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testant worship ; forgetting how very short a time it is since even 

 private liberty of conscience and a consecrated burial-place had been 

 allowed in a country which, within twelve years, had been subject to 

 the Inquisition at Lima. He spoke a good deal also of the necessity 

 of public education, and told me of the Lancasterian and other schools 

 lately established here, and in other towns in Chile, which are cer- 

 tainly numerous in proportion to the population. 



Several other persons now joined the party, among whom was 

 a Colonel Cruz ; whom the Director particularly introduced as the 

 intended new governor of Talcahuana, and recommended me to his at- 

 tention during the journey I mean to make shortly to the southward. 

 The military men who came in afterwards were some of them French- 

 men, but they did not appear to me to be of the most polished of their 

 countrymen : they sat in dead silence, while some of the members of 

 the cabildo, i. e. the municipal chamber of Santiago, discussed various 

 questions of policy connected with the projected constitution ; till 

 Dona Rosa, finding the conversation likely to become exclusively 

 political, proposed to Dona Mariquita to play some French music, 

 which she instantly did, without book, extremely well, having a fine 

 ear and an excellent finger ; and I had time to look at the persons 

 round me. The Director was dressed, as I believe he always is, in 

 his general's uniform ; he is short and fat, yet very active : his blue 

 eyes, light hair, and ruddy and rather coarse complexion, do not bely 

 his Irish extraction ; while his very small and short hands and feet 

 belong to his Araucanian pedigree. Dona Isabella is young-looking 

 for her years, and very handsome, though small. Her daughter is 

 like the Director, on a larger scale. She was dressed in a scarlet satin 

 spencer and white skirt, a sort of dress much worn here. The Chileno 

 men are an uglier coarser race, as far as I have seen, than the women, 

 who are beautiful, and, what is more, lady-like : they have a natural 

 easy politeness, and a caressing manner that is delightful ; but then 

 some of their habits are disagreeable ; for instance, a handsome fat 

 lady, who came all in blue satin to the palace to-night, had a spitting- 

 box brought and set before her, into which she spat continually, and 



