252 JOURNAL. 



Sometimes he saw with her Ana Maria, the widow of Carrera. The 

 young naturally feel for the young. He heard her story, — as who in 

 Chile did not? — and told it to his mother, an aged lady, who lived in 

 the country, at the house we are now staying at. 



When Dona Ana Maria was released from her honourable prison in 

 the Augustines, she found her brother Don Miguel labouring under 

 a severe infirmity ; and as she was banished from Santiago, and 

 ordered to live at the country-house she had inherited from her 

 husband, she proposed that he should accompany her thither for the 

 benefit of bathing in running water ; which, I observe, is considered 

 here as a specific for many complaints. AnaMaria's tender attention 

 to this brother attracted the observation of her neighbours, more espe- 

 cially of the lady of Salinas, who insisted on her removing to her house, 

 where the waters were purer and the stream stronger. She accord- 

 ingly accompanied Don Miguel to Salinas. Don Justo arrived some 

 time after : — need I say she was invited to make Salinas hers ? I am 

 not sure that all this was talked or told to-night ; but this discourse 

 made out some parts of a story which I longed to know more com- 

 pletely, and which, even now, wants some links of the chain. 



The sun at last summoned us to leave our mountain station ; and 

 we descended by a winding rocky path and through a wood, where 

 the branches often threatened to impede our progress. On such oc- 

 casions Salinas, who, like every Chileno, travels with his forest knife, 

 drew it, and quickly cut the overhanging boughs ; and we reached 



home just as E with his tonto again made his appearance at 



the door. The parties in the evening were much as last night ; E 



and Jose Antonio occasionally taking Don Lucas's place, with Dona 

 Rosario, and Mr. de Roos. There was something in the tonto's 

 appearance to-night that led me to notice him more particularly than 

 before ; and I purposely led the conversation to points connected 

 with farming, with the state of the roads in the country, and the 

 practicability of going to Conception alone in a few weeks ; and at 

 length the answers became more and more rational, till I was half 

 convinced that the tonto was an assumed character : when E came 



