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On the Pacific coast, the most notable spots were Panama, the port whither came the treasure ships from Peru to transport their stores by land to Nombre de Dios; Lima, the great city of Peru, which had its port of Callao; and further south the town of Santiago and the harbour of Valparaiso.
The Laughing Mary was a light ship, as sailors term a vessel that stands high upon the water, having discharged her cargo at Callao, from which port we were proceeding in ballast to Cape Town, South Africa, there to call for orders.
It was this: that, owing to some unprecedented oversight in the Purser, or some equally unprecedented remissness in the Naval-storekeeper at Callao, the frigate's supply of that delectable beverage, called "grog," was well-nigh expended. In the American Navy, the law allows one gill of spirits per day to every seaman. In two portions, it is served out just previous to breakfast and dinner.
And had not the way in which the Japanese steamer, also provided with a wireless apparatus, stuck to us so persistently between Valparaiso and Callao shown us plainly that every new technical discovery has its shady side? No, we had learned nothing.
When our frigate lay in Callao, on the coast of Peru her last harbour in the Pacific I found myself without a grego, or sailor's surtout; and as, toward the end of a three years' cruise, no pea-jackets could be had from the purser's steward: and being bound for Cape Horn, some sort of a substitute was indispensable; I employed myself, for several days, in manufacturing an outlandish garment of my own devising, to shelter me from the boisterous weather we were so soon to encounter.
"I have no very precise idea how far we maybe from Callao," I said, "but if this wind lasts we should be there in five or six days at the outside. Don't you think so, Kidd?" "May be. You still think of going to Callao, then?" "Still think of going to Callao! I am determined to go to Callao. Why do you ask? Did not I distinctly say so before we started?" "I thought you had maybe changed your mind.
Upwards of a hundred years ago a fearful earthquake occurred, which shook Lima to the ground; and a huge wave rolling in towards the shore at the same time, overwhelmed the old town of Callao, and destroyed the greater part, if not the whole, of the inhabitants. Peru was taken by the Spaniards three hundred years ago from the native Indians, who lived happily under their own princes and chiefs.
It's not a long one. I'm called Ned Gale. I was born at sea and bred at sea; and it isn't often I set foot on shore, so that what good there is in me I picked up afloat." "Then how comes it, Ned Gale, that you got so far inland as this?" I asked. "Why, you see the ship I sailed in was seized by the Spanish authorities, in the port of Callao, where we had been driven by stress of weather.
About three weeks after this the Dragon entered the bay of Callao, passing round the barren island of San Lorenzo, long the burying-place of Protestants, who were denied sepulture on the mainland.
On the 8th of May, the schooner Montezuma, which had been lent to General San Martin by the Chilian Government, entered Callao under Peruvian colours. The insolence of thus appropriating a vessel of my squadron was too great for forbearance, so that I compelled her to come to an anchor, though not before we were obliged to fire upon her.
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