288 JOURNAL. 



weather, that cargo must be opened, and is not to be removed till 

 proper officers are fetched to watch it to the nearest station, to see 

 whether it contains smuggled goods, or whether a piece of cotton 

 runs a yard more or less than the manifest ; for now, every bale must 

 have the precise number of yards specified as well as pieces. By 

 this regulation many sorts of goods must be destroyed, most injured ; 

 and in case of rain, the sugars, for instance, taken from the backs of 

 mules and examined in the open road, must be damaged, if not lost. 

 This clumsy attempt at exactness must of course soon be put an 

 end to. 



The sixth section declares Valparaiso to be the only free port of 

 Chile, thus doing a manifest injustice to all the others ; a declaration 

 too, highly imprudent, considering the jealousies on the subject that 

 have always existed in the south, and those that have occasionally 

 appeared at Coquimbo. The lesser ports, as Concon, Quintero, &c. 

 are absolutely closed against all foreign vessels ; and native ships 

 have some hard restrictions imposed on them, such, for instance, as a 

 prohibition to touch at those ports on their arrival from foreign 

 countries. Besides Valparaiso, foreign ships are allowed to touch 

 at Coquimbo, Talcahuana, and Valdivia ; also San Carlos de Chiloe, 

 when it is conquered; and, with a government licence, they may 

 go to Huasco and Copiapo, but solely for the purpose of taking in 

 copper. 



All foreign vessels touching in any of these ports must pay four 

 reals per ton, excepting whalers, who pay nothing : native ships 

 coming from abroad to pay two reals per ton ; but if employed in 

 coasting, nothing : for pilotage, anchorage, and mooring, all vessels 

 with one mast pay five dollars ; with two masts, ten dollars ; with 

 three masts, fifteen dollars. National ships or foreign whalers, not 

 trading, to pay one half of the above duties. 



The seventh section confines the legal and free passes of the Andes 

 to one ; namely, that by the valley of Santa Rosa. So that those of 

 San Juan de los Patos, the pass of the Portillo, and that of the 

 Planchon, are shut up : this is not the way to civilise a country. 



