SANTIAGO. 



217 



30th. — Santa Rosa's day, which is kept as a great festival here : 

 first, because Santa Rosa is a South American saint ; and secondly, 

 because it is the day of His Excellency the Director's sister. Every 

 body of course called at the palace to leave cards of compliment. 

 I am in no state of spirits for public amusements ; but in a new 

 country they are always to be observed, as they indicate more or less 

 surely the genius of the people : I therefore determined to take a 

 box at the theatre to-night ; and accordingly, after taking matee with 

 the ladies Izquierda, I went with my friends to the play at Santiago. 

 On one side of the square, between the palace of the Consulado 

 and the Jesuits' church, a gate in a low wall admitted us to a square, 

 in which there is a building that reminded me of a provincial tem- 

 porary theatre ; but the earthquakes of Chile apologise for any 

 external meanness of building but too satisfactorily : the interior is 

 far from contemptible ; I have seen much worse in Paris. The stage 

 is deep, the scenery very good, but the proscenium mean. On the 

 green curtain, there is wrought in letters of gold — 



Cuando sera esa dia 

 De aquella feliz Mariana, 

 Que nos lleven a los dos, 

 El chocolate a la Cama." 



There is another of this class, of which I have not caught the Spanish words ; but the 

 lover asks the lady, when, when she will call his mother hers, and his sister hers : the 

 first lines, however, are the same. 



Second Cuando. 



" Cuando, cuando, 

 Cuando yo me muere. 

 No me lloren los parientes, 

 Lloren me las Alembiques, 

 Donde sacan Aquardientes, 

 A la plata me remito, 

 Le demas es "boberia, 

 Andar con la boca seca, 

 E la bariga vacia." 



These are both favourites with the Chinganas, and used to be not unacceptable to all 

 classes, till within these very few years. But the opening the ports of South America, 

 by permitting a free intercourse with strangers, has rendered the taste of the higher ranks 

 more nice. 



F F 



