XVI PREJUDICE AGAINST ENGLISHMEN 365 



breath most laborious. Each time they draw their breath they 

 utter an articulate cry of " ay-ay," which ends in a sound rising 

 from deep in the chest, but shrill like the note of a fife. After 

 staggering to the pile of ore, they emptied the " carpacho ;" in 

 two or three seconds recovering their breath, they wiped the 

 sweat from their brows, and apparently quite fresh descended 

 the mine again at a quick pace. This appears to me a wonderful 

 instance of the amount of labour which habit, for it can be 

 nothing else, will enable a man to endure. 



In the evening, talking with the niayor-donio of these mines, 

 about the number of foreigners now scattered over the whole 

 country, he told me that, though quite a young man, he remembers 

 when he was a boy at school at Coquimbo, a holiday being given 

 to see the captain of an English ship, who was brought to the 

 city to speak to the governor. He believes that nothing would 

 have induced any boy in the school, himself included, to have 

 gone close to the Englishman ; so deeply had they been 

 impressed with an idea of the heresy, contamination, and evil to 

 be derived from contact with such a person. To this day they 

 relate the atrocious actions of the bucaniers ; and especially of 

 one man, who took away the figure of the Virgin Mary, and 

 returned the year after for that of St. Joseph, saying it was a 

 pity the lady should not have a husband. I heard also of an 

 old lady who, at a dinner in Coquimbo, remarked how wonder- 

 fully strange it was that she should have lived to dine in the 

 same room with an Englishman ; for she remembered as a girl 

 that twice, at the mere cry of " Los Ingleses," every soul, carrying 

 what valuables they could, had taken to the mountains. 



1 4//^. — We reached Coquimbo, where we stayed a few days. 

 The town is remarkable for nothing but its extreme quietness. 

 It is said to contain from 6000 to 8000 inhabitants. On the 

 morning of the 1 7th it rained lightly, the first time this year, for 

 about five hours. The farmers, who plant corn near the sea- 

 coast where the atmosphere is more humid, taking advantage of 

 this shower, would break up the ground ; after a second they 

 would put the seed in ; and if a third shower should fall, they 

 would reap a good harvest in the spring. It was interesting to 

 watch the effect of this trifling amount of moisture. Twelve 

 hours afterwards the ground appeared as dry as ever ; yet alter 

 an interval of ten days ail the hills were faintly tinged with green 



