1824.] 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
Mr. Rowcrorz’s Account of his Joun- 
wey from Monte Vineo to Vatpa- 
raiso: in two Letters toM. Arrwoop, 
Esq. M.P. 
AVING arrived.at Monte Video on 
the 3lst March, I am now at the 
foot of the first or lower range of the 
Andes, near this city, with the snows of 
the lofty range peeping over them; a 
large valley or ravine ranging between 
them. To-morrow or next day I depend 
to set out, to mount and surmount these 
hills and snows, and to descend to St. 
Jago, in Chili; a passage on mules, 
without house-shelter, of about 300 
miles, and expect to arrive at St. Jago in 
Six, seven, or eight days, if not impeded 
by snow storms, which now, on the ap- 
proach of winter, may detain me in the 
cayerns some days; but I think not. 
The weather is very fine, clear, calm, 
and warm; and the fine grapes here only 
waiting one or two mild frosty nights, 
to ripen them for a general gathering. 
I was this day in a noble vineyard of 
7,000 stout, standard, full-leaved, round- 
headed, bushy vines; each carrying thirty 
to fifty pounds of fine grapes, of which 
they make, badly, a middling wine, like 
Cape wine or Teneriffe. 
_ Inclinations to the o/d system of habits, 
manners, religion, &c., still prevail in 
this state; and the young people, re- 
formers, and creole and foreign impro- 
yers, are for the present put down by 
the old school of opinions; but as the 
women are now learning to read and 
count, and to read French too, and as 
the young men slip away to the schools 
and colleges of Buenos Ayres, America, 
and England, it is thought they will 
soon import the notions, follies, vices, 
and reformations of these countries, and 
add them to their own. : 
An English cabinet-maker here offers 
to make them chairs and tables, which 
they bave hardly yet seen; but the 
Catholics declare they will be heretic, 
and that they cannot go to heaven on 
them; while John Bull swears, that if 
he were to become ever so good a 
Catholic, he could not make them better, 
nor be himself a better Christian than 
London porter and gin have made him 
already ; and so the chairs and tables 
are not made. 
A Lancasterian school is ‘abolished, 
and a subscription library is dispersed, 
to save it from burning, A Dr, G. (a 
navy surgeon) is here, withbalf-pay. He 
has moved much for four years, but is 
now put down; nor will they take either 
Mowrury Mae, No. 403. 
Mr. Roweroft's Account of his Journey to Valparaiso. 
393. 
his advice or physic. He expects he must 
quit ; and being scientifie and botanical, 
wants to go to Lima. He is of Greenock. 
Some Scotch may come here, and do 
well in agriculture. 
This is the paradise for phthisis, asth- 
ma, Consumption, and pulmonary fret- 
fulness of the lungs and sternum. An 
arid mountain land and sandy clay, irri- 
gated by water from mountain torrents, 
grows every thing well; but the natives 
are troubled by the disease of the goitre 
a good deal. In all this country, for 
1,000 miles across, there is not one pane 
of glass and hardly a dozen windows 
(wind-doors), nor any hole in any three- 
foot sand-mud wall, for a rat to creep 
in or out of, but the open common 
door. yen the house of the Governor 
of San Luis (a long shed of one story) 
had no other orifice, for a room of sixty 
feet long, but the door of entrance; and 
there seemed no want of light, though 
the door was not six feet high, and the 
arched room more than twenty-six, 
Birmingham and Shefield send little 
here; and when a creole postilion sees 
our nails break, and not bend into circles, 
and our English iron, made at Buenos 
Ayres, suap on the road at every jerk, 
he exclaims, “ Muy malo!” and is per- 
haps right. 
All this 900 miles is, soberly con- 
sidered, as to commerce, power, or poli- 
tics, at this day, 2 “ terra non,” a nullity: 
neither population nor products worth 
a tusk, or the handie of an old bayonet. 
What it may be, 300 years hence, if a 
second Contucius should arise, I cannot 
say; nor do I quarrel with our preparing, 
now, to be its shopkeeping slayes then; 
as we are to others at this time. 
Inclosed is a bank-paper dollar of 
Buenos Ayres—necessary in a country 
where silver abounds and grows for 
export only. Little plate is now seen 
here in common, and a very few bad iron 
or pewter spoons. About 400,000 dol- 
lars only are said to be now issued. 
The poor people, as usual, cling hard to 
a few solid dollars, and are afraid of 
every thing else in the country; even 
local silver coin and small old divisions 
of the dollars. These will pass little, 
if at all, beyond the precincts of the 
city; and they, with the other larger. 
notes of the bank, occasion an agio of 
3 per tola, in buying silver with them, 
The silver dollar at Buenos Ayres. is 
3s. 8d, only~at which I bought all I 
wanted for a bill at sixty days’ sight on 
London, ay 
Expect to set out to-morrow (Satur- 
3 HE day), 
