LETTER NO. V 



On board the Hamburg bark "Victoria," Captain Meyer 

 Between Valdivia and Valparaiso. 



The 20th and 21st of October, 1851. 



My Beloved Parents: — As has so often happened with 

 many others, so must this one begin with an excuse for 

 not having written from Valdivia, after an interruption 

 of nearly five months. Do not call it idleness on my part. 

 The blame is to be attributed to the government of Chile, 

 as the constant rebellions have been the cause of a com- 

 plete interruption in the mail-service between Valdivia 

 and Valparaiso. If I had therefore carried out my former 

 intention of at least notifying you of my safe arrival, the 

 probability is that my letter would never have reached 

 you. I shall, however, make amends by giving you a 

 very minute account of my voyage; but pray do not ex- 

 pect to hear of wonderful adventures or of hair-raising 

 accounts of narrow escapes and danger to life. "While 

 it is true that I had a long and disagreeable trip, particu- 

 larly in the last month, the voyage was not at all terri- 

 ble; even the disagreeable storms around the Cape were 

 no worse than other storms, though they used our ship 

 badly; there is less danger when one has plenty of space 

 and no land close by. You may read therefore without 

 worry; and especially you, dear mother, take my advice 

 and do not commence the letter at the end to get assur- 

 ance that I have still the use of my limbs. I am in as 

 good a humor as one can possibly be when— after a four- 

 months' trip— one has had a chance of enjoying the ro- 

 mantic sceneries of the impenetrable, virgin-forests of 

 the Chilean coast— las Cordilleras. 



As I do not know whether my letter No. 4; which I 

 sent ashore at Cuxhaven on the loth of June, has reached 

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