The aspect of the place was most
gloomy; the little port, with its few vessels, and small group of
wretched houses, seemed overwhelmed and out of all proportion with
the rest of the scene.
The inhabitants live like persons on board a ship: every necessary
comes from a distance: water is brought in boats from Pisagua,
about forty miles northward, and is sold at the rate of nine reals
(four shillings and sixpence) an eighteen-gallon cask: I bought a
wine-bottle full for threepence. In like manner firewood, and of
course every article of food, is imported. Very few animals can be
maintained in such a place: on the ensuing morning I hired with
difficulty, at the price of four pounds sterling, two mules and a
guide to take me to the nitrate of soda works. These are at present
the support of Iquique. This salt was first exported in 1830: in
one year an amount in value of one hundred thousand pounds sterling
was sent to France and England. It is principally used as a manure
and in the manufacture of nitric acid: owing to its deliquescent
property it will not serve for gunpowder. Formerly there were two
exceedingly rich silver-mines in this neighbourhood, but their
produce is now very small.
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