d into England, it will take some time to exhaust the
supply. Guano is a corruption of the Quichua word _huaim_. The Quichua
is the language of the Incas. Under the enlightened government of the
Incas the value of guano was well-known, and severe laws were enacted
against any one disturbing the birds during the breeding season.
Pulling away to another island, we found a number of Chinese employed in
digging out the guano. We were not surprised at seeing them look very
miserable and unhappy, for the oppressive odour arising from the
fresh-dug guano was intolerable, to us even for a short time. We were
told that many of them in their wretchedness commit suicide, flying,
through their ignorance, from present evils to those they know not of,
instead of endeavouring manfully to support their lot, if inevitable, or
to seek proper means to escape from it if they have the power--not that
I thought this at the time, by-the-by. I only remarked to Jerry that
they were very great fools for their pains. A little way up the bay, on
the mainland, is the sea-port of Pisco, a neat Spanish-built place. In
the neighbourhood are numerous remains, which prove how populous must
have been the country under the sway of the Incas.

Sailing north, we entered the Bay of Callao, the port of Lima. Before
us lay Callao, with rich green plains on either side, covered with white
farms and willow-trees, with the high cliffs of Morro Solar to the
south, and below it the bathing-place of Cherillos. Six or eight miles
inland appeared the white towers of Lima, surrounded by orange-groves;
while above them, far into the blue sky, rose peak beyond peak of the
ever-glorious snow-capped Andes. Such is the scene which, for many ages
past, has been looked on; but a change--a great and important one--is
taking place in the land; and what was our surprise, when we went on
shore, to see English omnibuses and broughams--and more than that, the
terminus of a railway, the carriages of which ran rattling on to Lima.

"Funny," cried Jerry, when we found ourselves, with the captain and the
doctor, in one of the aforesaid carriages, "to think that we are all
away on the other side of that great big straggling continent of
America, and yet to feel, as we look about this box, as if we were only
skurrying off from London to Liverpool."

I entered into his feelings, and the voyage round Cape Horn, and our
different adventures, seemed like a dream, till we looked o