SAN FRANCISCO DE MONTE. 263 
satisfied, that, in its present state, there is little interesting in it; and 
also, that it might be one of the most flourishing cities of South 
America. Its potteries, already considerable, might be rendered 
infinitely more profitable; its manufactures of ponchos and carpets 
infinitely increased, hecause its wool and its dyes are excellent and 
inexhaustible. Hemp, of the very finest quality, abounds in the 
flat lands near it. Its dairies are the best in this part of Chile; and 
its charqui, hides, and all other. produce depending on its cattle, 
might be, more easily as well as advantageously, disposed of from its 
port of St. Austin’s, only thirty miles off; to which every thing 
might go by water, though the rapidity of the stream would prevent 
boats from re-ascending the Maypu. Melipilla might derive another 
advantage, which is not mean in Chile, from the existence of the 
medicinal wells in its neighbourhood, at the spot where the Poangui 
falls into the Maypu. People crowd thither in the bathing season to 
be very uncomfortable in huts at the spot, while it would be very 
easy for the town of Melipilla to keep comfortable and well-supplied 
houses and baths for their accommodation. I have been told, that 
the waters of the Poangui are warm in the morning and cold at night. 
This is so contrary to experience and reason, that, as I have not tried 
them myself, I suspect that there is as great a mistake as in the case 
of the saltness of the lake of Aculeo. Wehad no intention this day of 
going farther than San Francisco de Monte, where there is a tolerable 
house for travellers, kept by an old servant of a relation of the Cotapos. 
As soon as we arrived there, the gentlemen rode off to visit a relation 
of our companions, while Dofia Rosario and I remained to perform 
rather a more careful toilette than we had been able to do at Melipilla. 
The house we were in is, in all senses, a pulperia, combining the 
characters of a huckster’s shop and an alehouse. The host has some 
Indian and some African blood in his veins, and is a shrewd in- 
genious man. He has set up a proper loom for weaving ponchos, 
by which means he produces more work in a week than the weavers 
of Melipilla in a month. His wife spins and dyes the wool; and by 
this trade, and the profits of their shop, they earn a very decent live- 
