QUINTERO. 189 



to this climate. Vegetables unknown before here, such as carrot, 

 turnip, and various kinds of pulse, have been added to the stores of 

 Chile since his arrival. On returning to the house we looked over 

 various drafts of small vessels fitted to be employed in a coasting 

 trade ; and the evening to me passed more pleasantly than any since 

 I have been in Chile. 



14th. — Soon after breakfast we all mounted our horses, and rode 

 to the outer point of the Heradura, a peninsular promontory, where 

 the cattle of the estate were to be collected in order to be counted. 

 This sort of meeting is technically called a rodeo, and usually takes 

 place in the summer, or rather autumn ; when the young animals 

 are sufficiently strong to be driven to the corral, or place of ren- 

 dezvous, from the mountains and thickets where they were born. 

 All the tenants of an estate assemble on such an occasion ; and the 

 young girls are not backward to dress themselves gaily, and appear 

 at the corral. When the day of the rodeo is appointed, the men, 

 being all mounted, divide ; and each troop has a chief, under whose 

 orders it advances, keeps close, separates, or falls back, according 

 to the nature of the ground, — none is too rough, no hill too bold, 

 no forest too thick to pierce. In order to defend their arms and 

 legs from the bushes, they have curious leathern coverings, which 

 fasten at the hip, and defend the knee and lower leg entirely ; these 

 are generally of seal-skins worked very curiously, and are tied fantas- 

 tically with points. I have seen them as high-priced as fifteen 

 dollars. The leathers for the arms are plainer. These men often 

 stay several nights with their dogs on the hills to bring in the cattle ; 

 and when collected, all stranger beasts are set apart for their owners, 

 and the estate cattle are marked. A rodeo is a scene of enjoyment: 

 there one sees the Chilenos in their glory; riding, throwing the laca, 

 breaking the young animals, whether horses or mules ; and some- 

 times in their wantonness mounting the lordly bull himself. The 

 rodeo of to-day is not of so festive a kind : it is merely to count 

 the cattle on the estate, which ought to be 2000 ; but of which, it 

 is feared, there has been a great neglect or waste, or loss, since 



