44 VALDIVIA. 



off his hat, and given his " Dios le page !" The 

 travelling was very tedious, both from the badness 

 of the roads, and from the number of great fallen 

 trees, which it was necessary either to leap over, 

 or to avoid by making long circuits. We slept on 

 the road, and next morning reached Valdivia, 

 whence I proceeded on board. 



A few days afterwards I crossed the bay with a 

 party of officers, and landed near the fort called 

 Niebla. The buildings were in a most ruinous 

 state, and the gun-carriages quite rotten. Mr. 

 Wickham remarked to the commanding officer 

 that with one discharge they would certainly all 

 fall to pieces. The poor man, trying to put a good 

 face upon it, gravely replied, " No, I am sui'e, sir, 

 they would stand two !" The Spaniards must 

 have intended to have made this place impregna- 

 ble. There is now lying in the middle of the 

 courtyard a little mountain of mortar, which rivals 

 in hardness the rock on which it is placed. It was 

 brought from Chile, and cost 7000 dollars. The 

 revolution having broken out, prevented its being 

 applied to any j^urpose, and now it remains a 

 monument of the fallen greatness of Spain. 



1 wanted to go to a house about a mile and a 

 half distant, but my guide said it was quite impos- 

 sible to penetrate the wood in a straight line. He 

 offered, however, to lead me, by following obscure 

 cattle-tracks, the shortest way : the walk, neverthe- 

 less, took no less than three hours ! This man is 

 employed in hunting strayed cattle ; yet, well as 

 he must know the woods, he was, not long since, 

 lost for two whole days, and had nothing to eat. 

 These facts convey a good idea of the impractica- 

 bility of the forests of these countries. A question 

 often occurred to me, How long does any vestige 

 of a fallen tree remain? This man showed me 



