3G 



A CHILIAN PENANCE AND ITS REWARD. 



with great glee to her favourite spot. It certainly 

 was a brilliant spectacle ; for in these climates, 

 where nature does so much, the least assistance 

 multiplies the effect in a manner of which, in 

 cold regions, we have no conception. But our 

 good dame, who thought of nothing less than of 

 letting nature have her course, had planted hef 

 flowers, and cut her walks and borders, into the 

 form of beasts, birds, and fishes ; not only had she 

 displayed the figures of the animals in a sort of 

 relief, but she had attended minutely to the ap- 

 propriate colours of each, by the careful distri- 

 bution of the proper flowers ; and, to do her 

 justice, the spot looked more like a menagerie 

 than a garden. 



We reached the bridge of Maypo at noon, and 

 having made preparations for dining on the road, 

 resolved to stop, during the heat of the day, at 

 the Post House on the top of the bank. Our 

 dinner was plain and good, and we were merrily 

 eating our olla, when a new guest stepped in ; — a 

 coarse, loud-talking, impudent sort of personage, 

 who seated himself unceremoniously at a vacant 

 corner of the table, displayed his wallet, and drew 

 forth a handful of charque, or jerked beef, and a 

 great lump of cheese. The beef he sent out by 

 one of the guassos to be pounded between any 

 two stones on the road ; and while the charque 

 was undergoing this primitive cookery, he cut up 

 his cheese, and handed it round with the air of a 

 man at the head of his own table. For my part, 

 I was greatly diverted with the fellow's ease and 

 impudence ; but my friends, especially the young 

 lady, were shocked that I should witness such an 

 intrusion, which they could not prevent ; for 

 although the table was theirs, it is the privilege 

 in this country of travellers to associate with and 

 claim assistance from one another on the road, 

 without regard to distinctions of rank. 



When dinner was over, and the table removed, 

 the floor was spread with mattresses and beds 

 preparatory to the siesta. There were not beds 

 enough for every one, and this being the only 

 room in the house, a momentary dilemma arose, 

 but was soon settled by the lady taking the upper 

 station next the wall, and placing her father by 

 her, and so on with the rest of the party. Our 

 self-elected companion seeing a vacant space, 

 spread out one of his horse-cloths, and drawing 

 his saddle under his head, was asleep in a moment 

 — an example soon followed by the others. 



The sun went down while we were still a league 

 or two from the city, and his rays, by passing 

 through the thick haze before described, shed a 

 remarkable gold-coloured light on the spires and 

 domes of the churches ; whilst the tops of the 

 mountains, the highest of which were covered 

 with snow, still retained the clear bright sunshine. 

 In a short time the light began to fade, even on 

 the highest peaks, and at every successive moment 

 a change took place in the colour of the different 

 ranges ; the lower ones first catching the golden 

 tint, which was soon changed for a variety of 

 pink, and lastly, for a dull cold grey ; so that the 

 whole view in the eastern quarter was variegated 

 in the most singular manner, according to the 

 height, each ridge of hills being thus prominently 

 distinguished from all the others, and its outline 

 most distinctly displayed. It was rather a dis- 

 appointment to discover that our fair companion, 



with all her good sense, had not much feeling for 

 the magnificent beauties of her native spot. In 

 reply to our reproaches on her insensibility, she 

 said it might be very wrong not to admire what 

 she saw, but as she had never been out of the 

 valley in her life, and consequently had no other 

 scenery to compare with this, she was, at least, 

 unconscious of its superiority to the rest of the 

 world. 



CHAPTER XI. 



Matrimonial Anecdote.— Remarks on the Study of the 

 Spanish Language.— Visit to a Waterfall near Santiago.— 

 Singular Plain amongst the Andes.— Progress of Educa- 

 tion and Decay of Bigotry in Chili.— Ignorance of a Span- 

 ish Lady.— Spanish and Native Prejudices.— Comet of 

 1821.— Experiments with the Pendulum. — State of Po- 

 litical Feeling in Chili. 



A ludicrous event occurred about this period, 

 and excited much mirth both amongst the English 

 and the natives. A certain foreigner, it seems, had 

 fallen desperately in love with a young Chilian lady 

 of great beauty and accomplishments, but withal a 

 most rigid Catholic. His attentions were all to no 

 purpose ; for, although the damsel admitted that 

 he had made some impression on her heart, she 

 was resolved never to marry any one but " un buen 

 Cristiano." In this dilemma, his passion overcame 

 the feelings of his early education, and, after long 

 and frequent discussions with the fair Papist, he 

 consented to comply with the forms of the Romish 

 Church ; read his recantation, and subscribed the 

 confession of faith. This, however, to his great 

 mortification, he discovered not to be sufficient. A 

 further purification was considered indispensable ; 

 and the poor lover was told, he could not prosper 

 unless he consented to do penance in what is called 

 the Casa de Exercicios for fourteen days ; at the 

 termination of which time all her scruples would 

 be at an end, and the hand of the fair Chilena was 

 to be his for ever. The doors of the House of 

 Exercise were accordingly shut upon him ; the 

 penitent fasted, prayed, scourged himself in good 

 earnest, and, at the end of a fortnight's discipline 

 and mortification, came out a good Christian ; but 

 when he hurried to the house of his mistress to 

 claim the fulfilment of the bond, he found she had 

 been married six days before to a countryman of 

 her own ! 



By this time we had made considerable progress 

 in the language ; but it was curious to observe with 

 what different degrees of facility we communicated 

 with the natives. At some houses a stranger to 

 the language might have thought us quite masters 

 of it, from the fluency and apparent ease with 

 which we spoke, and the readiness with which the 

 natives understood us. At other housos, with ten 

 times the effort, scarcely a word could be found, or 

 when drawn laboriously out, it fell flat and profit- 

 less on the ears of the company. In the first case 

 the imagination seemed all on fire, and lighted the 

 way to the clearest expression ; in the other, the 

 ideas were fettered, and the enunciation became 

 sluggish, confused, and puerile. The study of a 

 language, indeed, involves in a great measure the 

 study of society : and we invariably found it our 

 surest road to an acquaintance with the manners 

 of the people, and not only their manners, but 

 their sentiments, moral and political ; and much 



