SAN FRANCISCO DE MONTE. 263 



satisfied, that, in its present state, there is little interesting in it; and 

 also, that it might be one of the most flourishing cities of South 

 America. Its potteries, already considerable, might be rendered 

 infinitely more profitable ; its manufactures of ponchos and carpets 

 infinitely increased, because its wool and its dyes are excellent and 

 inexhaustible. Hemp, of the very finest quality, abounds in the 

 flat lands near it. Its dairies are the best in this part of Chile ; and 

 its charqui, hides, and all other produce depending on its cattle, 

 might be, more easily as well as advantageously, disposed of from its 

 port of St. Austin's, only thirty miles off; to which every thing 

 might go by water, though the rapidity of the stream would prevent 

 boats from re-ascending the Maypu. Melipilla might derive another 

 advantage, which is not mean in Chile, from the existence of the 

 medicinal wells in its neighbourhood, at the spot where the Poangui 

 falls into the Maypu. People crowd thither in the bathing season to 

 be very uncomfortable in huts at the spot, while it would be very 

 easy for the town of Melipilla to keep comfortable and well-supplied 

 houses and baths for their accommodation. I have been told, that 

 the waters of the Poangui are warm in the morning and cold at night. 

 This is so contrary to experience and reason, that, as I have not tried 

 them myself, I suspect that there is as great a mistake as in the case 

 of the saltness of the lake of Aculeo. We had no intention this day of 

 going farther than San Francisco de Monte, where there is a tolerable 

 house for travellers, kept by an old servant of a relation of the Cotapos. 

 As soon as we arrived there, the gentlemen rode off to visit a relation 

 of our companions, while Dona Rosario and I remained to perform 

 rather a more careful toilette than we had been able to do at Melipilla. 

 The house we were in is, in all senses, a pulperia, combining the 

 characters of a huckster's shop and an alehouse. The host has some 

 Indian and some African blood in his veins, and is a shrewd in- 

 genious man. He has set up a proper loom for weaving ponchos, 

 by which means he produces more work in a week than the weavers 

 of Melipilla in a month. His wife spins and dyes the wool ; and by 

 this trade, and the profits of their shop, they earn a very decent live- 



