246 JOURNAL. 
Don Justo has the best memory for verses of any person I know, 
and repeated more songs than I can remember, or than Don Lucas 
could sing. It is one of the necessary accomplishments of a young 
Chileno cavalier; so he who cannot sing his song in their country 
parties. may at least tell his story. 
Not very long ago Don Justo was dangerously ill at his father-in- 
law’s house at Santiago; and of course there were vows made for him 
by all the family, and especially his sisters-in-law, with whom he is a 
great favourite. On the day he was pronounced out of danger, Jose 
Antonio and the girls all assembled under his window, and the guitar. 
being tuned to an air of Mariquita’s composition, she first sang her 
congratulations, and then followed each of her sisters with a verse, 
and a chorus of the four in the name of the rest of the household, all 
of Mariquita’s composition. Their tenderness overcame the sick 
man, and he burst into tears; when Jose Antonio with readiness 
quickened the measure, and parodied the lines in his own person so 
gracefully that the tears dried, and from that time Salinas began to 
recover rapidly. The fashion and talent of occasional versifica- 
tion of course the Spaniards brought with them from Old Spain. 
Who does not remember the beautiful stanza sung in praise of Pre- 
ciosa by Clement and Andrew, in Cervante’s beautiful tale of La 
Gitanilla? We were all astonished at the lateness of the hour when 
we separated ; but verse and song, and Ana Maria’s beautiful coun- 
tenance and sweet voice, were excuse enough, if excuse we needed. 
1lth of September. — Descriptions are very often totally untrue ; 
whence is this? One should think nothing could be so simple as to 
describe that which we have seen with attention. However not one 
person in a hundred succeeds in giving to another a true idea of what 
he has seen. I had a proof of this to-day. We went to see the lake 
of Aculeo: I had heard it described as round, and deep in hills, 
and still as Nemi; and, to increase the wonder, that it was salt 
as the sea. None of all this is true: it is irregular and winding, 
with sunny islands in it ; some steep mountains overhang it, but the 
margin oftener slopes gently, and affords pasturage to numerous 
