BOUND CAPE HORN — VALPAEAISO — SANTIAGO. 113 



After dinner, thinking quietly about what I had seen 

 in the Yale of Paradise, I came to the conclusion, as 

 I said before, that it was a regular " take-in/' Upon 

 my word I don't believe Murray could make a hand- 

 book on the place. I contend that a place with such 

 a name, 16,000 miles away — and, say what you will, 

 distance has a good deal to do with it, who's going to 

 Timbuctoo if he can't see something fresh ? — I say such 

 a place has no business to be such a swindle. There is 

 positively nothing there. I tried for months to discover 

 something — some old church or library, some old house 

 some relic or other to go into raptures about; but 

 no, I found nothing ; I might just as well have been in 

 Hammersmith or Houndsditch. However, I have San- 

 tiago, '^ el ojo de Chile," to fall back on ; that's some 

 consolation. I shall see something there, at any rate, 

 worth seeing. 



Valparaiso has its little scandals and quarrels, like the 

 veriest little out-of-the-way country parish at home. I 

 suppose it may with safety be said that, if there is one 

 storm that is nearly sure to rise in an English village, it 

 is one between the parson, organist, churchwardens, and 

 parishioners ; the last three are unanimous in one respect 

 only — in their hostility to the first. I am extremely glad 

 to say that Valparaiso is, or was, no way behindhand 

 in this respect. It had its parson squabble, and not only 

 that, but kept it up for something like eight years ! 

 Think of that ye curates at home, worried by vestrymen 

 and refractory females ! Nowhere can ye escape your 

 inevitable fate — at all events not in Valparaiso ; for well 

 as, the reverend gentleman held his own, in sporting lan- 

 guage, the pace killed him at last, and he was fairly driven 

 out of the place by a chque of '^ highly respectable " 



