388 A VISIT TO THE SOUTHWARD. 



food, or even water, bed proved no place of repose, and I was heartily glad when dawn permitted 

 me to surrender it to the tormentors. 



April 8. I returned to Talca from Loncomilla on (this) Thursday of holy week, when all 

 the stores were closed and its population as though dead. Even the vigilantes were not visible, 

 until near the plaza ; so that I passed on horseback without question direct to the Intendencia. 

 As no one but the police, the curate, or the doctor is permitted to enter a city, except on foot, 

 from Wednesday morning till Saturday noon, no little surprise was manifested that I should 

 have escaped arrest for violation of a custom universal in towns of the republic. Fortunately, 

 my accomplished host was omnipotent had the reverse been the case, and, I doubt not, would 

 have exhibited the generosity and courtesy with which he untiringly distinguished his stranger 

 guest.* 



A like silence and solitude were observed in the streets throughout the day, and it was dark 

 before evidence of animation appeared ; and then such life ! Bells being prohibited, as soon as 

 the men with their matracas began their clatter on the church tops, groups of two or three, and 

 sometimes a dozen, issued from each house, uttering aves in loud tones as they passed from 

 church to church. Soon the city was like a swarming hive ; and, it being the fashion, we 

 visited the- churches of most note, though, it must be confessed, our party were not so much 

 influenced by religious feelings as by desire to see the illuminations. To increase the perspec- 

 tive effect, screens were arranged before the altar of one as before the scenery on the stage of a 

 theatre. Its altar and back-ground were crowded with images dressed in the usual style, and 

 brilliantly lighted up. Another had a pyramid of lights also arranged for pomp not less than 

 pretty effect. All were filled with audibly praying multitudes, and each had at least a pair of 

 extravagantly equipped Saints near the door, at whose feet sat boys with salvers asking alms 

 from every passer-by ''para Maria Santissima, nuestra madre," or "San Francisco," or other, 

 as the case might be. In front of the door, there were prisoners under charge of armed guards, 

 who besought "una limosnita por el amor de Dios," (a little alms for the love of God,) clanking 

 their chains to influence more powerfully the compassion of the superstitious crowds who passed 

 to their estaciones. According to custom, the military band came to the Intendencia at 9 o'clock, 

 for nearly an hour entertaining the friends assembled there with well played music, and after- 

 wards diverting the populace in the plaza for a longer time. Among the performers was a 

 drummer who had served during the revolutionary campaign, and Avhose stature certainly was 

 not more than twice that of the instrument he bore. On the field of Loncomilla he was 

 humanely placed, with a companion very little older than himself, in a rancho, beyond the 

 reach of balls an arrangement to him by no means satisfactory. He was anxious to accompany 

 his battalion in their fratricidal conflict, and actually stole out to do so, contrary to the orders of 

 his colonel. Many of them, poor fellows, lived not to hear the retreat he helped to sound that 

 afternoon, or to wonder at his premature gravity and thoughtfulness. Though scarcely eight 

 years old, he is never known to smile or participate in the plays of boyhood, but constantly 

 maintains a reserved and military deportment that would well become an old guardsman. 



April 9. Until towards noon, Friday was equally death-like in the town. So rigidly do 

 Talquinos mortify the flesh by fasting during passion week, that even the market people had few 

 purchasers for their commodities. At noon, sermons in the churches drew many out again ; 

 and, at a later hour, large numbers visited a cross erected a year or two ago by a Jesuit mis- 

 sionary, near the northern entrance to the city. He had been refused permission to put it up 

 by the Intendente of Copiapo and one or two other chiefs of provinces, men who knew the ten- 

 dencies of the populace, and were unwilling to contribute to superstitious idolatry, and had 

 brought it along with him through the country until successful through a late Intendente 



* Most sincerely do I lament that he has not lived to peruse these lines. Coming to the capital in the following month, he was 

 taken ill suddenly at the baths of Colina, and died before medical aid could reach him. A finished scholar, an ardent lover of 

 his country, brave to a fault, yet modest and retiring as a woman Chile could ill afford to lose so courteous aud accomplished a 

 gentleman. 



