228 VALPARAISO. 



Such is the force of education and the power of the confessional, that even wives who had 

 "braved the anathemas of the church by marrying Protestants, and whose native intelligence 

 must assuredly have enabled them to appreciate a domestic life so^ unlike that of the mass of 

 their countrywomen, after years of such association, have left husbands and children for 

 the convents, or have moped and pined, rendering all in their own homes as unhappy as 

 themselves. 



To the westward of the port proper, there are a few rudely built tenements that serve as 

 residences for employes and as store-houses of the national arsenal. Of this our own naval 

 corps have a right to expect some account ; but I am quite sure that all of the number whom 

 duties have called to Valparaiso within a few years will unite with me in opinion, that " the 

 least said is soonest mended." The whole ground occupied is a short belt not above sixty yards 

 wide between the sea and the vertical face of the cliff. There is no enclosure, nor is it desirable to 

 make one ; because roads to the fortress on the eminence above, as well as to the extensive range of 

 bonded warehouses constructing still farther west, and to Playa Ancha a table-land just back of 

 the light-house, which is the favorite resort of equestrians all, of necessity, lead through it. 

 Within a few years a small corvette, a little iron steamer, and a brig, have been built here 

 under direction of a French constructor ; and, according to reports from the officers appointed 

 to inspect them from time to time, they were very creditably modelled. An engine for the 

 steamer was ordered from New York, and the vessel was finally launched towards the middle 

 of 1852 ; but it was regarded as extremely doubtful whether she would ever prove serviceable. 

 Besides these vessels, the navy of Chile comprises the frigate Chile, now dismantled and used as 

 a ponton ; the steamer Cazador, of 140 horse power ; and the transport Infatigable ; all inferior 

 vessels, of French construction, and more than half worn at the times of their purchase. 



For the bonded warehouses in course of construction, the terrace has been increased in width 

 by excavating the cliff and filling the bay with the rocks thus obtained, behind casements of 

 timber previously secured. Subject as is the coast to convulsions of the most terrible nature, 

 one 'can scarcely doubt that the ocean will one day again claim its own, and the crowded maga- 

 zines that now cumber the margin of the bay, like Baise of old, will exist only as ruins beneath 

 its ceaseless waters. 



There is a charity hospital in the Almendral, divided for the accommodation of the two sexes, and 

 generally containing 200 patients, which are as many as 'can be accommodated. All who apply 

 are furnished with advice and medicines gratuitously, though numbers are necessarily turned 

 off for want of room where they could be lodged. If a foreigner desires admission, he must 

 produce a note from the consul of his nation if a native, one from his last employer : no other 

 formality is exacted than an examination to ascertain the infirmity of the applicant. Its annual 

 income amounts to $15,000, all of which is expended in behalf of suffering humanity ; and, 

 as its returns prove, with more successful results than in kindred establishments at the capital. 

 The last publications to which I have had access show that the mortality amongst those who 

 entered was fifteen per cent. ; and we have seen that the ratios of San Juan de Dios and San 

 Francisco de Borja, at Santiago, were respectively sixteen and a half and twenty-three per cent. 

 A part of the same establishment is appropriated to the poor. Besides this hospital, there are 

 several belonging to individuals, intended for the accommodation of those who are able to pay 

 from their own resources, or whose governments have authorized their consuls to provide for them 

 in like cases of illness. And in this connexion, it may be proper to mention that permission 

 has recently been granted by government to locate a convent for sisters of charity recently emi- 

 grated from France ; who, should they prove as attentive and self-sacrificing as their order have 

 done in North America, will merit more gratitude than the race to whose wants they will 

 minister are capable of feeling. 



There is no lack of hotels, such as they are, in Valparaiso, the principal difficulty being to 

 instil our ideas of method and cleanliness into the minds of Chileno servants ; and thus, how- 

 ever disposed a foreign proprietor may be to imitate similar public houses in his own country, 



