38 



STATE OF EDUCATION IN CHILI. 



even ventured to censure the director for med- 

 dling with things beyond his authority. This was 

 soon settled : a council was immediately called, 

 and the next day it was known throughout the 

 city, that the priest had been seen crossing the fron- 

 tiers, escorted by a military guard. An account 

 of the whole transaction, with the correspondence 

 between the parent and the confessor, was also 

 published officially in the Gazette, and full autho- 

 rity given in future to every person to teach any 

 branch of knowledge not inconsistent with morals 

 and religion. 



I set out, on horseback, from Santiago for the 

 port at four o' clock, and reached the village of 

 Casa Blanca at midnight, a distance of about sixty 

 miles, and as I was detained an hour at the station 

 of Bustamante, the average rate of travelling may 

 be stated as more than eight miles an hour. It 

 being the custom to change the horses frequently, 

 and the pace a hand-gallop, the fatigue is much 

 less than by the ordinary method of riding in Eng- 

 land. 



The evening was very fine, the air mild, and a 

 bright moon shining. As I had passed over the 

 same country in daylight upon a former occasion, 

 I could just recognise the different parts of the 

 landscape ; but the whole aspect of the scenery 

 was changed, and much softened by the feebleness 

 of the light. The freshness of the night air was 

 also most grateful, as compared with the burning 

 heat of the former journey in the day-time. It 

 was a dead calm, and there was now no dust, no 

 glare, and the parched soil, lately so painful to look 

 at, was checkered and broken in the most pleasing 

 manner, by the shadows of the scattered trees. 

 Instead of the burnt, choking smell which arose 

 on all hands from the baked ground, a delicious 

 perfume was now breathed from the sweet-smelling 

 shrubs, steeped in the copious dews by which the 

 bountiful arrangement of Providence compensates 

 these arid districts for the absence of rain in 

 summer. 



At Casa Blanca the accommodations were re- 

 puted to be so bad, that I anticipated little rest, 

 and the bed-room to which I was shown certainly 

 gave no great promise *, it was ten feet long by 

 six wide ; the floor was of mud, all hills and hol- 

 lows, a model of the country, while the moon 

 shone through the walls at twenty places ; the bed 

 was a mere sack of straw laid on some planks. I 

 was in no humour, however, to quarrel with any 

 place of repose, after a gallop of sixty miles, and 

 fell fast asleep in an instant. 



A loud chorus, from about twenty cocks, awoke 

 me early next morning, and fancying I had over- 

 slept myself, I jumped up and looked out. A 

 cold clear tinge of distant day, was just beginning 

 to insinuate itself amongst the low eastern stars, 

 which flashed and sparkled, and made noble head 

 against the dawn, for a little time. By-and-by, as 

 they were extinguished one by one by the full 

 burst of light which rolled over the Andes, a vivid 

 imagination might have compared them to the 

 proud and glittering Spaniards of this land, gradu- 

 ally sinking before the influence of liberty, which, 

 from the same quarter, has beamed so gloriously 

 upon the country. 



I reached Valparaiso easily to breakfast, and 

 was glad to find myself once again amidst the 

 bustle of a sea-port ; and although no one could 



have enjoyed more completely than I had done 

 the novelty and varied interest of travelling in the 

 interior, I was well content to feel myself at home 

 on board my own ship. 



On coining from such a country as England, one 

 is not prepared for a degree of ignorance which it 

 is often a traveller's fortune to encounter where he 

 least expects it ; and he is apt to commit blunders 

 and be guilty of incivilities, when he means no- 

 thing but kindness. One evening when engaged 

 in conversation with an extremely pretty, well- 

 informed young lady of the country, on the subject 

 of languages, I strongly recommended to her to 

 study English, of which she had some knowledge, 

 by means of a grammar, and said I would send 

 her one which she would find very useful. She 

 made no reply, and, I thought, looked a little con- 

 fused. Presently her mother took me on one side, 

 and said, " My dear sir, what is the use of your 

 offering Guadaloupita a book — she can neither 

 read nor write." 



In these respects, it must be confessed, the 

 Spanish ladies whom we met with were vastly 

 superior to the natives. Of these there were very 

 few left, however ; and I was often surprised to 

 think how rapidly they must have disappeared. 

 No situation could be conceived more miserable 

 than that of an Old Spaniard amongst the Patriots; 

 and the natives of the country may be said to have 

 deeply repaid the sufferings which their old masters 

 inflicted upon them. This antipathy, indeed, is 

 mutual, and I fear there is no possibility of cordial 

 assimilation. I knew one Spanish lady at Valpa- 

 raiso, whose husband, a Spaniard also, was in 

 Lima. No one could be more liberal or intelligent 

 than she was ; and her excellent education and 

 manners rendered her house most agreeable. On 

 every subject but one, she was rational and clear- 

 sighted ; but the instant the slightest allusion was 

 made to the progress of the Independent cause, 

 not a trace of reason seemed to be left. She would 

 neither admit the possibility of the Patriots suc- 

 ceeding, nor confess that the country had been 

 mischievously administered before. It was, indeed, 

 quite curious to observe the measureless violence 

 with which the Spaniards and South Americans 

 treated these questions ; and until I actually 

 witnessed it I had no conception of the intensity 

 of which national hatred was susceptible. This 

 elegant person, feminine to the highest degree on 

 every other topic, became a perfect fury when the 

 revolution was talked of. In like manner, the 

 Chilians execrated the Spaniards. One evening I i 

 made use of some expression, and not being quite 

 sure of its proper construction, I asked a gentle- 

 man whether or not it was Spanish. " It is Cas- 

 tilian," he said ; " I know nothing of Spanish. — 

 Desde la Patria," he continued, (that is, " since 

 the revolution — since we acquired the name of a 

 country,) we talk Castilian, not Spanish." This, 

 to be sure, was nonsense ; but it marks the feel- 

 ing. And to press him further, I asked his opinion 

 of bull-fights. "Ay," said he, " Digno de los 

 Espanoles — they are worthy of Spaniards — every- 

 thing bloody and cruel is suitable to them." In 

 the course of further conversation, I happened to 

 mention that a great many people had been killed 

 on the 2d of May, 18<)8, in Madrid. " Yes," he 

 observed, with a sneer, " but not quite enough ; 

 and let me tell you," said he, with vehemence, 



