474 A VISIT TO THE CACHAPUAL. 



much patience a pair of saddles were hired, for the remainder of the day, at a dollar each, and 

 with our driver as guide, a start was made. 



Like the Mapocho and Maypu in the dry season, the Cachapual is only a mountain hrook 

 formed by melting snows. After the ground has become saturated by winter rains, it rises and 

 widens to a mile where the main road intersects it. As there are no bridges, it is of course 

 impassable at the latter stage of the water. For a league above and below Eancagua (the 

 limits of our ride), the north shore is a high and perpendicular bank, on which various lines 

 show the heights attained by freshets. The southern boundary is so low that extraordinary 

 floods often change the shore-line half a mile or more, threatening the valley in that direction 

 with overflow. Its bed is a mass of sand and gravel rolled from elevations of the Andes. Half 

 a league above the town, a rounded porphyritic hill rises from the river to a height of quite 

 200 feet. Originally this appears to have formed a part of the Andean spur, now terminating 

 300 yards to the south, and from which it has been separated by the action of water. The 

 main volume at the time of our visit passed between them, though there had evidently been a 

 large stream north of the hill within quite a few weeks. Above and below the little islet for 

 such it really is the sand formed by attrition of the rock is deposited in lines covered with vege- 

 tation of various characters, a part of it of several years' growth proving that the freshets are 

 not uniformly violent. There is a beautiful view in every direction over the plain from the top 

 of G-orocoipo the islet. It extends from the snow-tipped cordilleras of Eancagua, along the 

 course of the stream by the baths of Cauquenes, to the gradually sloping ridges of the western 

 range, through which it penetrates to the ocean, and from the Angostura de Payne in the 

 north to the limit of vision across the plain to the S.S.W. In its tall cacti and innumerable 

 Chatiars, with their towering spikes of pale-green flowers, the islet itself is not without interest ; 

 yet, as in almost all the scenery of Chile, the picture wants life and animation. As I looked 

 upon it, I could but hope that with the thunder of the locomotive across this noble valley, 

 there will come into existence a race more imbued with enterprise and energy a people more 

 competent to the development of its vast and incomparable agricultural wealth. 



After picking our way along the stony paths for four or five hours, traversing the noisy 

 stream at every hundred yards or so, miserable as it was in appearance, and inattentive as its 

 proprietor had proved at our arrival, we were glad to get back to the posada. Such were the 

 effects of heat and dust and fatigue in reconciling one to discomforts. Before leaving the village 

 in the morning, dinner had been ordered for the hour at which we expected to return ; but on 

 ascertaining that Mr. C.'s examination would be completed earlier, the guide was sent back in 

 the hope that his warning would expedite the repast. However, we had literally " reckoned 

 without our host," as we were duly notified on requesting the meal to be served. There had 

 been too many trials of patience during the day to permit a trifle to vex. us; and as tfrere was 

 abundance of cool water to refresh the outward man, and a glass of fragrant Italia to comfort 

 the inner, we awaited the pleasure of our landlord's cook with becoming equanimity. After- 

 wards, ten minutes or less of walking enabled us to pass from one extremity of the principal 

 street to the other ; and the alameda was perambulated in a like period, bringing us back 

 towards the posada as the bell was being rung for vespers at the church on the plaza. There was 

 nothing to do not even a paper to read and we fell into the stream of women going towards 

 the church, hoping there would be an opportunity to see some of the beauties and fashionables 

 of Bancagua. In this, too, we were disappointed. The little edifice was only relieved from 

 almost cimmerian darkness by a wax taper or two ; and in order to make room for new-comers, 

 a snappish and growling priest pushed the women towards the altar, whilst their terror of 

 earthquakes induced them to prefer remaining near the door. Even the music was execrable ; 

 and to encounter the odors and risks from contact with our own sex around, were rather heavy 

 demands for the probable religious benefits we should derive from remaining long under the 

 voice of so unamiable a curate. 



Though there was not a pane of glass belonging to the inn, nor other apertures in either 



