6 INTRODUCTORY. 



address myself to your excellency directly, renewing the same project 

 which I had the honor of presenting to the French nation, &c. 



VICENTE PAZOS. 



The city of Santiago is situated in a lovely plain at the very foot of 

 the cordillera. The snowy summits of this chain, painted in bold 

 relief against the hard, gray sky of the morning, have a very singular 

 and beautiful appearance; they seem cut from white marble, and 

 within reach of the hand. It is almost impossible to give an idea of 

 the transparency of the atmosphere at this place. I was never tired of 

 watching, from Lieut. GilhYs little observatory, the stars rising over 

 these mountains. There was nothing of the faint and indistinct 

 glimmer which stars generally present when rising from the ocean ; 

 but they burst forth in an instant of time, in the full blaze of their 

 beauty, and seemed as if just created. Gillis told me that his small 

 telescope, of American manufacture, of inches of aperture, was 

 there fully equal in power to the German glass at Washington of 9 

 inches. 



Chili, in arts and civilization, is far ahead of any other South 

 American republic. There are many young men of native families, 

 educated in the best manner in Europe, who would be ornaments to 

 any society ; and the manners of the ladies are marked by a simple, 

 open, engaging cordiality, that seems peculiar to Creoles. I do not 

 know a more pleasant place of residence than Santiago, except for two 

 causes : one, earthquakes, to the terrors of which no familiarity breeds 

 indifference; the other, the readiness of the people to appeal to the 

 bayonet for the settlement of political differences, or in the struggle for 

 political power. These two causes shook the city and society to their 

 foundations a few months after I left it. 



On the 20th of January, 1851, 1 received the following instructions 

 from the Hon. William A. Graham, Secretary of the Navy : 



Navy Department, October 30, 1850. 

 Sir : Proceed to Lima, for the purpose of collecting from the mon- 

 asteries, and other authentic sources that may be acessible to you, 

 information concerning the headwaters of the Amazon and the re- 

 gions of country drained by its Peruvian tributaries. You will then 

 visit the monasteries of Bolivia for a like purpose, touching the 

 Bolivian tributaries of that river, should it in your judgment be desir- 

 able. 



