250 A VISIT TO THE PROVINCES 



nearly the whole of its supply, leaving but a thread or two, which subsequently collects to 

 trickle along the descending valley. On this estate there is an indigenous evergreen willow, 

 which at a little distance greatly resembles the poplar so universal in central Chile, though 

 preferable to it from the quality mentioned. 



Five or six miles more bring us among gardens enclosed by high mud walls, containing 

 trees in full foliage ; several among them deciduous in North America. In their dust-covered 

 leaves they afford little pleasure to the sight ; even the Floripondia, with its velvety leaf and 

 graceful bell, being robbed of its charms by the impalpable powder pervading every particle of 

 air. During N.W. winds, Washington is considered almost intolerable; here one encounters 

 perpetually, by day, a parched air loaded with fine sand from the coastwise hills, which pene- 

 trates every crevice of the house, and in an hour or two deposits on the furniture a stratum in 

 which you may legibly write. As the town is approached, other objects, even less agreeable, 

 claim the attention from their increasing number, viz : carcasses of oxen and mules which have 

 fallen, in their journeys from the port, famished for water and food, and have been deserted to 

 die. There are neither condors, buzzards, nor other carrion-birds to consume them ; and though 

 each train of carts has its watch-dog, provisions here are too valuable to keep many such pets, 

 and the bodies, skins and all, are left to dry up or decay. Perhaps other animals might expe- 

 rience a like fate did the arrieros lose time for this purpose, and hence they hurry to their jour- 

 ney's end. It is not extravagant to say there are dozens of carcasses within the last two leagues, 

 and hundreds between the city and the mines at Chanarcillo. 



Externally the suburbs of Copiapo exhibit no evidences of wealth. There are neither stylish 

 equipages nor elegant country seats, to serve as indices of the millions some of its citizens possess. 

 Lank, travel-worn mules, and burden-carts drawn by oxen, under the control of dust-begrimed 

 drivers, slowly travelling over a winding road between adobe walls, were all that we saw. 

 Wherever a house is visible, even at the threshold of the city, its squat appearance and mud- 

 plastered roof is sure to make an unpleasant impression ; nor is it certain to be externally white- 

 washed. 



In 1851 Copiapo was about three fourths of a mile long, half a mile wide, and numbered 

 above 9,000 people, of whom nearly two thirds were males. Its first street was irregular, 

 lying nearly in the direction of the valley, from S.W. to N.E. ; but as the population increased, 

 and others became necessary, they were laid off parallel with each other, as far as possible pre- 

 serving the same original line. These last are crossed by others at right angles ; and, as is 

 customary with Spanish founders, a public square has been left at the intended centre. On one 

 side of the plaza a large church, with a Grecian front, has been erected ; a style so unlike any 

 ecclesiastical edifice in South America, that it may readily be believed the architect studied his 

 art in North America. As the same architectural order has been preserved inside, one is tempted 

 to doubt whether the soi-disant children of the true church do not sometimes question the pro- 

 priety of worshipping within an edifice so heretically constructed. Apart from Anglo-Saxon taste, 

 to say that it is the most chaste and commodious church in Chile is simple justice ; and when 

 the slabs of vari-colored marble, which have been imported from Italy, shall have been formed 

 into a tesselated floor, one may visit it without fear of the fleas that specially congregate among 

 the tiles of the others. Opposite the cathedral are barracks and public offices, forming a decent 

 looking range of buildings of the usual style, and on which a preceding governor, during whose 

 administration they were erected, deemed it proper to emblazon his name. The other two sides 

 of the square are still occupied by rows of insignificant tenements ; though, as a commencement 

 has been made towards its adornment by planting rows of trees, these houses, as the tall, straight 

 willows grow up, will no doubt give place to better ones. There are two other churches in 

 the western part of the city, and one in what is called " El pueblo Indio" (Indian settlement), 

 to the eastward, where there was quite an extensive village of the natives at the invasion by 

 Almagro. 



Not far from "El pueblo Indio" there is a large charity hospital, which was mainly erected by 



