Sec. 2. OBSERVATIONS MADE BY BETAGH IN THE NORTH OF PERU.

Leaving Mr Hately for the present, I proceed to the observations I made on the road, as the admiral was so good as send me up into the country, till his return from Payta.  As the weather in this part of the world is much too hot to admit of any labour in the middle of the day, the custom is to travel only from six in the evening till eight next morning.  My Indian guide set me on the best mule he had, which did not think proper to follow the rest, so that I led my fellow-travellers while day lasted.  The whole country through which we travelled was an open plain, having Indian plantations laid out with tolerable regularity, on both sides of us.  This champaign country is from thirty to an hundred miles broad, and extends three hundred miles along shore; and I was travelling to the southward, having the Cordelieras, or mountains of the Andes, on my left hand, and the great Pacific Ocean to the right.  As the soil is good and fertile, this land would be as fine a country as any in the world, if well watered; but travellers are here obliged to carry water for their mules as well as themselves.  At the approach of night, I was much puzzled to find the way, my mule still persisting to go foremost, being often stopped by great sand hills, and my mule as often endeavoured to pull the reins out of my hand.  This being very troublesome, the Indians advised me to lay the reins on the mule’s neck, and on doing that the creature easily hit the way.  These sand hills often shift from place to place, which I suppose is occasioned by strong eddy winds, reverberated from the mountains.

We rested at night in an old empty house, about half way, which the guide told me was built by the inhabitants of Piura, for the accommodation of the prince of San Bueno, viceroy of Peru, when they met and regaled him at his entrance on his government.  After a short rest, we continued our journey, and arrived at Piura, a handsome regularly built town, on the banks of the river Callan or Piura.  The Indian conducted us to the house of an honest Spanish gentleman and his wife, to whose charge he committed us, and then returned to Payta.  In less than a quarter of an hour, the inhabitants of the town flocked to see us, as a raree-show, and entertained us with respect and civility, instead of using us as prisoners of war.  The gentleman to whose charge we were committed was named Don Jeronimo Baldivieso, who had five daughters, who received us in so benevolent a manner, that we hoped our time would slide easily away, and our captivity prove no way disagreeable; and I now became sensible of the favour shewn me by Don Pedro in sending me to this place; for he had such interest in all Peru, that for his sake we found very good treatment.