282 ' Voyage of the Novara. 



beard and saw during our stay at so unpropitious a period, 

 only served to strengthen our conviction that a great and 

 splendid future awaits this delightful country. 



He who merelylands at a seaport such as Valparaiso, and 

 wanders through its lengthy but elegant streets, carries away 

 with him no just conception of Chile and the life of the 

 country beyond the Andes. Everything about the town, 

 houses, shops, and population, has quite a* European aspect, 

 so that the stranger walking through some of the streets with 

 their lofty grey edifices, gay signs, and large and splendid 

 magazines, abounding in everything that can minister to 

 human luxury, might readily fancy himself transported to 

 some northern European capital. Nothing is here to tell of 

 its being the native country of the Araucanian, nothing re- 

 cals that singular national aboriginal type, and it is only 

 when contemplating the majestic forms of the surrounding 

 landscape that he can realize that he is actually in the prox- 

 imity of Andes, ^' giant of the Western Star." 



One of our first walks through the city, the buildings of 

 which extend^ row after row, for a considerable distance along 

 the bay, and surmount the hillocks {Quehradas) which rise at 

 a short distance fi'om the shore, brought us to the Aduana, or 

 Custom-house, one of the most extensive, beautiful, and com- 

 modious buildings in the city, which, commenced in 1850 by a 

 Frenchman, was finished six years later by an American, 

 named John Brown. The ground on which the various 

 buildings are erected was quite recently gained from the sea 



