302 JOURNAL. 
the lake. As this is a cattle estate, it is not populous in proportion 
to its extent ; but still every valley has its little homestead or two, 
around which, at the latter end of the rains, and while the cattle are 
in the mountains, the peasants form their little chacra, or cultivated 
spot, for pease, gourds, melons, onions, potatoes, French beans, 
(which, dried, as frizole, forms a main article of their food,) and other 
vegetables. This little harvest must all be gathered in before the 
season for the return of the cattle to the plain, as the landlord has 
then a right to turn in the beasts to every field; and this is often a 
great hardship, because the peasants are bound to duty-work per- 
haps six, eight, ten, twelve, or more days in the year, at the will of 
the landlord as to season. Now, it often happens that he employs 
his people to clear his own chacra just at the moment when theirs is 
ready to be cleared ; and ‘the time passes, and the poor man’s food 
is trodden down by the oxen: here on this estate, while the present 
master is in the country, such things cannot happen ; but the legal right 
exists, and a hard master or overseer may exercise it. Under Lord 
Cochrane, the peasantry have found an unwonted freedom which 
they are so totally unused to, from motives of humane consideration, 
that they have taken it for carelessness, and have abused it; but 
better so, than that they should be oppressed! Each settler pays a 
few reals as ground-rent ; two dollars, on some estates more, for pas- 
ture for every horse, mule, ox, or cow, and double for every hundred 
sheep. The tenants of Quintero, taking advantage of the owner’s 
long absence, and the carelessness or dishonesty of the overseer, have 
increased their private flocks and cattle beyond what the estate will 
bear, without account or payment, and thus materially injured it. 
We found Mr. Bennet, Lord Cochrane’s Spanish secretary, and my 
friend Carrillo, the painter, ready to receive us. The former is a 
remarkable person, on account of his long residence and singular 
adventures in South America. J/ narre bien, and I suspect better in 
Spanish than in English; but there is something not unpleasant in 
the broad Lincolnshire dialect which gives an air of originality to his 
thoughts, as well as his stories. He affects a singularity of dress : 
