tor-pears, melons, and many others--and eating some of them, or
probably I should not have recollected the circumstance. The place was
very busy, and far more people were moving about than I had been
accustomed to see at Quito; and in the harbour were a number of
vessels--large ships and small ones, and curious rafts, on which the
natives were sailing or paddling about, called _balsas_. They were made
of light balsa wood, which is very buoyant. They were of all sizes, and
some had come in from a considerable distance along the coast. Then my
father accompanied us on board a big ship, and took an affectionate
leave of my mother and sister and me; and we all cried very much at
parting, at least Ellen and I did, though I was so well pleased with all
the sights I witnessed that I soon forgot my sorrow. Then the sails of
the _Pizarro_--that was the name of our ship--were set, and we glided
out of the harbour, while the boat containing my father returned to the
shore. The _Pizarro_ was, I should say, a Spanish ship, commanded by
Captain Lopez, a very worthy man, in whom my father had great
confidence, or he would not have committed our mother and us to his
charge. At that time Spanish vessels alone were allowed by the
Spaniards to trade to the ports of their colonies, which contributed
with many other causes greatly to retard their progress. I, however,
knew nothing about such matters at that time. I remember the compass in
the binnacle placed before a big wheel, at which a man was always
standing steering the ship, and I was told that we were sailing south.
I thought the ocean, which was blue, and calm, and glittering in the
sunshine, must be very wide, and wondered where it could end, or whether
it had an end towards the west. On the east was the coast of Peru, and
I could see the lofty snow-capped mountains rising up out of the plain,
looking as if they were intended to bear up the sky should it come down
towards the earth. Day after day we glided on. There they were as high
as ever, apparently quite close to us, though I heard the captain tell
my mother that they were fifty miles off or more. I scarcely believed
him, though I did not think so big and grave a man could tell a story.
I did not understand at that time to what a distance objects can be seen
in that pure, clear atmosphere. We after that stood off the coast for
many hours, and yet they appeared almost as high as ever. The mountains
I saw were the A