LIMA. 



87 



SO gradually introduced to new scenes, as scarce- 

 ly to be aware that he has passed a frontier, for 

 the manners of the adjacent countries often blend 

 themselves insensibly into one another. When 

 countries, on the other hand, are approached by 

 sea, the case is different ; for we are abruptly in- 

 troduced, while the impressions of the country we 

 have come from are fresh in our recollection, to a 

 totally new set of objects, which we are thus ena- 

 bled to compare with those we have left. Even 

 when the two countries are in a great measure si- 

 milarly circumstanced, as in the case of the dif- 

 ferent South American states, there will always 

 be found a sufficient number of distinctions, aris- 

 ing out of climate and other local causes, to di- 

 versify the picture. 



In Chili, as we have just seen, national inde- 

 pendence had been for several years established, 

 and a free and extensive commerce had, as a na- 

 tural consequence, speedily sprung up; know- 

 ledge was gradually making its way ; the moral 

 and political bonds in which the minds of the 

 people had been so long constrained were broken 

 asunder ; and the consequences of such freedom 



