344 JOURNAL. 



periods long anterior to our knowledge. Often we have little other 

 object than the mere pleasure of the earth, and air, and sky. Sometimes 

 we go to the garden, where every thing is thriving beyond all hope. 

 And we are busy collecting seeds of the wild plants of the country, 

 though it is too early in the season to find many ripe. 



5th. — We have again lost the Admiral for a few days. The press 

 is removed to my tent, where we are more free to work at all hours, 

 without interrupting business or being interrupted by it ; and we 

 might flatter ourselves that we were going on extremely well, were it 

 not that the ink sent by the makers of presses for exportation is so 

 very bad that we are obliged to renew the writing on the stone very 

 frequently, so that we might have multiplied the copies almost as 

 quickly with the pen. 



9th. — We have been surprised at seeing a large ship come into the 

 bay, and stand off and on for some hours. Every thing now awakens 

 suspicion ; and as the Admiral has been longer absent than was ex- 

 pected, and that without writing, we are beginning to be a little 

 alarmed on his account. 



The public news shows, I think, that the event of the present 

 struggle must be decided ere long. Freire has reached the Maule, 

 only six days' march from Santiago ; and though the Director pro- 

 tested at first that he never would give up Rodriguez - , it appears now, 

 that not only the minister, but the measures — not only Rodriguez, 

 but the reglamento, have been sacrificed, too late, in all probability, 

 to save the rest. The will to defend the abuses has been shown, the 

 weakness that was forced to abandon them proved, and the respect 

 and the love for the old government proportionably diminished. 1 

 am very sorry for the Director, — I believe truly that he meant well, 

 and I cannot forget his great kindness to myself. * 



* I cannot help referring here to the 1st chapter of the 2d book of Delolme on the Con- 

 stitution of England, from the paragraph beginning, " If we cast our eyes on all the 

 states that were ever free," to the end of the quotation from Machiavel's History of 

 Florence, as rather a history than a description of the events that have taken place in Chile 

 since 1810, when the faction of the Carreras led the way to all that has happened since. 



