. It is celebrated for its handsome
churches. Its streets are narrow and the whole population seemingly
devoted to peddling lottery tickets. There are many Chinamen amongst its
150,000 inhabitants. The Roman Catholics control the country, which is
absolutely priest-ridden, Reformed or other churches not being permitted
in Peru. A revolution was attempted only a few days ago, the President
having been seized and dragged out of his office to be shot. The
military, however, rescued him and the revolution was over in
twenty-four hours. Peru's resources, outside of the very rich mining
districts, will eventually be found in the Montana country, on the lower
eastern slopes of the Andes. Her people are backward, and, at least in
Cuzco and Arequipa, I should say the dirtiest in the world. There is as
yet little or no tourist traffic on this coast; and there will not be
much till better steamers are put on and hotels improved. In Lima,
however, the Hotel Maury is quite good, though purely Spanish. It never
rains on this coast, yet Lima is foggy and cold.

I took a trip up to Oroya over the wonderful Meiggs railway. M. Meiggs
was an American, who had to leave his country on account of certain
irregularities. We reached a height of 16,000 feet, the country being
absolutely barren and devoid of vegetation, but very grand and imposing.

December 16th.--Sailed from Callao for Mollendo, calling at Pisco. Here,
close to the harbour, are wonderful guano islands, on two of which were
dense solid masses of birds covering what seemed to be hundreds of acres
of ground. How many millions or billions must there have been! And yet,
it being the evening, millions more were flighting home to the islands.
With glasses they could be seen in continuous files coming from all
directions. These birds are principally cormorants and pelicans. There
are also very many seals, and we saw some whales. These islands
presented one of the most marvellous sights I ever saw. And what
enormous, still undeveloped, fisheries there must be here to support
this bird-life. To-day we also passed a field of "Red Sea," confervae or
infusoria. We were favoured for once with a grand view of the Andean
peaks, which are seldom well seen from the coast, being wrapped in
haze and clouds.

[Illustration: LLAMAS AS PACK ANIMALS.]

[Illustration: DRIFTING SAND DUNE. (One of thousands.)]

Arrived at Mollendo, port of Arequipa and Bolivia, I at once took train
and rose rapidly