132 WHAT MR. DARWIN SAW. 



CHILE. 



and, apparently quite fresh, descended the mine again at a 

 quick pace. This seems to me a wonderful instance of the 

 amount of labor which habit, for it can be nothing else, will 

 enable a man to endure. 



THE SPANIARD. 



ONE day, while we were at the gold-mines of Yaquil, a 

 German collector in natural history, of the name of Renous, 

 called, and nearly at the same time an old Spanish lawyer. 

 I was amused at being told the conversation which took place 

 between them. Renous speaks Spanish so well that the old 

 lawyer mistook him for a Chilian. Renous, alluding to me, 

 asked him what he thought of the King of England sending 

 out a collector to their country, to pick up lizards and beetles, 

 and to break stones. The old gentleman thought seriously 

 for some time, and then said, "It is not well hay un gato 

 encerrado aqui (there is a cat shut up here). No man is so 

 rich as to send out people to pick up such rubbish. I do 

 not like it. If one of us were to go and do such things in 

 England, do not you think the King of England would very 

 soon send us out of his country ?" And this old gentleman, 

 from his profession, belongs to the better informed and more 

 intelligent classes ! Renous himself, two or three years be- 

 fore, left in a house at San Fernando some caterpillars, under 

 charge of a girl to feed, that they might turn into butterflies. 

 This was rumored through the town, and at last the priests 

 and the governor consulted together, and agreed it must be 

 some heresy. So, when Renous returned, he was arrested. 



