236 



JOURNAL. 



had seen as president of the Convention, and with whom I had "an 

 hour's pleasant conversation. In passing by the law-shelves he said, 

 " Here is the plague of Chile : thirty seven thousand of these ordi- 

 " nances are still in force, and there are at least thrice the number 

 " of commentaries on them. The Chilenos are extremely litigious ; 

 " it is honourable to have a pleyto ; and yet a pleyto often lasts for 

 " years, and ruins more families than all the other causes of ruin, 

 " except gambling, put together." Albano hopes to effect some 

 establishment analogous to that of our justices of the peace, to 

 obviate the evil of arbitrary imprisonments, which are frequent here. 

 He mentioned with respect a royal decree of 1718, for the guidance 

 of the judges of districts in Spanish America, and seemed to wish 

 that it might be adopted here as the basis of the civil administration. 



I was so pleased with the President's discourse, that I was quite 

 sorry to be reminded that I had already encroached on the com- 

 plaisance of the librarian, and that the ladies Godoy expected me to 

 take matee. To them I went, however, and met pretty Madame 

 Blanco, the wife of the former Rear-admiral of Chile, now San 

 Martin's naval commander-in-chief. She is gay and pleasing. 



8^, — I bought my roan horse Fritz : he has white feet, and two 

 blue eyes ; is tall and strong, and never carried a woman in his life : 

 but I wanted to give my pet Charles some rest, so thought twenty 

 dollars not too much ; therefore I gave it at once, mounted Fritz 

 without ceremony, and rode to the Director's chacra with Mr. de 

 Roos, to pay a forenoon visit. We were not allowed, however, to 

 leave it before dinner. We found the ladies sitting in their garden, 

 with their little Indian girls playing about them. This place is called 

 the Conventilla, and belonged to the Franciscan friars, who long ago 

 began building close to it a church to Our Lady, and collected money 

 from every passenger for the completion of the chapel ; which, how- 

 ever, never made any progress, notwithstanding the large sums that 

 were levied in this manner on the public. The Director, therelbre, 

 bought all the ground, and bargained with the friars for their church ; 



