226 VALPARAISO. 



embowered amid a profusion of evergreens along, the steep face of Cerro Allegre across the ravine, 

 the Panteon with its white walls and pretty chapel still farther to the left, and hack of all on 

 eminences more than a thousand feet above the ocean, approachable by zigzag roads charming 

 residences whose balconies and open corridors command a prospect of all the world below, from 

 the volcano of Aconcagua, a hundred miles off, to the tiny sail-boat in the harbor, these are 

 striking objects of the picture. Nearly all its buildings have been the work of less than a third 

 of a century, the whole town having been comprised within "El Puerto" prior to 1819, at which 

 epoch there were scarcely a dozen houses of all descriptions erected on the Almendral. Then its 

 5,000 people, the better class of whom were merely agents, had only humble houses in which to 

 live, few schools for the education of their children, and were almost without protection for them- 

 selves or property. Bobberies and assassinations were committed in broad daylight; nor was it 

 safe to pass from the Port to the Almendral except in parties sufficiently strong to resist the 

 attacks of a gang of desperadoes who frequented a cave at the extremity of the former, which 

 sailors have christened Cape Horn. At that time, and indeed until within the last twelve years, 

 the custom-house was at Santiago, and there resided all the foreign as well as the native mer- 

 chants of capital. 



Now things are changed. When allegiance to Spain was thrown off by the countries bordering 

 on the South Pacific, their ports were of necessity thrown open to the commerce of other nations. 

 Till then it had been carried on only in Spanish bottoms, or in such few others as intended by 

 bribery and smuggling to recover the enormous fees paid for the privilege of trade; and thus, 

 from its position and facilities, Valparaiso soon became an entrepot for the whole coast. With 

 its increasing receipts, foreign merchants deserted the capital for the port; old houses were torn 

 down to make places for better ; and the city spread rapidly over the Almendral, until not a site 

 remains vacant, except the summits of the hills and parts of ravine slopes. 



There is a marked difference, however, in the architecture of the two districts. As ships can 

 approach nearer to the Port, it has become more emphatically the commercial part of the town; 

 and constantly augmenting trade has rendered ground of such importance, that they not only 

 encroach upon the sea for the foundations of houses day after day, but they build story on story, 

 European fashion, notwithstanding the risk of earthquakes. The Almendral is more national; 

 edifices of one story, with patios, being the most numerous. Measuring the Port along its two 

 curved streets, from the custom-house stores on the west to the narrow and crooked pass at Cape 

 Horn (Cueva del Chivato'), just wide enough for a carriage-road between the vertical face of the 

 rocky cliff and the sea, the distance is about half a mile. Its breadth has been told, and there 

 is but to add that the sea still breaks over the road at Cape Horn during the storms of winter. 

 The Almendral, beginning at Cape Horn, is nearly three times as long as the Port, and its 

 breadth across the base of the triangle is about half a mile. In both districts the streets are 

 narrow ; those in the Port being the most contracted, and intolerable from the quantities of mud 

 which the rains bring down from the quebradas during winter, and the clouds of dust drifted 

 from the hills in the strong southwest winds that prevail throughout summer. Terrible are 

 these sand-storms. Only during the nights of the latter season could one enjoy a walk in the 

 streets; and then, so badly are they lighted and so contracted are their sidewalks, that they 

 are sufficiently comfortless. It is probable, however, that the first of these defects will shortly 

 be remedied, as it is intended to light the city with gas during the next summer. Another 

 inconvenience from which families and shipping long suffered the want of a good supply of 

 water has been obviated only recently. Formerly it was furnished by carriers, who brought 

 it on mules either from the rivulet beyond the Almeudral, or from natural deposits on the hills ; 

 but within a year basins have been built on the eminences back of the town, from which spring- 

 water is conveyed to the houses and mole in iron pipes. Both these improvements are due to 

 our enterprising countryman, Mr. William Wheelwright. 



In addition to the open space before the custom-house, and which is of the same width as that 

 building, there are two other plazas : one a few hundred yards to the westward, the Plaza de la 



