1824.] 
just now ; and they are the most active, 
speculative, competent, and capable 
people on this continent. I know 
nothing of England since f left it; and 
am anxious about it.—Yours, &c. 
Tuos. Rowcrort. 
Mendoza, April 22, 1822. 
P.S. My batteredand aching ribs hardly 
allow me to sit up; but I go about ; and 
to sit seven long days on a climbing 
mule will not ease them. 
St. Jago de Chile, 
30 leagues from Valparaiso. 
I wave reached this place this day, 
after a severe labour of nine days and 
nights in the open air, in unexpected 
snows, across the Andes, from Men- 
doza; after fourteen days’ of unremit- 
ting gallopping for nearly 1,000 miles, 
across the Pampus from Buenos Ayres. 
We hear here of large French squadrons 
at Rioand Monte Video; and nothing but 
very dismal accounts from Lima. This 
country, too, is said to be discontented 
and uneasy. The expedition against the 
island of Chiloe has failed. The people 
are chiefly of Indian race, and strongly 
attached to their Romish priests and 
religion, and Spanish king. The coun- 
try is a woody morass, and attempted, 
they say, at a season impracticable for 
inilitary operations. 
I have frequently complained of the 
wretched and useless quality of all the 
cutlery of Birmingham and Sheffield, 
from Teneriffe to Rio, Monte Video, and 
Buenos Ayres; and here I find it as 
bad, or worse: but to-day am told that 
I am mistaken; that nearly all I have 
seen any where, and all here, is German, 
from Antwerp chiefly ; and the country 
so crammed with this German and Fle- 
mish rubbish, that there is xo room for 
English. It is the same with their arms, 
or military equipments: all or mostly 
German; and, my informant thinks, all 
very bad. A cargo of German and of 
English muskets were lately here on 
sale together, and at the same price: 
the German were preferred, only because 
they were longer in the barrel. 
Trade is called very, very dull and 
contracted here, owing to the interrup- 
tions to circulation, transit, and con- 
sumption. I think Birmingham and 
Sheffield, on some good plan, with some 
energy, might do more than they do all 
through here. A knife I carry with 
several instruments cost, I suppose, at 
Birmingham (whence I had it), about 
8s. to 10s., would, they say, be worth 
here an ounce of gold, (£3. 10s.) Few, 
however, could be sold; and a small 
Mr. Rowcroft's Account of his Journey to Valparaiso. 
395 
parcel would bring them to four or five 
dollars, 15s, to 20s. 
No reading-room or coffee-house, and 
no-English papersto be seen here, but in 
private hands. I have seen no one yet, 
and know nothing of England since the 
Ist of January. 
Buenos Ayres was worth my observa- 
tion; and so, I expect, will be this place ° 
and country. ‘The solitudes I have 
passed through, for nearly 1,200 miles, 
are more curious to observe than inte- 
resting or instructive in any way, People 
are of more consequence than sand or 
stones ; however high the one may fly, 
or the others rear their rugged fronts. 
The sand flies here as dry as dust can 
be, at the edge of and over the snows, 
on the steppes of the mountains 
All through this country, the rope, or 
string of ox-hide, serves the place of 
nails, and binds all their sticks together. 
The carpenter, the bricklayer, and the 
tailor are nearly unknown among them. 
Mud and boughs, bushes and brambles, 
ox-horns and ox-hides, serve them for 
all purposes. The destitution of any 
race of savages can hardly be much 
greater; but still the women, and the 
men too, have English calicoes and 
printed cottons for their Sunday wear. 
All want and all use woollens much; 
and the chief, or only domestic industry 
and ingenuity, is to spin and weave their 
own wool into blankets, petticoats, 
“ ponebos,” and saddle-cloths. 
This is their harvest of grapes, figs, 
India corn, wheat, Chili pepper, potatoes, 
peaches, and apples; and is this year a 
fine one for grapes, after a very hot 
summer, which we felt severely at Rio 
de Janiero. From the 25th of March, at 
Monte Video, to this day, I have not 
seen more than one pailful of water, in 
forty days. The sun, moon, and stars 
have been my constant companions in 
all their utmost intensity of brightness : 
of these, eleven nights have been passed 
in the open air. 
An unexpected snow of five days, 
very early, between the 17th and 23d of 
April, closed the mountain tracks, and 
made my passage, from the 27th to the 
30th, very difficult, precarious, and ha~ 
zardous. Several mules with loads and 
in saddles, fell down the precipices; but 
only one was killed outright. My ser- 
vant’s mule fell down the steep ; but he, 
though a negro of courage, young, and 
active, and a good horseman, had fortu- 
nately quitted her, through fear, five 
minutes before. The common pass or 
track of the “ cumbre,’ or summit, was 
closed, and we had to scale an unusual 
3 E 3 and 
