302 JOURNAL. 



the lake. As this is a cattle estate, it is not populous in proportion 

 to its extent ; but still every valley has its little homestead or two, 

 around which, at the latter end of the rains, and while the cattle are 

 in the mountains, the peasants form their little chacra, or cultivated 

 spot, for pease, gourds, melons, onions, potatoes, French beans, 

 (which, dried, as frixole, forms a main article of their food,) and other 

 vegetables. This little harvest must all be gathered in before the 

 season for the return of the cattle to the plain, as the landlord has 

 then a right to turn in the beasts to every field ; and this is often a 

 great hardship, because the peasants are bound to duty-work per- 

 haps six, eight, ten, twelve, or more days in the year, at the will of 

 the landlord as to season. Now, it often happens that he employs 

 his people to clear his own chacra just at the moment when theirs is 

 ready to be cleared ; and the time passes, and the poor man's food 

 is trodden down by the oxen : here on this estate, while the present 

 master is in the country, such things cannot happen ; but the legal right 

 exists, and a hard master or overseer may exercise it. Under Lord 

 Cochrane, the peasantry have found an unwonted freedom which 

 they are so totally unused to, from motives of humane consideration, 

 that they have taken it for carelessness, and have abused it ; but 

 better so, than that they should be oppressed ! Each settler pays a 

 few reals as ground-rent ; two dollars, on some estates more, lor pas- 

 ture for every horse, mule, ox, or cow, and double for every hundred 

 sheep. The tenants of Quintero, taking advantage of the owner's 

 long absence, and the carelessness or dishonesty of the overseer, have 

 increased their private flocks and cattle beyond what the estate will 

 bear, without account or payment, and thus materially injured it. 



We found Mr. Bennet, Lord Cochrane's Spanish secretary, and my 

 friend Carrillo, the painter, ready to receive us. The former is a 

 remarkable person, on account of his long residence and singular 

 adventures in South America. 77 narre bien, and I suspect better in 

 Spanish than in English ; but there is something not unpleasant in 

 the broad Lincolnshire dialect which gives an air of originality to his 

 thoughts, as well as his stories. He affects a singularity of dress : 



