A VISIT TO THK SOI 



37'' 



At the bottom of tin- ampliitheahal lia-'m. and some t.-u t'-et above tlio water of the rirer, is 



the city of Constitucioii, named by its sponsors A'/" / iclmpti/<-d under it* preaeilt 



legal OOgnonifii after the revolution! and I'.v DAtlVCf of the province mior< Mly called .!/. 



A lllcl<\ toun that \\illi Him- titles! Thirteen .pulat ion. then h-M* than 2,000 in 



number, urn- .^-altere,! over nearly I In- .-aim- extent of ground at* at the jies,-i,t day that in, 

 about half a square mile: ami an acre of land wan bought for les* than twenty dollar*. Now, 

 08 the population has more than douhlcd, ami the new hoii.-e.s necessary lor the accommodation 

 of the- increased niinilter have all Iteen ereetcd wit hin the old limit-, the tame l,t i-, worth n- 

 $2,000. Thus it is he-inning to assume the appearance of a compact and well ordered town, in 

 A\hich its foreign residents have inspired some of the life and activity visible at Valparaiso. 

 Though thei-e are several residences expeiiM\ely linished, which have al-o pretty ^ardenn about 

 them, tlie larger portion of its one-storied Imu-es are .jiiite provincial. Its streets are parallel, 

 and at right uncles to each other : t hey are of good width, hut not paved. It has a plaza near the 

 centre. On this front the church, ha r racks, and prison public establishments whose external 

 appearance is sufficiently humble to secure pardon for omission of the details of their po\> 

 When it becomes a great town, as it one day will, its municipal authorities will no doubt orna- 

 ment the one, and substitute others more becoming. As very lew wells have been dug, there is 

 a scarcity of water for domestic purposes. That which is principally u>ed b obtained from a 

 rivulet that flows from the hills back of the town. Although dependent on the interior for 

 provisions, as has been stated, so productive is the upper country that every necessary of life is 

 sold at reasonable prices ; and the ocean furnishes so many and such varieties of fine fish that it 

 has no small influence on the sale of the offerings of the earth. 



Abundance of timber along the river, a good harbor at its mouth, and a sloping beach for 

 launching ways, offer inducements to ship-building, of which advantage has been taken to some 

 extent, and a large number of the vessels of Chile have first floated on the waters of the Maule. 

 During four years, ending with 1852, there were launched one ship of 500 tons ; nine brigan- 

 tines, having an aggregate tonnage of 1,450; fourteen schooners, measuring 1,132 tons; and 

 launches and other boats, 1,802 tons. These gave employment to about 150 carpenters and 

 caulkers : the first of whom receive from four to eight reals per day ; ordinary wood cleavers, 

 from two and a half to three reals each. At the time of my visit there were only three or four 

 launches, of about 40 tons each, on the stocks. This was the only kind of manufacture in the 

 town, of which our brief sojourn enabled me to obtain intelligence. Its people are almost exclu- 

 sively occupied in sawing into boards or otherwise preparing the timber, which arrives in rafts 

 by the river or from the back country on little carts like those about Talca, and in the 

 transhipment of produce. There is only a nominal foreign trade. The whole amount of duties 

 collected since 1844 does not exceed an average of $500 per year. According to their value, 

 the articles of produce with which it furnishes other ports of the republic are, flour, beans, 

 timber, barley, wine, tallow, and charqui. After the commencement of the Copiapo railroad, 

 an impulse was given to the timber trade which placed it second if not first in rank in export 

 of this material a position it will probably retain because of the increased facilities in bringing 

 it to market. The value of its commerce during eight years, terminating with 1851, was as 

 follows : 



No reason could be ascertained to explain why the trade diminished to such extent during 

 the years 1848 and 1849. The same fact was observable to a greater or less extent in all the 

 ports of the republic ; and in 1850, the total coasting trade, which had previously averaged six 

 millions of dollars, fell off to three millions and a half. In 1851, revolutionary difficulties, 



