184 SANTIAGO. 



plaza belonging to individuals rival, if they do not exceed, in size, all except the Mint. That 

 on the south side, the " Portal," is completed ; the other, on the east, is in the course of con- 

 struction ; but neither of them will add to the reputation for taste of the architects or the 

 proprietors. 



There are several markets in the city, the principal one near the main thoroughfare over the 

 Mapocho. Within a square enclosed by rows of one-story houses there are covered ranges of 

 open stalls and benches, at which one may find in its season not only every production of the 

 earth, air, and water of the country, but also groups of peddlers with articles of haberdashery, 

 combs, soaps, cutlery, and common pottery in all its various forms ; and as few of the poorer 

 class have any other than earthenware utensils, the last is no unimportant item in their domestic 

 economy. On the street sides, the houses enclosing the quadrangle are occupied as stores for 

 the sale of grain, beans, clothing, &c. ; a long, low shed on the west front is filled with ponchos, 

 pettons (skins dressed with the wool on), and all appurtenances for horses ; and another street 

 next the river is crowded with awnings, beneath which sit women with baskets of shoes, from 

 the coarse, high-heeled, quaint-looking brogan worn by peons, to the delicate gaiter-boots for 

 ladies. Here are the carts and mules, with their loads, from or for the country a crowded spot, 

 from which one is happy to escape through a door leading among the butchers. If we take 

 into account the numbers of black cattle and sheep raised and the unsurpassed pasturage for 

 fattening them, meats are neither fat, well prepared, nor cheap. The butchers seem not to com- 

 prehend slaughtering, but leave the greater part of the blood in all meat, afterwards cutting beef 

 into graceless junks wholly destitute of fat. No effort is made to improve the breeds of sheep 

 or hogs, and rare are the occasions that fat or tender mutton or tempting pork may be found. 

 What most surprises a stranger is the quantity of grease exhibited for sale. This is preserved 

 in the cleaned stomachs of cattle, into which it is poured in a liquid state, and the marketing 

 is not complete without a huge lump with which to season the cookery. Wild ducks in great 

 variety, fine partridges, a native pigeon one third larger than the North American bird, doves 

 (Coluniba auriculata), and parrots (Psittacus cyanalysios), are the birds most numerous and 

 cheapest, there being an abundant supply from April to October. Some years the pigeons do 

 not appear in this part of the republic, and during others they may be purchased three and four for 

 a real. The flesh of G-uanacos the only edible native animals common in the province of San- 

 tiago is never brought to market ; though the meat is excellent, and they may be readily taken 

 when snow drives them from the higher parts of the Andes. The young are often caught and 

 brought to the city for sale as pets. As they are very common, and never can be broken of the 

 habit of throwing acrid saliva towards the nearest person whenever they are excited, few care 

 to be plagued with them. Moreover, the young are extremely difficult to raise ; four in my 

 possession that were in charge of native servants having died in spite of the utmost care and 

 attention. Fish, two or three kinds of muscles (mytilus), crabs, and sea-eggs (Echinus albus), 

 are brought by night from San Antonio, near the mouth of the Maypu, and from the fresh-water 

 lakes and streams ; and, though conveyed from thirty to eighty miles on mules in the summer 

 months, they have been pronounced generally better than the same varieties purchased at Val- 

 paraiso. If such be the fact, it must be owing to the difference in the hygrometric condition 

 of the atmosphere at the two places. 



Of vegetables, fruits, and flowers, the supply is extensive, and prices moderate ; but from the 

 indolence of the gardeners, and their unwillingness to adopt modes of cultivation followed else- 

 where, or because of the difference of temperature between day and night, there are few of the 

 vegetable productions common to the northern hemisphere which attain equal perfection here. 

 Indeed, it is quite safe to assert that little more is done in market-gardens than to put the seed 

 into the ground after moderately scratching its surface, clean it of weeds once or twice, and turn 

 water on it as often. And yet with this little care, with all the fertilizing agents of the city 

 emptied into the river, with a bit of stick for a plough, a bunch of brush for a harrow or rake, 

 no spades, and the rudest kind of hoe, finer cabbages, cauliflowers, peas, beans, pumpkins, 



