VALPARAISO. 127 
colonists on both sides of the Andes throw so dexterously either 
to catch cattle, or to make prisoners in war. The stirrups appended 
to these singular-looking saddles are either plain silver stirrups, hav- 
ing silver loops, &c. on the stirrup leathers; or in case of riding 
through woods on long journeys, a kind of carved box very heavy, 
and spreading considerably, so as to defend the foot from thorns 
and branches. Returning from a short walk to-day, I had a good 
opportunity of seeing a group of horsemen, young and old, who had 
come from the neighbourhood of Rancagua, a town near the foot of 
the Andes, to the southward of Santiago, with a cargo of wine and 
brandy. The liquor is contained in skins, and brought from the 
interior on mules, It is not uncommon to see a hundred and. fifty 
of these under the guidance of ten or a dozen peons, with the 
guaso or farmer at their head, encamping in some open spot near 
a farm-house in the neighbourhood of the town. Many of these 
houses keep spare buildings, in which their itinerant friends secure 
their liquor while they go to the farms around, or even into town, 
to seek customers, not choosing to pay the heavy toll for going into 
the port, unless certain of sale for the wine. I bought a quantity 
for common use: it is a rich, strong, and sweetish white wine, 
capable, with good management, of great improvement, and infi- 
nitely preferable to any of the Cape wines, excepting Constantia, 
that I ever drank. I gave six dollars for two arobas of it, so that 
it comes to about 3d. per bottle. The brandy might be good, but 
it is ill distilled, and generally spoiled by the infusion of aniseed. 
The liquor commonly drank by the lower classes is chicha, the regular 
descendant of that intoxicating chicha which the Spaniards found the 
South American savages possessed of the art of making, by chewing 
various berries and grains, spitting them into a large vessel, and 
allowing them to ferment. But the great and increasing demand 
for chicha has introduced a cleanlier way of making it; and it is 
now in fact little other than harsh cyder, the greater part being 
produced from apples, and flavoured with the various berries which 
formerly supplied the whole of the Indian chicha. 
