SUSPENSION BRIDGE OF HIDE ROPE. 



29 



i parents, wished to see me. I accordingly set 

 out, under the escort of a little boy, who conducted 

 me through sundry strange-looking alleys, till at 

 length we reached a bolted door. Admittance 

 was demanded and as stoutly denied, till it was 

 announced that the caballero with news had 

 arrived. In an instant the door flew open, and 

 before I had time to look round me, I found 

 myself in the lady's bed-room. Her anxiety to 

 know about her parents was extreme. She fancied 

 somehow there was a studied reserve and embar- 

 rassment in my manner, and in an instant her 

 suspicions caught fire, and starting up, in spite of 

 the efforts of her nurse, and clasping her hands, 

 she screamed out, " I see it — I see it all — now I 

 know my mother is dead ! " and burst into a 

 violent fit of tears. I had great difficulty in 

 reassuring the poor girl, whose mother was alive 

 and well. It was the same, more or less, every- 

 where ; and amongst no people have I ever met 

 with more thorough kindliness and affection for 

 one another than was exhibited by these poor Chi- 

 lenos. 



As the Commander-in-chief was at the capital, 

 I proceeded there on the 23d to make rny report. 

 On the 28th of March I set out from Santiago, 

 accompanied by one of the English residents and 

 a young officer of my ship, to pay a visit to a 

 Chilian gentleman who resided about eighteen 

 leagues in the interior. The day was well advanced 

 before we started, and we pursued our way at a 

 rapid pace over the great plain of Santiago, appa- 

 rently a dead flat ; but which we discovered, upon 

 looking back at the city, to have a considerable 

 though very gradual ascent : so that we were 

 now several hundred feet above the highest 

 churches, without having perceived that we had 

 been rising. 



In a country the character of which is quite 

 new, we are always liable to err in the ideas 

 formed of the scenery around us. Amongst the 

 Andes this is particularly the case ; for the scale 

 of everything is so great, that our previous con- 

 ceptions are unable to grasp the scene before us, 

 and we run almost necessarily into mistakes 

 respecting heights and distances, which nothing 

 but experience can rectify. It is not at first that 

 one is conscious of the deception ; and the interest 

 of a journey made under such circumstances, is 

 greatly heightened by the growing conviction that 

 our senses are unequal to the task of duly esti- 

 mating what is before us — the reality, in short, 

 on these occasions, often outstrips the imagination. 



We crossed the river Maypo by a bridge made 

 of hide ropes, near the scene of the battle fought 

 by San Martin on the 5th of April 1818, already 

 alluded to in the account of the revolutions in 

 Chili. 



This bridge is curious from its simplicity, and 

 from the close resemblance it bears to the iron 

 bridges of suspension recently introduced into 

 England, to which, in principle, it is precisely 

 similar. It consists of a narrow road-way of 

 planks laid crosswise, with their ends resting on 

 straight ropes, suspended by means of short lines, 

 to a set of thicker ropes drawn across the stream 

 from bank to bank. These strong sustaining 

 cords are six in number, three at each side of the 

 bridge, and hang in flat curves, one above another, 

 the short vertical fines supporting the road-way 



being so disposed as to distribute the weight 

 equally. The main or suspending ropes are 

 firmly secured to the angles of the rock on one 

 side, at the height of thirty feet from the stream ; 

 but the opposite bank being low, it has been 

 found necessary to correct the consequent incli- 

 nation in some degree, by carrying the ropes 

 over a high wooden frame-work, and attaching 

 them afterwards to trees, and to posts driven into 

 the bank. The clear span from the frame, or 

 pier, on one side, to the face of the rock on the 

 other, is one hundred and twenty-three feet. The 

 materials being very elastic, the bridge waved up 

 and down with our weight, and vibrated from side 

 to side in so alarming a manner, that, at the 

 recommendation of the guide, we dismounted and 

 drove our horses, one by one, before us ; but, it 

 must be owned, neither man nor horse appeared 

 much at ease during the passage. 



Shortly after crossing the Maypo, we reached 

 the lowest range of the Andes, round the base of 

 which the road wound amongst immense masses 

 of rock which had been precipitated from the 

 ridges above : and occasionally we passed through 

 a belt of trees, growing like a fringe to the skirt 

 of the mountains. It soon became dark ; and if 

 in broad daylight the character of the scenery was 

 so new and stupendous as to defy all our attempts 

 to estimate distances and proportions, much greater 

 was our perplexity now. In a strange country, 

 the traveller's fancy is curiously worked Upon at 

 such moments by the indistinct images which rise 

 before him, so that he is perplexed and bewildered 

 at every step. He sees, for example, what he 

 takes to be a precipitous cliff, which, judging from 

 his experience in daylight, he fancies many a 

 league off ; but in the midst of his admiration, he 

 thrusts his head amongst the branches of an olive- 

 tree, the dark outline of which he had mistaken 

 for that of one of the remote Andes. Or, being 

 anxious to inquire his road, and seeing what he 

 conceives to be a peasant's hut some fifty yards 

 before him, he hastens forward to inquire the 

 way ; but at length, to his amazement, discovers 

 that this fancied hut is some far distant peak of 

 the Cordillera ! 



The day had been calm and sultry, but the 

 evening no sooner closed in, than we were cheered 

 by a cool and reviving breeze, blowing gently from 

 the mountains, like the land-winds off the coasts 

 of hot countries ; and, no doubt, from the same 

 cause, namely, the difference of temperature 

 between the mountains and the plain, and the 

 consequent difference in the weight of the air 

 over each. The stars shone out with singular 

 brilliancy, and we rode on in pleasing uncertainty 

 of what was to come next. Under the influence 

 of the surrounding scenery, we soon fell into a 

 pleasing reverie on the romantic history of the 

 conquest, and the gorgeous descriptions we had 

 read of the Andes. At length the silence which 

 we had for some time maintained was interrupted 

 by one of the party calling out, that we were 

 entering the grounds of a gentleman who would 

 furnish us with another guide for the remainder 

 of the journey. 



We dismounted at the door, and were shown 

 into a bleak comfortless room with a mud floor, 

 a rude unfinished roof, and lighted by a solitary 

 black tallow candle, all of which made us feel in- 



