a port town of South America, in the province of Los Charaes, in Peru. It was formerly a considerable place; but the earthquakes, which are frequent here, have almost entirely ruined it; for there are no more than 150 families, which are most of them blacks, mulattoes, and Indians. Most of the houses are made with canes or reeds, set upright, and bound together with cords or thongs; and as it never rains here, they are covered only with mats, which makes the place look at a distance like a heap of ruins.

The vale of Arica is about a league wide, and six leagues long, next the sea, and is all a barren country, except the spot where the old town stood, which is divided into little meadows of clover grass, and plots for sugar canes, with a few olive and cotton trees intermixed. This vale grows narrower as it runs eastward; and a league up there is a village, where they begin to cultivate pimento or Jamaica pepper, which is planted throughout all the rest of the vale; and there are several farms, which produce nothing else, that bring in the value of 80,000 crowns yearly. The Spaniards of Peru are so used to this pepper, that they dress no provisions without it. W. Long. 70° 15'. S. Lat. 18° 26'.