VALPARAISO. 149 



June 6th. — To-day the feast of the Corpus Domini was celebrated ; 

 and I went to the Iglesia Matriz with my friend Mrs. Campbell to 

 hear her brother Don Mariano de Escalada preach. We went at 

 9 o'clock : she had put off her French or English dress, and adopted 

 the Spanish costume ; I did so also, so far as to wear a mantilla 

 instead of a bonnet, such being the custom on going to church. 

 A boy followed us with missals, and a carpet to kneel on. The 

 church, like all other buildings here, appears mean from without ; 

 but within it is large and decently decorated : to be sure the Virgin 

 was in white satin, with a hoop and silver fringes, surrounded with 

 looking-glasses, and supported on either hand by St. Peter and 

 St. Paul ; the former in a lace cassock, and the latter in a robe 

 formed of the same block which composes his own gracious person- 

 age. As there was to be a procession, and as the governor was 

 to be a principal person in the ceremonies preceding it, we waited 

 his arrival for the beginning of the service until 11 o'clock; so that 

 I had plenty of time to look at the church, the saints, and the ladies, 

 who were, generally speaking, very pretty, and becomingly dressed 

 with their mantillas and braided hair. At length the great man 

 arrived, and it was whispered that he had been transacting business 

 with the admiral, and transmitting to him, and the captains, and other 

 officers, the thanks of the government for their services. * But the 

 whispers died away, and the young preacher began. The sermon 

 was of course occasional ; it spoke in good language of the moral 

 freedom conferred by the Christian .dispensation, and thence the 

 step was not far to political freedom : but the argument was so 

 decorously managed, that it could offend none ; and yet so strongly 

 urged that it might persuade many. I was highly pleased with it, 

 and sorry to see it succeeded by the ceremony of kissing the reliquary, 

 which seemed as little to the taste of Zenteno as might be, by the 

 look of ineffable disdain he bestowed on the poor priest who pre- 

 sented it. The procession was now arranged ; and my friend and I, 



* See these letters in the Introduction, p. 110. 



