SANTIAGO. 



219 



The actors have one good quality, — they speak very plainly ; but they 

 are very tame, and rather seem to be repeating a lesson, than either 

 speaking or declaiming : the piece may be to blame for this. It was 

 " King Ninus the Second ;" but I cannot recollect any king of that 

 name who ever had a tragical story of the kind belonging to him : 

 and I have no books here, and no literary ladies, or even gentlemen, 

 so I must rest in ignorance ; though, if I remember right, there is 

 something like the history of Zenobia in the plot : however, there is 

 a great deal of love and murder in it. 



The farce was the " Madmen of Seville." The graciosa of the piece 

 a beggar, has by some accident got into the bedlam of the city, and 

 the amusement consists in the different tricks played to him by the 

 patients of the hospital, who each insist on taking him as a com- 

 panion. I was half sorry not to be able to join in the excessive 

 mirth apparently caused by the piece, but I was rather glad when it was 

 over : we all enjoyed some ices very much, which were brought into 

 the box ; and we were not the only persons who regaled themselves 

 in the same manner, though I think sweetmeats and wine seemed to 

 be the favourite refreshments. The gallery is appropriated to the 

 soldiers, who enter gratis. 



Saturday, August S\st. — ■ Having ascertained that there was no 

 saint in the way to prevent us, Mr. De Roos and I set out once more 

 this morning to see what we could of the city ; and meeting Mr. Pre- 

 vost, we availed ourselves of his polite offer of showing us the mint. 

 It is, indeed, a magnificent building, — I was going to say, too mao-- 

 ficent for Chile, till I recollected that it was erected by the Spanish 

 government chiefly for the assay and stamping of the product of those 

 rich mines, which the mother country long considered as the only 

 objects to be attended to in her American dominions. The building 

 is of a single range of fine Doric three-quarter columns and pilasters, 

 which cover two stories ; i. e. the public works below, and the houses 

 of the officers above. On entering a handsome gate, another interior 

 building, like the cell of a temple, of the same order, presents itself; 

 and there the treasury, and mint, and assay office are situated. The 



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