174 JOURNAL. 



while not a boat is employed for carriage. The enormous taxes laid 

 on water carriage under the name of port dues, &c. in Valparaiso, 

 and which bear more upon small vessels conveying even provisions 

 than any others, prevents not only the trade which should be a nur- 

 sery for the seamen of Chile, but also the cultivation of many fertile 

 tracts along the coast. The nearness of the mountains to the shore, 

 and their very abrupt descent, prevent the existence of very large 

 rivers or such as are navigable for any extent, but the mouths of the 

 smaller streams form little harbours, whence the produce of their 

 astonishingly fertile banks being floated down from the interior might 

 be embarked with convenience. Yet I do not know one, where any 

 thing approaching to a coasting trade is encouraged. Hence, the coal 

 of Conception, though abundant and good, and worked within 300 

 miles, is dearer in Valparaiso than that brought from England. 

 Hence, too, the tracts of alluvial soil, washed from the nearer hills by 

 the winter rains, and kept fruitful by the fresh lakes which are formed 

 every where by those rains collecting in the valleys, are left uncul- 

 tivated, though fit for the production of every vegetable ; and now 

 these tracts only contribute to the summer grazing of the cattle ; 

 whereas, if applied to the culture of the more nourishing and pro- 

 ductive vegetables, sheep, concerning which the greatest difficulty 

 here is winter fodder, might be encouraged to any extent ; and the 

 wool, which is of excellent quality, would become a valuable article 

 of trade. But who will grow turnip or beet, when he must pay as 

 much for the harbour dues of a boat to carry it to market as the 

 whole culture has cost ? Or who will feed sheep when the wool, if 

 dyed or manufactured, pays a duty on exportation higher than the 

 price of cloths imported into the country ? I particularly recollect 

 that at Coquimbo, in the Copper-mine country, Don Felipe de Solar 

 paid more in duty upon some copper vessels that he was exporting 

 than the price of equally good and weighty articles imported from 

 Bengal. This is a direct and most oppressive tax on industry, and 

 by its effects retards the population of the country, as well as its 

 civilisation. These reflections were suggested naturally by the sight of 



