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THK NATIONAL GHOGRAl'l 1 1C MACAZ1XK 



Photograph by Richard B. Hoit 

 CAKE-SELLERS AT A RAILROAD STATION IN CENTRAL CHILE 



sailor, was dropped ashore from an Eng- 

 lish galley at his own request. If we are 

 to believe his biographers, it was a clear 

 case of "Air. Captain, stop the ship : I 

 want to get off and walk." Selkirk had 

 dreamed of shipwreck and yearned for 

 terra fir ma. 



Defoe, in writing his famous story, 

 made the West Indian island of Tobago 

 the setting for his hero's adventures, in- 

 stead of the Chilean island, where Selkirk 

 lived for more than four years. 



Besides Selkirk and the lobsters-of-re- 

 nown Juan Fernandez has its unique 

 chonta palms, now becoming rare, and 

 other semi-tropic flora. Before the axe 

 of thoughtless man felled many of the 

 great trees, there was a forest of sandal- 

 wood, far removed from its native habitat. 



Valparaiso must have been lively in 

 1849, when my pioneer forefathers were 

 trailing to California across the plains and 

 round the Horn. It was then the em- 

 porium of trade with the newly opened 

 gold-fields and a free port, where ships 

 could bring in goods to be held in bond, 

 paying only a small duty on transship- 

 ment. The bread of the California miners 

 was made from Chilean flour. 



The situation of Santiago, Chile's cap- 

 ital, nearly 1,800 feet above the sea, is 

 most attractive, ranking in beauty among 

 South American cities second only after 

 Rio de Janeiro and mating La Paz, Are- 

 quipa, and Caracas. 



Santiago's sublime panorama 



Come with me at the sunset hour to the 

 summit of Santa Lucia, that singular hill 

 of volcanic origin in the heart of the city, 

 where Pedro de Yaldivia, the real con- 

 querer of Chile, built his first defense 

 against the natives. This once barren 

 knoll, 400 feet above the plain, has been 

 transformed into a hanging garden. Over 

 its tree-tops we look down on the great 

 city of half a million souls — a city of low 

 buildings and checker-board streets set in 

 emerald meadows and encompassed by 

 snowy mountains. Only at our own 

 Mount Rainier have I seen flower-span- 

 gled fields and snow-draped crests in such 

 close proximity. 



Xow, as the sun sets, the jagged An- 

 dean peaks, towering above purpling 

 slopes, are aflame. It is a sublime pano- 

 rama. 



