally to theology, divinity
and morality, which circumstance caused them to neglect the useful
sciences; and this he ascribed as a reason why in those studies the
students made little progress. But, continued he, our libraries are not
destitute of good mathematical and philosophical books, which some of
our young men study, and they are at all times willing to instruct their
friends. I spent the time in a very agreeable chit chat with my new
acquaintance till ten o'clock, when the lieutenant rose and requested me
to wait his return, saying he was going to the governor for _el santo_,
the watchword, and for the orders of the night. He returned in about
half an hour, pulled off his uniform coat, put on a jacket, and then
told me, in the most friendly manner, that the governor had given orders
for my removal to Lima on the following morning; on which he
congratulated me, saying, that as that was a large city I should be more
comfortable, although a prisoner, than at Callao; he also informed me
that, it being the first day of the month, September, 1803, part of the
garrison would be relieved by detachments from the capital, and that he
was included in that number, and would be happy in giving me a seat in
the _valancin_, hackney coach, which he should hire. About twelve
o'clock my bed and trunk were carried to his sleeping room, and I
remained in conversation with him till day broke; we slept about an
hour, and then arose to breakfast, which consisted of a cup of very good
chocolate for each of us, some dry toast, and a glass of water. At
eleven o'clock, the detachment having arrived, we left Callao in a
valancin, which is a kind of carriage, having the body of a coach on two
wheels, drawn by two horses, one in the shafts and the postillion
mounted on the other.
The city of Callao, which was destroyed by an earthquake in 1746 and
swallowed up by the sea, was at a short distance to the southward of the
present town. On a calm day the ruins may yet be seen under water at
that part of the bay called the _mar braba_, rough sea, and on the beach
a sentry is always placed for the purpose of taking charge of any
treasure that may be washed ashore, which not unfrequently happens. By
this terrible convulsion of nature upwards of three thousand people
perished at Callao alone. I afterwards became acquainted with an old
mulatto, called Eugenio, who was one of the three or four who were
saved; he told me that he was sitting on some timber which had been
landed from a ship in the bay, at the time that the great wave of the
sea rolled in and buried the city, and that he was carried, clinging to
the log, near to the chapel, a distance of three miles.
From Callao to Lima it is six miles, with a good road, for which the
country is indebted to Don Ambrose Higgins; but he unfortunately died,
after being Viceroy three years, leaving this useful work incomplete.
The finished part extends only about two miles from the gateway, at the
entrance to the city, and has a double row of lofty willows on each
side, shading the foot-walk. He also furnished it, at every hundred
yards, with neat stone benches; and at about every mile a large circle
with walls of brick and stone, four feet high, and stone seats are
erected. These circles are formed for carriages to turn in with greater
ease than on the road. On each side of the foot-walk runs a small stream
of water, irrigating the willows in its course, and nourishing
numberless luxuriant weeds and flowers. It was the intention of the
Viceroy to carry the road down to Callao in the same style as it now
exists near the city, but only the carriage road was finished. It has a
parapet of brick raised two feet high on each side, to keep together the
materials of the road. On the right hand side, going from the port, may
be seen the ruins of an indian village, which was built before the
discovery of South America. Some of the old walls are left, formed of
clay, about two feet thick and six feet high, and which perhaps owe
their present existence to the total absence of rain in this country. To
the right is the town of Bellavista, to which parish Callao is attached,
being called its _anexo_. Here is a hospital for seamen and the poorer
class of the inhabitants. Half way between the port and the city stands
a very neatly built chapel, to which is connected a small cloister; it
is dedicated to the Virgin of Mount Carmel, and many visit it to fulfil
some vow or other which they have made at sea to this Madonna, she being
the protectress of seamen. Near the chapel is situated a house at which
are sold good brandy and wine, and it may easily be guessed which
establishment has the most customers! On approaching the city the
quality of the soil appears to be very good; large gardens with
luxuriant vegetables for the market, and fields of lucern and maize are
here cultivated, and close to the city walls there are extensive
orchards of tropical fruit trees, all irrigated with water drawn by
canals from the river Rimac. The gateway is of brick, covered with
stucco, with cornices, mouldings, and pillars of stone: it has three
arches; the centre one for carriages has folding doors, the two lateral
posterns are for foot passengers.
The mind of a traveller is naturally led to expect to find the inside of
a city correspondent with the appearance of its entrance; but at Lima he
will be deceived. The distant views of the steeples and domes, the
beautiful straight road, its shady avenue of lofty willows, and its
handsome gateway, are contrasted, immediately on passing them, with a
long street of low houses with their porches and patios; small shops
with their goods placed on tables at the doors; no glass windows; no
display of articles of commerce; numbers of people of all colours, from
the black African to the white and rosy coloured Biscayan, with all
their intermediate shades, combined with the mixture of colour and
features of the aborigines of America:--the mere observation of this
variety of colours and features produces a "confusion beyond all
confusions."
As a prisoner of war, although the two nations were at peace, I was
conducted by my kind friend to the city gaol, _carcel de la ciudad_,
where I remained shut up for eight months with about a hundred criminals
of the worst description. Owing, however, to a recommendation and the
promise of a remuneration from my good friend the lieutenant, the
alcalde lodged me in a room at the entrance of the prison, allotted to
persons of decent families, or to such as had the means of paying for
this convenience.
I was fortunate enough to find here a native of Lima, an officer in the
army, who was confined on suspicion of forgery. He was a very excellent
man, and conducted himself towards me in a manner which contributed, not
only to my comfort whilst I was a prisoner, but finally to my
liberation. My first object in my confinement was to make myself
perfectly master of the Spanish tongue, and to obtain some knowledge of
_Quichua_, the court language of the Incas, and used wherever their
authority had been established. I was the more desirous of becoming
acquainted with this language, because it is spoken in the interior of
Peru by all classes of people: the respectable inhabitants, however,
also speak Spanish.