SANTIAGO. 



205 



here as in sport ; now forming caverns and now overhanging the road ; 

 and reminding us of the loosened mountains with which the ancient 

 Caciques used to overwhelm their invaders. From Santa Lucia, we 

 discovered the whole plain of Santiago to the Cuesta de Prado, the 

 plain of Maypu stretching even to the horizon, the snowy Cordillera, 

 and beneath our feet the city, its gardens, churches, and its magnificent 

 bridge all lit up by the rays of the setting sun, which on the city, the 

 plains, and the Prado produced such effects as poets and painters have 

 described. But what pen or pencil can impart a thousandth part of 

 the sublime beauty of sunset on the Andes ? I gazed on it 



" till the place became 



Religion, and my heart ran o'er 

 In secret worship." 



What had St. Isidore's bell to do, to awaken one from such contem- 

 plation to look on his petty church under a huge dark cloud, whence 

 issued a long and solemn procession of monks and priests performing 

 the first of a nine days' prayer to their patron Isidore, and jointly with 

 Saint James, patron of the city, for rain ? 



I wish that superstition had not gone farther than assigning a guar- 

 dian to each country, city, and individual ; there is something so 

 soothing in the feeling that a superior being is watching over us, 

 and ready to intercede for us with the great Judge of all. The 

 light-hearted Athenian had his Minerva, the sturdy Roman his Jupiter 

 the greatest and the best, England even yet keeps her George, and 

 why not St. Iago her James, the mirror of knighthood, and Isidore, 

 the husbandman ? I entered into conversation with a woman on the 

 rock, who told me that dry weather is considered as unwholesome 

 here, and that people's bodies dried up like the earth without rain, 

 therefore there was much need of the interference of the saints to 

 keep sickness as well as dearth' from the city. She said also that 

 fever and pains in the throat came from the dry weather. If this 

 is not prejudice, it is curious. 



We came home to dress for the palace, where we went accompa- 

 nied by Judge Prevost, Madame Cotapos and her second daughter. 



