VALPARAISO. 



efforts are soon paralyzed by the habits and ignorance of those whom he is forced to employ. 



happily fur us, then- arc no hound* to tin- hospitality of our countrymen residing here, and 

 tin -ir Moors UK- thrown opm with uch cordiality that the inconveniences of the hotel** are rarely 

 tested by Americans who spend even a week or two in Chile. Elsewhere, it is pleasant to be 

 iinh-prinlriit, knowing that the expenditure of a few dollars will command the services of mine 

 host in all that one wants for hodily comfort, without trepanning too greatly on the kindness 

 of a ti it-mi, or putting his family to inconvenience ; but here, without the importation of all the 

 appurtenances, the wealth of the Indies would not obtain such comfort. 



For so large a permanent population, and the considerable number of strangers in transit 

 for California during the last four years, there are few places of public amusement, the theatre 

 being almost the only one, and this is open but one half of the year. Two clubs, similar to 

 those in England, have been established, subscribers having the privilege to introduce friends, 

 temporary sojourners. In their rooms may be found billiard-tables, papers, and periodicals ; 

 and at the saloon of the Exchange, an institution organized and sustained by the merchants, 

 there are files of American and English newspapers. Shareholders have the right to introduce 

 transient persons, and, by the rules of the boards of management, naval officers are granted this 

 privilege without farther formality than a registry of their names at the doors. The state of 

 transition in which native society is just now, neither European nor South American in cus- 

 toms, robs it of many of the attractions so glowingly depicted by earlier visitors ; and for 

 want of more rational diversions, numbers of the younger part of the foreign population seek 

 the billiard-tables and cafes. This is not likely to continue long, however. A more liberal edu- 

 cation of both sexes among the natives is in progress ; occasional intermarriages and more frequent 

 intercourse are almost inevitable consequences ; and we may reasonably anticipate changes of 

 person as well as mind at no very distant date. As an evidence of the appreciation of Anglo- 

 Saxonism, four or five schools devoted to instruction, through the medium of the English lan- 

 guage, are well attended by native children of both sexes, many coming from Santiago, and a 

 large proportion boarding in the families of their preceptors. Besides these schools there are 

 five others, at which teachers are paid by parents, and fifteen free institutions at the expense of 

 the municipality. Nine of the latter are for boys, six for girls, and in all the attendance and 

 progress are creditable. 



By the census published in 1850, the population is put down at 30,826, or about 9,000 less 

 than it was rated at three years before, and only 6,000 more than it was ascertained to contain 

 in 1835. Competent persons, however, consider that the number is very little short of 45,000 ; 

 but if we take the ratio of mortality at 3.1 per cent., and assume the mean of the last three 

 years in the subjoined table, we have only 35,100 souls, which is probably nearest to the truth. 

 Of these, about one third are foreigners, different nations having representatives in numbers in 

 the following order : France, Germany, England, United States. Natives of the better class 

 are descendants of Spaniards, retaining all their characteristics of feature, with something of 

 the energy of the early adventurers also, else they would soon be distanced in the commercial 

 race instituted among them by foreigners. The lower orders are of the mixed Spanish and 

 Indian blood, which has been so freqently reproduced that broad foreheads, prominent cheek- 

 bones and aquiline noses, as distinctive marks, have wholly disappeared ; and they retain only 

 the modified color of skin, coarse, straight, black hair, and the habits of indolence and improvi- 

 dence belonging to their mothers. At least three fifths of the Creoles belong to this class ; 

 negroes or zambos, so common in Peru, are very rare. The mortality among all classes of the 

 Catholic population during the last ten years, as returned by the administrador of the Panteon, 

 has been as follows : 



