VALPARAISO. 173 



Our company consisted of Don Jose Zenteno, governor of Val- 

 paraiso ; his daughter Sefiora donna Dolores ; the honourable Captain 

 Frederick Spencer, of His Majesty's ship Alacrity ; Captain Crosbie, 

 Captain Wilkinson, some other officers of the Patriot squadron with 

 whom I am not acquainted, besides some other gentlemen. The 

 admiral went on board with me about ten o'clock. The first thing 

 I did was to visit the machinery, which consists of two steam- 

 engines, each of forty-five horse power, and the wheels covered so as 

 not to show in the water from without. The vessel is a fine polacre, 

 and was in great forwardness before Lord Cochrane came here, but 

 only arrived in these seas this year. It was with no small delight 

 that I set my foot on the deck of the first steam- vessel that ever 

 navigated the Pacific, and I thought, with exultation, of the triumphs 

 of man over the obstacles nature seems to have placed between him 

 and the accomplishment of his imaginations. With what rapture 

 would the breast of Almagro have been filled, if some magician could 

 have shown him, in the enchanted glass of futurity, the port of Val- 

 paraiso filled with vessels from Europe, and from Asia, and from 

 states not yet in existence, and our stately vessel gliding smooth and 

 swiftly through them without a sail, against the wind and waves, car- 

 rying on her decks a stronger artillery than he ever commanded, and 

 bearing on board a hero whose name, even in Peru and Chile, was to 

 surpass, not only his own, but those of his more famed companions, 

 the Pizarros. 



The cruel policy of Spain with regard to these countries always 

 repressed any attempt at establishing a coasting trade, although the 

 shores of Chile abound with harbours most commodious for the pur- 

 pose. Hence, these harbours were either not surveyed or so erro- 

 neously set down in the published maps as to deter ships of all na- 

 tions, Spanish as well as others, from attempting them, and the whole 

 traffic is carried on over some of the most difficult roads in the world 

 by mules. For instance, the copper of Coquimbo, which in a direct 

 line lies only three degrees and a half from Valparaiso, is all con- 

 veyed by a very mountainous and stony road on the backs of mules ; 



