VALPARAI- 225 



further on he states that "the Presid r .,f Chile, Don Joee* Man so, and Lieutenant 



>, were then in t A few years before, thi* " larger quarter," 



by win. h I'lloa means the Almendral, was sold for less than tu,, thousand dollars, the sale 

 including all the ground between >t .t the hill* to the eastward and the district now 



call, illions would n..t putehae the same | re*-nt date. 



Confident in th- <r charms of their nun valley an 1 y, unwilling 



to have them robl.ed a possible honor, 8antiiu r niiio8 will t-ll y..u that th<- name of Val- 



paraiso originated am- >n^ Ihe soldiers who came witli AIM/.- ! M in September, 1 



anl were tol.l by tliose who ha.l participated in their fascinations, " Va at 1'araiso" (Go to the 

 Paradise), by which their lovelier locality was meant. And when one sees the formation of the 

 land surrounding its semi-circular hay. its hills that bound the vision to limited distances, cut 

 hy heavy rains into radiated rid^c.s with deep int. -tripes of rock 



and clay, h-t't hare hy the washings of these cloud-deposited streams, whilst the native vegeta- 

 ti-.n is nearly all shrubby and diminutive, he is strongly tempted to espouse their opinions. 

 True, there are a few coco-palms, but no other trees on the shores of the bay; and even these 

 thriven best in deeply sheltered spots with northern exposures, so that multitude* 

 may come to Valparaiso and depart without having seen a plant growing in localities apparently 

 so discordant with the habits of its genus. On the other hand, it we suppose the succoring 

 party from Peru to have been the first who cast anchor here, and who must have seen all the 

 arid coast south of Guyaquil, coining, as they did, in the month when nature is robed in her 

 richest livery and all the hill-sides arc verdant, it is not unreasonable to suppose them fasci- 

 nated by the sight of so much vegetation, and hence gave to it so poetic a name. 



Entering the mouth of the bay, we find it 2| miles wide in a line drawn from the high 

 bluff on our right, and on which stands the light-bouse, to an equally elevated continuation 

 of the same hill to the eastward. From this chord to the beach south of us is 1^ miles. The 

 bay is entirely open to wind and sea between N.N.E. and W.N.W. On the western side and 

 around quite one half of the semicircular curve, the radiating ridges spoken of approach closely 

 to the sea, generally leaving but a strip of land wide enough for a row or two of houses and 

 contracted streets between their extremities and its waves. This portion, called El Puerto 

 (the Port), has, beyond a doubt, been formed by detritus washed from the qnebradas (ravines), 

 aided by a gradual uprising of the coast under the action of earthquakes. Many foreign resi- 

 - well remember when the ground now occupied by tbe line of houses next the bay was 

 entirely covered by water. On tbe eastern side, a triangular plain of sand, comparatively quite 

 extensive, has been heaped up by the same causes, and to which the struggles of the northers 

 and the streams whose united waters flow through what is now called the Catte de las DeiicicUj 

 have contributed no little. This is known as the Almendral, from a grove of almond trees 

 planted in years past by its earliest foreign proprietors, the Augustin monks. With the 

 necessities of a growing population the almond grove entirely disappeared, and a few venerable 

 olives near the northern extremity alone remain to mark the taste of the first settlers. 



Along the narrow band between the ridges and the surf, over the surface of the Almendral, 

 upon artificial terraces of the sloping declivities within the quebradas, and even to the very tips 

 of the ridges themselves more than 200 feet above the sea is built the city ; parts of some 

 houses having no other foundations than piles driven into the earth far below the level of the 

 street, from which one enters on the opposite side. Drawing closer in, one fortification is seen 

 perched over the town to the left of the light-house ; another occupies an eminence near the 

 eastern termination of our imaginary chord ; and soon, the eye embraces details of tbe whole 

 panorama. In tbe rear of a well built mole, crowded with people and surrounded by boats 

 and launches filled with merchandise from a crowd of ships rolling on the swell of the sea, 

 stands a handsome custom-house with its tower and cl veeples of many churches projected 



against a dark background, a castellated edifice with its tall flagstaff amid numbers of rudely 

 constructed cabins on the tip of a bluff overhanging the custom-house, picturesque mansions 

 29 



