Note 389 — Chapter LXXV

This account of the use of guano by the ancient Peruvians is exceedingly curious. Garcilasso de la Vega also describes the use made by them of the deposits of guano on the coast. He says: “On the shores of the sea, from below Arequipa to Tarapaca, which is more than two hundred leagues of coast, they use no other manure than that of sea birds, which abound in all the coasts of Peru, and go in such great flocks that it would be incredible to one who had not seen them. They breed on certain uninhabited islands which are on that coast; and the manure which they deposit is in such quantities that it would almost seem incredible. In the time of the kings, who were Yncas, such care was taken to guard these birds in the breeding season, that it was not lawful for any one to land on the isles, on pain of death, that the birds might not be frightened, nor driven from their nests. Neither was it lawful to kill them at any time, either on the island or elsewhere, also on pain of death. Each island was, by the Yncas, set apart for the use of a particular province, and the guano was fairly divided, each village receiving a due portion” (ii, lib. v, cap. iii). See also Antiguedades Peruanas, p. 77.

Frezier mentions that, when he was on the coast in 1713, guano was brought from Iquique, and other ports along the coast, and landed at Arica and Ylo, for the aji and other crops. Frezier’s South Sea, p. 152.