VALPARAISO. 183 
parties to the neighbouring hills or valleys, and under the name of a 
pic-nic, contrive to ride, eat and drink, and even to dance away most 
gaily. I joined one of the soberer kind of these, and rode over a 
good deal of ground with my younger friends ; sometimes over steep 
rocks, sometimes through dingles and bushy dells, and here and there 
through bits of meadow, where the finest mushrooms in the world 
grow. The peach and cherry trees are in blossom, and all looks gay 
and cheerful. Most of us went to the place of rendezvous in the 
valley of Palms on horseback ; but some preferred the quieter convey- 
ance of a Chile waggon, drawn by four noble oxen, who had to drag 
the additional weight of an excellent dinner. The spot was at the 
foot of a steep hill covered with myrtle: our canopy, hung something 
like the draperies that Claude sometimes introduces in his landscapes, 
was the striped and starred banner of the United States, whose con- 
sul was the father of the feast; and close by us flowed a rivulet of 
sparkling water. The kind-hearted Chilena women of the neigh- 
bouring rancho came round us, assisted in our little arrangements, 
brought us flowers, and helped us to cut the myrtle of which we made 
our seats. Some were very happy: but happiness is not of every- 
day growth, and there are not many hands destined to pluck the 
golden bough ; but it is always worth while to be cheerful, and I en- 
joyed the day more than I thought three months ago I could have 
enjoyed any thing. 
August 2d. — Mr. Hogan brought Judge Prevost, the American 
consul-general, who acts also in a sort of ministerial capacity, to visit 
me. He is of the family of Prevost of Geneva, which has, although 
retaining at home the first of the name*, given many respectable, 
and some remarkable, citizens both to England and the United States. 
He is warmly interested in the fate of Chile, and regards, with the 
fondness which his own country and that of his father entitle him 
to feel, this rising republic. But I am sure that he is wrong in en- 
deavouring to impress on the government that Chile has no business 
* Professor Prevost. 
