VALPARAISO. 149 
June 6th. — To-day the feast of the Corpus Domini was celebrated ; 
and I went to the Iglesia Matriz with my friend Mrs. Campbell to 
hear her brother Don Mariano de Escalada preach. We went at 
9 o’clock : she had put off her French or English dress, and adopted 
the Spanish costume; I did so also, so far as to wear a mantilla 
instead of a bonnet, such being the custom on going to church. 
A boy followed us with missals, and a carpet to kneel on. The 
church, like all other buildings here, appears mean from without ; 
but within it is large and decently decorated: to be sure the Virgin 
was in white satin, with a hoop and silver fringes, surrounded with 
looking-glasses, and supported on either hand by St. Peter and 
St. Paul; the former in a lace cassock, and the latter in a robe 
formed of the same block which composes his own gracious person- 
age. As there was to be a procession, and as the governor was 
to be a principal person in the ceremonies preceding it, we waited 
his arrival for the beginning of the service until 11 o’clock; so that 
I had plenty of time to look at the church, the saints, and the ladies, 
who were, generally speaking, very pretty, and becomingly dressed 
with their mantillas and braided hair. At length the great man 
arrived, and it was whispered that he had been transacting business 
with the admiral, and transmitting to him, and the captains, and other 
officers, the thanks of the government for their services.* But the 
whispers died away, and the young preacher began. The sermon 
was of course occasional ; it spoke in good language of the moral 
freedom conferred by the Christian dispensation, and thence the 
step was not far to political freedom: but the argument was so 
decorously managed, that it could offend none; and yet so strongly 
urged that it might persuade many. I was highly pleased with it, 
and sorry to see it succeeded by the ceremony of kissing the reliquary, 
which seemed as little to the taste of Zenteno as might be, by the 
look of ineffable disdain he bestowed on the poor priest who pre- 
sented it. The procession was now arranged ; and my friend and I, 
* See these letters in the Introduction, p. 110. 
