THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 429 



US if we thought them worthy of examination. I therefore 

 applied to Captain Mayne for a few of the men to carry on 

 excavations, and shortly after landed with our informant. 

 In the course of conversation with him on our way on shore, 

 I accidentally learned that he was a Scotchman, from Edin- 

 burgh, and on my telling him that I hailed from the same 

 quarter, he gave me a sketch of his history, which was not a 

 little curious. He had been educated at the High School of 

 Edinburgh, but having a passion for a roving life, had run 

 away from home, joined an outward-bound ship, and been 

 wrecked- on the coast where he now lived, in 1839, never 

 having, since that time, moved many miles from his house 

 and the small piece of land which he possessed. He had 

 married a Chilian wife, and had a family, about whose educa- 

 tion he was a great deal taken up. He had evidently a great 

 zeal for reading, and asked me many questions about Carlyle's 

 and Hugh Miller's works, and as to what was thought of 

 Mr. Darwin's Origin of Species. He was also very anxious to 

 hear news about Edinburgh, and inquired whether the National 

 Monument on the Calton Hill was yet completed. On land- 

 ing we ascended one of the steep hills to the nearest tumulus, 

 a grass-grown mound resembling a barrow, and about four 

 feet in height, and leaving the men to excavate this, we 

 walked on for a couple of miles to look at some other tumuli. 

 As we went we had much talk, alike of the old country and 

 Chili, and I received a good deal of information from him 

 about the latter. He dwelt much on the rapacity and tyi^anny 

 of the priests, mentioning many instances of the manner in 

 which they fleeced the poorer classes. We at length ascended 

 to a height of, as nearly as I could calculate, a little under 

 two thousand feet, from whence we had a magnificent view of 

 the surrounding country and the bay of Arauco. Here were 



