134 



CHILI. 



passages are now made. We had been absent 

 only seven weeks, whereas in old times as many 

 months at least would have been required to 

 have performed the same service. At the first 

 house for which I had letters, the family received 

 me with a look of disappointment, and begged re- 

 proachfully to have the letters returned, not sup- 

 posing it possible that I could have delivered 

 them ; but when they beheld the answers, their 

 joy and gratitude knew no bounds ; the news of 

 our arrival spread rapidly, and in ten minutes the 

 house was filled with people beseeching us for 

 letters. In no country could a more lively inte- 

 rest be expressed than by these persons for their 

 absent friends ; and this furnishes a complete an- 

 sw^er to the statements so often made, of their 

 coldness and indifference in their domestic rela- 

 tions. After delivering all my letters and mes- 

 sages, I was overpowered by questions from the 

 ladies as to the appearance, manners, and various 

 other qualities of persons whom they had not 

 seen, but who had married into the families of 

 their relatives in Peru. This was a hard task ; 



but the little I recollected was extremely well be- 



1 



