230 THE VOYAGE. ^TAT. 25. [1S34. 



I had been building up for the last two years. One whole 

 night I tried to think over the pleasure of seeing Shrewsbury 

 again, but the barren plains of Peru gained the day. I made 

 the following scheme (I know you will abuse me, and perhaps 

 if I had put it in execution, my father would have sent a 

 mandamus after me) ; it was to examine the Cordilleras of 

 Chili during this summer, and in winter go from port to port 

 on the coast of Peru to Lima, returning this time next year to 

 Valparaiso, cross the Cordilleras to Buenos Ayres, and take 

 ship to England. Would not this have been a fine excursion, 

 and in sixteen months I should have been with you all ? To 

 have endured Tierra del Fuego and not seen the Pacific would 

 have been miserable. . . . 



I go on board to-morrow ; I have been for the last six 

 weeks in Corfield's house. You cannot imagine what a kind 

 friend I have found him. He is universally liked, and re- 

 spected by the natives and foreigners. Several Chileno Sig- 

 noritas are very obligingly anxious to become the signoras of 

 this house. Tell my father I have kept my promise of being 

 extravagant in Chili. I have drawn a bill of ;^ioo (had it not 

 better be notified to Messrs. Robarts & Co.) ; ;^^o goes to 

 the Captain for the ensuing year, and ^2^30 I take to sea for the 

 small ports ; so that dond fide I have not spent ;£"i8o during 

 these last four months. I hope not to draw another bill for 

 six months. All the foregoing particulars were only settled 

 yesterday. It has done me more good than a pint of medi- 

 cine, and I have not been so happy for the last year. If it 

 had not been for my illness, these four months in Chili would 

 have been very pleasant. . I have had ill luck, however, in 

 only one little earthquake having happened. I was lying in 

 bed when there was a party at dinner in the house ; on a 

 sudden I heard such a hubbub in the dining-room ; without 

 a word being spoken, it was devil take the hindmost who 

 should get out first ; at the same moment I felt my bed slightly 

 vibrate in a lateral direction. The party were old stagers, 

 and heard the noise which always precedes a shock ; and no 

 old stager looks at an earthquake with philosophical eyes. . . . 



