A VISIT TO THE SOUTHWARD. 395 



through the soil by successive floods, one cannot fail to take pleasure in witnessing the fecundity 

 <>t every foot of ground, and appreciate the beneficence of nature in affording natural meant 

 for its minimi renovation. In the Hoiitli, or rather in the vicinity of Talca, land must be left 

 fallow for a \> ar or two, th.-it it may recover from tin- xhatiHtion of a crop. Here, ait in the 

 vallev of the Mavpu, the mineral manure deposited each Heaon is precisely suited to the sandy 

 ami porous soil, and fully compensates for what tin- crop of wheat or corn may absorb. A 

 lew years ago all tin- space hetweeu lines along the centres of the Andes and Western Cordilleras, 

 the Caehapual and Claro, belonged to one proprietor! Recently a part was sold, and other 

 portions rented to various individuals. That in possession of the friend mentioned contained 

 sixteen thousand acres, the whole of which lies in the plain; and nearly all of it is cultivated in 

 wheat, corn, and alfalfa, as pasture-lands to fatten cattle for market, and as small chacras appor- 

 tioned to the inquilinos and other laborers on the estate. On the original tract its proprietor 

 established a residence near the centre, building a chapel there at a cost of some thirty 

 thousand dollars. A curate is still supported at his expense, and the more than thousand souls 

 remaining within his principality have no need to seek spiritual counsel elsewhere. The chapel 

 is in good taste, both within and externally; and its altar, pulpit, and decorations are in a style 

 superior to a very large number erected from the public purse. A few leagues east of Santiago 

 the same gentleman has erected a second church at scarcely less cost, and there also supports 

 a curate. 



April 15. On the previous evening Nor Nicolas was despatched across the Caehapual, to 

 ascertain whether the friends who contemplated a visit to the baths of Cauquenes had passed up 

 the river; in which case he was directed to return with the mules as far as the ford. A visitor 

 to these springs must go well provided, be sure he has a friend there ready to see to him, or 

 expect to adopt the plan bears are said to do when hungry and have not wherewithal to sat- 

 isfy appetite. At least such was the account given to me, and hence the apparent importance 

 of the information Nicolas was to obtain. 



So dense a fog poured over the Central cordilleras into the valley before sunrise, that vision 

 only extended a rod or two on each side of the road, and brisk riding accumulated moisture so 

 rapidly on the eyelids as to become annoying. Of course no proper estimate could be formed 

 of the landscape until the sun had risen high enough to drive the mist to the upper regions of 

 the air in gradually dispersing cumuli. By this time I had reached Rio Seco a former bed, 

 though now only a small branch, of the Caehapual, distant two miles from the principal stream. 

 The old bed is three hundred yards wide ; the stream itself scarcely thirty feet, with a depth 

 of two feet at the centre of the ford, and a current of two miles per hour, or about half that 

 of the principal volume. As the old guide was not at the posada here, it was supposed 

 that the visit proposed by my friends had been deferred ; and the saddle-girths were tightened 

 preparatory to stemming the streams at the several fords. But they had gone nevertheless, and 

 Nicolas, mindful of the journey before us, had halted on the dry bed of the river nearest where 

 we must begin its ascent, and where I would of necessity pass. His thoughtfulness saved at 

 least two leagues to the animals with him, and they of the worst character of shingle road. 



Two miles above the ford nearest Rancagua, the path temporarily leaves the river, and passes 

 up and along the face of a steep hill bounding the southern shore, and against which nearly 

 the whole volume of water is here forced. Had I been pre-ad vised that it was necessary to cross 

 an eminence six or seven hundred feet high, whose surface was mainly small loose fragments of 

 inetamorphic porphyry, sometimes in a path scarce two hands in width, and on the edge of a 

 vertical cliff with a torrent of rushing \\aa-r three hundred feet below; at others ascending at 

 angles of 40, each step of the horse starting the sliding mass of fragments into the boiling 

 stream, doubtful as appeared to be the footing of my horse, I would have encountered a longer 

 journey by a road more directly across the plain. But we had already crossed several deep and 

 rapid canals for supplying water to the estates ; Nicolas, accustomed from childhood to gallop 

 headlong up or down mountains, insisted there was uo danger; and, as he promised a first-rate 



