PREFATORY. 



The information embraced in the following pages was obtained in occasional intervals of 

 leisure during nearly three years occupied in prosecuting the observations for which Congress 

 more immediately instructed the honorable Secretary of the Navy to send an Astronomical Expe- 

 dition to the southern hemisphere. Charged by the Department with the conduct of that 

 honorable enterprise, I was also directed to furnish any other information of a useful character 

 which there might be opportunities to obtain. 



At that period the young republic of Chile was daily becoming of greater consequence to our 

 people. Those who had encountered the long and dreary voyage round Cape Horn passed on 

 their way north, or to the islands of the Pacific, with exalted ideas of its fertility and wealth, 

 and pleasant remembrances of Talcahuano or Valparaiso ; the thousands who left the eastern 

 shores of the United States for the auriferous region of the West by more expeditious routes, 

 looked to it for the larger supplies of bread and fruits ; the merchant saw in it a rapidly grow- 

 ing market for his ship-loads of domestic manufactures ; and the statesman greeted cordially 

 the nation every day giving stronger proofs of its ability for self-government. 



Within the preceding quarter of a century Chile has advanced far more rapidly than any 

 other nation of Spanish America in intelligence, good order, agricultural and mineral wealth, 

 and commercial importance. But all, or very nearly all, the volumes of information we possess 

 of it were written before the era of progress, and tell what Chile was, not what it is. Nor do 

 they enlighten us on many subjects deeply interesting to the cultivated reader. Indeed, not- 

 withstanding the munificent and most laudable efibrts of the government of that country to the 

 present time, even its best informed citizens have few reliable data concerning the geography 

 or statistics of any other department or province than the one in which they reside. At the 

 cost of the national treasury, both its political and natural histories have been elaborately 

 written, and the latter superbly illustrated ;* and in course of time, an account of its geogra- 

 phy, ethnography, and statistics will probably follow. Until then, the present volume may 

 supply some deficiencies. But I beg it may be remembered that no pretensions are made to 

 elegance of literary composition ; and if the most trustworthy information which other duties 

 permitted me to obtain is detailed comprehensibly, it is all that it was expected to accomplish. 



J. M. G. 



U. S. N. ASTRONOMICAL EXPEDITION, 

 Washington, July, 1854. 



* HISTORIA FISICA T PotiTiCA OB CHILE Begun documentos adquiridos en esta republics. Publicada bajo JOB auspicios 

 del Supremo Gobierno por Claudio Gay. 



