FIRST EXPERIENCES IN CHILE. 453 



summit crowed by the road some- time In-fore the carriage. The gradually dispersing miat- 

 \\ n-aths ha<l permitted me to anticipate a sat i>l;i-!ury lird'g-eye view of the valley we had just 

 travel-sol ; hut 1 \\;^ wholly unprepared lor the magnificent panorama suddenly unfolded, and 

 !'..r a time could scarcely believe tin- sc.-no real. Loss of sleep and regular diet had imparted 

 something of IM -i -voiis rxcitement to the brain, ami tlie pirtun; offered to it by the retina reaem- 

 hh-tl rather iln- en-ation of an artist's fervent imagination, or om- of the scene* fitfully oii 

 in the half-waking dreams of a summer morning, than a poi lion of our matter of fact globe. 

 II. .\\ maji-.stir. yet how charming, was the view from this elevation of 2,400 feet! 



The great Andes, with eternal snow-clad peaks extending as far as the eye could reach, rose 

 to tlu- east waul as a wall before me. Seemingly upheaved at almost regular intervals below 

 the broken and jagged eminences, and as abutments to their grisly sides, there were countless 

 spurs with intermediate dark glens and ravines. Under foot, and winding to the north and 

 south, so as very nearly to meet some of the Andean spurs, was the Western cordillera itg 

 gently swelling curves and verdant sides alternately in light and shadow, as openings of the 

 overhanging cumuli permitted. Between these chains, and bathed in sunlight, lay a broad 

 and fertile plain exquisitely diversified. Isolated and multiform eminences ; the river Maypu 

 and its tributaries, like ribands of silver ; rows of tall poplars surrounding the white walls of 

 country seats ; groups of peasant travellers enjoying their morning repast beneath the thatched 

 roofs of open road-side huts, near the foot of the Cuesta ; horsemen, visible as pigmies, in the 

 distance mid clouds of dust ; herds of cattle and sheep quietly browsing the near mountain 

 sides ; and in its midst, just perceptible to the unassisted eye, within long shady groves, the 

 great centre of Chilean life, Santiago all adorn it. 



Looking towards the coast, the angular road that descends the almost vertical face of the hill 

 extends in an arrow-like line across a semi-cultivated plain, bounded by analogous ranges of 

 eminences. Caravans of ark-like wagons, with bovine teams, seem scarcely to move along its 

 surface ; and were it not for the thin pencils of smoke ascending from scattered cottages, one 

 might fancy it a land of desolation. Nearer at hand the vision is captivated by tall candelabra- 

 like cacti, Chaiiars (Puyas coarctata), with long drooping leaf-stalks and great spikes of pale- 

 green blossoms ; multitudes of evergreens and flowers of every tint, now in the glory of spring 

 luxuriance ; and the ear is charmed by the notes of many beauteous feathered songsters : 



" All, save the spirit of man, is divine." 



I had rambled out of sight of the road; and the birlochero, unable to comprehend any reason 

 for it, was shouting at the very top of his voice for my return. Apparently, his patience was 

 as much exhausted as mine had been at Casa-blanca ; and as he could scarcely take the liberty 

 to vent his anger upon me, the poor and unoffending horses were made victims. In spite of re- 

 monstrances, they were lashed into a full run, although we were descending at angles of scarcely 

 less than 15 in sharply turning zigzags. Erect in the stirrups, with poncho and a hand- 

 kerchief covering his hair flying behind, and his whip-lash whirling overhead, he thundered 

 Jehu-like down the steep at a pace in which a falter or stumble of either horse might have pro- 

 jected us over the precipice at a speed sufficient, perhaps, to keep us revolving as new satellites 

 about the earth, provided the old snow-peaks on the other side of the valley did not arrest us 

 in the first gyration. 



There is little to note in the approach to Santiago from the westward. As the supply of 

 water for irrigation is scanty, few country-seats on this side betoken the wealth of its citizens. 

 Midway between the summit of the Cuesta and the city the road crosses the Pudaiiel, quite a 

 body of water formed by the junction of the Mapocho and Colina, the united column falling 

 into the Maypu a few leagues to the southwest. Farther on, the plain is very slightly culti- 

 vated, and the road dusty, until we enter the suburbs of the capital between rows of the quick- 

 growing poplar and comfortless hovels of adobes. 



Kesting for an hour or two, during which the official letters relating to the expedition, as 

 well as those not merely introductory, were despatched, I started for Santa Lucia, the little 



