s 



VALPARAISO. 277 



a stranger should buy and eat of what was too delicious for any 

 but an Athenian palate. 



This new reglamento is not the only point on which some state 

 ferment seems about to arise. The Director had appointed General 

 Cruz to supersede General Freire as governor of Talcahuana and 

 chief of the army of the south ; but the soldiers have refused to 

 receive him, or to permit Freire to leave them, and are become as 

 clamorous for their pay as the sailors are. Some politicians here do 

 not scruple to attribute ambitious thoughts to Freire, and to accuse 

 him of being the instigator of the clamours of the soldiers: but the 

 true cause is in the bad faith of the government in refusing to pay 

 up their arrears ; in neglecting to provide any compensation for the 

 sufferings and losses of the people of Conception, who have under- 

 gone more than those of any other province during the war of the 

 Revolution ; and in tyrannically attempting to ruin every port in 

 Chile but that of Valparaiso, for the sake of monopolising the com- 

 merce of the country. 



As to the squadron, the men talk of seizing the ships if they are 

 not paid forthwith ; and it is given out that their officers will stand 

 by them. But these reports are built rather on the provocations to 

 take the law into their own hands, than on any expressions of the 

 parties themselves. 



8th. — My pleasure in receiving the visits of several of my friends 

 to-day, has been sadly damped by the increased sufferings of poor 

 Glennie. These sufferings have met with sympathy however, if not 

 relief, in a quarter from which I scarcely looked for it ; namely, from 

 La Chavelita, the old lady of the flower-garden, who appeared about 

 four o'clock with a bundle of herbs, carried by a little serving boy, 

 and stalking into the room with great dignity, her tall figure rendered 

 still taller by a high-crowned black hat, she seated herself by the 

 bedside, and began to question the patient as to his disease : she then 

 turned to me, and told me she had brought some medicines, one of 

 which she would administer immediately ; and in order to prepare 

 it desired me to procure some warm brandy. This being done, she 



