OP ATACAMA AND COQUIMBO. 

 donations of individuals. A hmiHe of correction adjoins it. The hospital wan only opened in 



1860; and as it lias been almost dependent t'..r ; ;iipp.,rt. a- it was f<r its foundation, on the philan- 

 thropy of tin- citi/.cns. it has neither I.een competed in the inanin-r originally contemplated by its 

 I <.-!,' ii. .-lit authors, nor has it been able to succor all who have presented themselves. It* 

 expenses are Home what lessened l.y tin < nij doyment of persons as nurses who have been sentenced 

 t<> the house of correction. Only 35 patient* can be accommodated, whose maintenance in 1850, 

 including the pay of chaplain, stewards, doctor, surgeon, &c., amounted to $17,0' 



There may also !,. enunierateil among the public institutions a college for the education of 

 young men. under (lie pat ronage of government. It is under the direction of French Jesuits, who 

 ticcupv a convent belon^in^ to the Merced church. Besides the income of the convent, amounting 

 to $1,500, and a yearly stipend of $1,000 from the public treasury, each resident student pays 

 thiMii $207 for board. At this time there were 25 interns and only 11 day scholars. In 

 add i t ion to the duties imposed as an equivalent for the government subsidy, they are required by 

 their contract with the Minister of Public Instruction to teach gratuitously a primary school of 

 30 scholars, should so many offer. A college for instruction in mineralogy and mineralogical 

 chemistry is in course of organization, under the auspices of the Mining Board, and will shortly 

 be in operation. But the number of those within the province who receive even rudimentary 

 instruction is extremely limited, the best estimate fixing it at one in every 59. The whole 

 numher attending schools in 1850 was 885, of whom 725 were males and 160 females. 



In a report recently made to the Minister of the Interior by the Intendente of the province, 

 a most deplorable account is given of the ignorance of those surrounding him. He estimates 

 the population of Atacama at 50,000 souls, of whom one half belonged to the department of 

 Copiapo, though not more than a third of them were regarded as having permanent residences 

 therein. The remaining two thirds were young men, strangers and natives, whose families 

 live elsewhere in the republic. Although a country of great wealth, yet because of the extrava- 

 gant prices at which everything is held, it presents few attractions for the translation of 

 families ; and, consequently, those who emigrate here, and who compose the majority of the 

 population, are young bachelors, active tradesmen, robust journeymen, clever artisans, or hard- 

 working miners in short, people without domestic ties, or at least without such ties here, 

 and who are, in fact, but a floating population. If the number of actual inhabitants be reduced 

 to its true limits, that of the uneducated will not appear so great as at the first glance ; yet 

 the Intendente says : "It must be confessed that the condition of education is far from meeting 

 public exigency, and many children live in the greatest ignorance and abandonment because of 

 the wretchedness of their parents." Essentially industrial and active as they are, the people 

 of Copiapo do not need so much a collegiate or scientific education as practical and rapid 

 instruction for the masses. Here a disposition to labor predominates, because of its remunera- 

 tive results ; and few or none think of a civil or military career as at the capital, because they 

 possess no attractions to men wholly preoccupied in lucrative speculations or personal occupa- 

 tions affording the highest pay. 



In order to obviate the odium attendant on a condition of society so uninformed, a normal 

 school for the preparation of teachers was commenced under the authority of the Intendente, and 

 also a night school at which mechanics could attend gratuitously. Both were promising good 

 results, though the provision for females remained neglected as before, and there were only two 

 establishments in the whole city where they were admitted. 



With one exception the houses are of a single story, and constructed much lower than those 

 to the southward, because of the greater frequency of violent earthquakes. Scarcely a day in 

 the year passes without one being felt. Like the dwellings at Santiago, they have two or three 

 patios, and the arrangement of rooms is commodious, if not in accordance with European 

 ideas of elegance. As it rarely rains, reeds laced to the rafters to form a roof are plastered 

 with mud a material much lighter than tiles, and which at the same time affords sufficient 

 protection from water, whilst it diminishes the danger of destruction by earthquakes. There 



