ROUND CAPE HOEN VALPARAISO SANTIAGO. 107 



where we found two horses awaiting us, and mounting 

 them we rode out to the '^ Zorras/^ distant about three 

 miles, where Mr. G. was living. The road was rather 

 pretty, winding along the sides of hills, and affording a 

 fine view of the city below us. 



"Well, here we are," said my host as we rode into a 

 yard with a pigeon-house in the centre ; " I have to get 

 back to town, and you had better make yourself at home 

 and ride into town afterwards for lunch." It was a 

 pretty little cottage, just big enough for three, all ground 

 floor, and painted white ; the bedrooms were added on 

 to the side of the house, with a verandah in front of 

 them. This verandah was covered with vines, branches 

 of which hung down beneath : under here we break- 

 fasted. There was a garden of some two acres, but such 

 a garden ! Flowers and fruit struggled for the mastery, 

 and around the whole was a ring of poplars, embraced half- 

 way up their height with wild roses. In the yard two or 

 three enormous deerhounds basked lazily in the sun, 

 while in a loose box I observed what I put down as a 

 '^bit of blood;" and I was right, for it was Nimrod, a 

 half-bred horse by an imported English stallion. In fact, 

 the cottage had an uncommon close resemblance to a 

 bachelor^s shooting-box at home. 



After seeing my things in order I mounted my steed, 

 and rode into town again — or rather tried to do so. A 

 curious beast was that horse, hight Chimborongo, rather 

 small, but very stubborn, and he had more tricks than 

 any other Chimborongo I ever clapped eyes on. I indis- 

 creetly mounted him in the yard, and for full five minutes 

 he wouldn^t budge an inch. Jose, the servant, suggested 

 a spur might be of some good. The spurs were brought 

 — odd-looking affairs, about 6in. diameter in the rowels^ 



